really ?

The Zian is for longer lenses to use in conjunction with the locking lens support or a z-mount II to support your lens that has built in mounting holes in it. For longer lenses especially, this could be useful to help prevent stress on your 35mm adapter lens mount among other things.

The Universal Donut eliminates the need for a slew of different donut sizes. It's a lot simpler to slide that over the end of your lens than stretch a rubber donut into place. Why do you think this is a pointless piece of equipment?
 
I don't think they are referencing it being 'pointless' or not - but a tad expensive for such a small thing.

But then again - in film, everything is expensive.
 
Although I don't own any Zacuto built products I ordered my LEX from them and the step-up ring when I got my HVX. I will be ordering the Improved achromat from them as well. Customer service is just great. I just can't afford their other products at present.
 
Their stuff sure looks nifty, but I recently worked on a gig where after literally, the third time using them, the hand held rig's hand grips broke off from their hinges on an xdcam. Could've been a real mess had we not noticed it.
 
Yeah, it was the handgrips, where they connect to the ball mount, via the screws--that particular section was thinner than rest of the solid grip, and it broke off from the grip.
Joseph told me that they've been redesigned to be stronger, though. So perhaps we had the older version.
 
Broken Zgrips

Broken Zgrips

Hello Evil,
I'm sorry that your grips broke. Joe is right and we have a new grip design that is much beefier. I will have Patrick in our fulfillment area immediately send you two new grips. It's easy to install. Plus the new design I think is more comfortable to use. Keep in mind, your Zacuto products have a lifetime warranty, no matter how something breaks, even if you run over it with our car by accident, we will repair or replace it. You can even contact us for our shipping number to return products to us on our dime. Don't be bashful to make us stand by our warranty, we are happy to do it.

About the Zian, I agree with you, it is expensive, here's why. This product was made in am extremly small quantity, mainly from requests of rental houses. We decided to put it on our website because some people asked for it. But when you make something, kind of custom, and for a small market, unfortunately, the cost can get high. It's original design was to accomodate rental houses for when people brought in strange lenses with mounting screws off center. Not something that happens for consumers everyday. But subsequently, people have found other uses for it.

Steve Weiss, Zacuto product co-designer

P.S. Evil please send me an email telling me who you are and your address to mail the Zgrips handle replacements to: steve@zacuto.com
 
Well, you get what you pay for, and whilst it seems simple, I bet there is a lot of machine time in that screw mount thing.

Threads and hollow objects like that are hard and slow to machine...
 
Hey Zacuto,

They were not my grips, they were the production's. I was just the 2nd AC. I'm glad to know the grips have been improved, and also to see how much you guys will stand by your product.
Thanks!
 
Yes Zacuto is very EXCELLENT in their customer service. Almost everything I have for my production has Zacuto name stamp on it but there are also other companies that offer similar product with similar utility at a more attractive price point.
 
I do not own any Zacuto products (primarily because of the very high costs) but I cannot deny the quality and great customer service.

Oh wait, I do own a baseball cap with the Zacuto logo - it cost me $89 at the last NAB. Nah, just kiddin', it was free. :)
 
The thing that's frustrating is that a huge part of the price is that it's a specialty market. When I was still playing paintball constantly, I was buying little after market parts, machined out of aluminum, drilled, and threaded. exact sizing. and they were nowhere near the prices that go for film equipment stuff. I'm not saying that companies shouldn't make money for their work, and the people who machine those parts need to get payed, but damn!
 
There's a lot more to the cost of making those parts than you think! They're made out of aircraft grade aluminum, machined in the US, and involve numerous revisions of design concepts.

It all depends on your budget, but I will say I don't regret using Zacuto at all in my personal kits!
 
Anyone with good knowledge of a cad program could take a Z riser and re-make it, and get it machined themselves. If anyone did this, the price they paid would be 10x that of buying a Z riser from zacuto.

These pieces seem small, but they mostly need five cutting axis and the machine time is high, and the anodizing is expensive. The Z riser is two main parts, both of which require five axis of milling. Shapes like this often need turning over manually half way through the cutting process, and this adds time, and labour.

The riser also has four knobs and two open ended rod clamps, all complicated parts to machine, and since everything is costed based on machine time, these things end up costing a lot to produce.

Maybe its because I understand the workflow zacuto go through to make these products, but I dont see their prices as unreasonably high, bearing in mind the machine that cuts out the parts probably costed $150,000 +
 
I wonder how much does the machine that produces this cost ? hmmmm....

Universal%20Donut.jpg
 
Shibuya Oboya said:
The thing that's frustrating is that a huge part of the price is that it's a specialty market. When I was still playing paintball constantly, I was buying little after market parts, machined out of aluminum, drilled, and threaded. exact sizing. and they were nowhere near the prices that go for film equipment stuff. I'm not saying that companies shouldn't make money for their work, and the people who machine those parts need to get payed, but damn!
Click to expand...

Paintball or Film parts? I think it's apples and watermelons in terms of economies of scale.

Eitherway, I find some of their parts pricey but in the big scheme of things well worth it, especially if you have to make a living with it. I remember when my dad used to analyze slides with microscopes all with Leitz lenses (same guys who make Panavision glass). When he told me how much the microscope cost I was floored. Right up there with Arri gear. But he said he couldn't afford any mistakes in diagnosis.

Not that Zacuto is medical equipment but on set, I can't afford to lose time or performance dicking around with subpar gear. Something as innoucuous as a slipping rosette or an isreali arm that slips, will affect the quality of your work. Because time trying to make crap products work is time taken away from creating a better shot.

And that little 1/4" sliding thing they make it has a lot of uses. Has anyone here lost time trying to get their adaptor support bracket to line up with the hole that some half assed manufacturer didn't tap perfectly center?

Time saved is money made.
 
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