Proaim DSLR Kit 3

I don´t have that kit in particular. I have kit 9 with follow focus v2 and some changes I ask them like full cage and follow focus v2. I must say am very happy with it.

I have the same matebox from kit 3 and I like it, its not the best one but its ok. I see it come with follow focus v1. Not the best one but for use with GH1 or any small cam its ok, if you what it for bigger cam ask them to change to v2 or change the kit with some kit that use v2 follow focus.

Some people says you paid for what you get. Its a non expensive kit but the quality is ok for that price and he do the job right like any other, you only need is use it properly and you will be fine, its like all in your live. If you have a lot of money to expend I believe you never think in this kit in first place so... I believe are looking for a low budget kit. You will be fine.

I have my now from 1 year and I use it daily basis, I am happy with it.
A great buy I did with a low budget, a quickly delivery to Europe. a good service I must say.

Hope have help you.
 
Matte Box is just a MatteBox. Does what its supposed to. No bells and whistles.

I bought my rig (Jag35) after nearly buying the ProAim rig. But for such a cheap price, and mixed reviews, I spent the little extra cash. And then I got the ProAim Mattebox. Its such a cheap mattebox that I dont mind just throwing it into the car or box. For film shoots of a higher calibre, I do use the Shoot35 Mattebox. Only because my BTS Shooter likes to use the ProAim mattebox without the French Flags.

If I were you, I would save your money and go for Jag35.
 
I have the indian matte box from cine city, use it on my DSLR rig. It's decent, and most times you just use it without the flags; it does 4x4 filters really well.

The flags though - you can't use just-the-top flag, which would cover you 90% of the time - it droops down without the side flags holding it up. When all the flags are on, they rattle against each other; I used some thin sticky-back velcro to hold them together more solidly.

And the side flags don't mount really well... I had to grind some corners off mine just to get them to seat. But with all the flags on, it does help a DSLR look a little more impressive, if you have clients that say "hey, my wife uses that camera".
 
I've got two of those, and they are okay. The follow focus (to me, anyway) is the weakest link -- the gearbox is insanely large, and the shaft is absurdly long. I also do not particularly care for FF units that use the center-slide design, as that can put you in a tough position sometimes. These guys at one time had a dual-knob unit that did not use that design, I assume they still have that and you may want to try bargaining for that as an option. Another snag was that, although I bought these two at the same time and they shipped together, the main mounting plate on one of them is out of true on the Z. Not an insolvable problem but irritating nonetheless, & it hints to me of a somewhat random manufacturing and Q/C program.
All that being said, the units are sound and solid, and we have had no real problems. You will not receive top-notch gear in terms of precision, but you are not paying top-notch price, either. We have been using these units pretty hard over the past six months, and they have done everything we have asked them to do - the few pieces that have fallen off were not necessary anyway. All the important bits snug up as tight as a bell and hold together the length of the shoot. We were on a tight budget when we bought these -- for what we paid, we are pretty happy. As for the droopy flag, we encountered that ourselves early on, and learned how to snug up on the back side in the set-up and have not had that problem since -- we park it & it stays there all day, but only if we snug the hex-head on the non-knurled side at the start of every shoot. A hex-set is part of our kit, which some would find lamentable. For us, its a little bit like tuning the guitar before the show.....
 
Last edited:
NVentive said:
As for the droopy flag, we encountered that ourselves early on, and learned how to snug up on the back side in the set-up and have not had that problem since -- we park it & it stays there all day, but only if we snug the hex-head on the non-knurled side at the start of every shoot. A hex-set is part of our kit, which some would find lamentable. For us, its a little bit like tuning the guitar before the show.....
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, NV - just gave it a try; it took a frightful amount of tightening but does work. And my rails setup has plenty of hex fittings for the baseplate (I started with a JAG35 plate which took more parts & modding to get rid of all the flex in the setup) so there's always a set of keys in my camera bag tool pouch.

Self-adhesive velcro does help to "stick" the sides to the top; I just have tabs wrapped around the points where they meet, loop on the top flaps and hook on the sides. Stops the damn rattling and firms the unit up. Can't fault their 4x4 stages, two rotating stages that work well at this price point is great.

For follow focus, I've been extremely pleased with the D|Focus for the money. The marking plate is wide enough that you can use those spring-metal style paper clips as focus stops... that is insanely handy to have.
 
NVentive said:
I've got two of those, and they are okay. The follow focus (to me, anyway) is the weakest link -- the gearbox is insanely large, and the shaft is absurdly long. I also do not particularly care for FF units that use the center-slide design, as that can put you in a tough position sometimes. These guys at one time had a dual-knob unit that did not use that design, I assume they still have that and you may want to try bargaining for that as an option. Another snag was that, although I bought these two at the same time and they shipped together, the main mounting plate on one of them is out of true on the Z. Not an insolvable problem but irritating nonetheless, & it hints to me of a somewhat random manufacturing and Q/C program.
All that being said, the units are sound and solid, and we have had no real problems. You will not receive top-notch gear in terms of precision, but you are not paying top-notch price, either. We have been using these units pretty hard over the past six months, and they have done everything we have asked them to do - the few pieces that have fallen off were not necessary anyway. All the important bits snug up as tight as a bell and hold together the length of the shoot. We were on a tight budget when we bought these -- for what we paid, we are pretty happy. As for the droopy flag, we encountered that ourselves early on, and learned how to snug up on the back side in the set-up and have not had that problem since -- we park it & it stays there all day, but only if we snug the hex-head on the non-knurled side at the start of every shoot. A hex-set is part of our kit, which some would find lamentable. For us, its a little bit like tuning the guitar before the show.....
Click to expand...

I just posted a review of the Proaim cage version of this on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfMAkl6B_5Q. Sorry I'm not a great reviewer or narrator but you get the point. At about 7mins in I talk about issues with the follow focus system on these rigs. Basically what's happening is you cannot use smaller lenses because the left gear knocks up against the matte box. Kinda stupid design if you ask me. You have to get your DSLR as forward as it will go and even then it's not far enough. Wondering if anyone come across a similar problem before?

Cheers.
 
Update: I have recently changed by stance on this rig and I would not recommend it. Even though it is cheap, and looks decent, it is just way too fiddly to configure and I have wasted so much time having to change things around just to change out a lens. In the long run it's just not worth it. Save a few more pennies and get one of the better rigs out there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top