Review my Zacuto setup

[SurJones]

I thought I would do a review on some Zacuto products I own. Universal BasePlate, two pair 7" rods, one pair 12" rods. shoulder mount, and two MiniMounts, and battery plate.

My first impression when opening the box was all "ooohs and ahhhs." Eye poppin' red and brushed aluminum just made me feel like I was looking at a 1964 1/2" mustang. When I picked it up I also felt that american muscle. It's weight was 7.0lbs.

The first thing I wanted to see was; How easy is this going to set up. I was shocked to see it came pre-assembled. I thought there would be a lot of assembly and screws, but nope, just a baggy with an allen wrench.

Rods: The rods appear to be high quality aluminum. No sharp edges and threads were tapped with such precision they easily screwed on and off with ease.

MiniMounts: At first glance I looked at these and thought there was no way these would be able to offset the weight of a monitor. Man was I wrong! Once you turn the locks down, it's not moving. Anywhere!!! Just amazing!!!!

Base Plate: With the base plate itself being able to adjust up and down, this was a major need with being able to work with Follow Focus' and Matte Boxes. BUT THEN you get MANY really cool features, One important feature is the top plate comes off with ease. Just loosen the allen screws and slide the top plate (which is connected to you camera) and slide it in either direction and you are ready to hand held. Back to tripod is just as easy. Slide on, and tighten screws and you are good to go.

Without the other proper gear I don't suggest trying to hand-held this without the other proper Zacuto shoulder support system, but if you are brave with hand-helding the weight of the camera and the base plate I say start working out. I found a way that was less strenuous on your body. As long as you dont plan on zooming, or focusing you are fine. You could also have a Focus puller do the job, but my solution was to grip the 15mm rods with my hands and seemed to work great, and a lot more stable that just doing hand held with the camera only. Zacuto really paid attention to detail with the products I own as well as all of their other products. The detail was down to the beveled edges, so I don't accidentally brush up and stab myself like I have with other products.

Battery Adapter: Whether you using this for handheld or on the tripod, this is defiantly a must for pure balance. If you have a follow focus and matte box on the front, you need to balance the back. Not just that but who doesn't want a longer batter life? With this adapter you get two options with a Sony adapter and a Anton Bauer adapter. That is only one side. The other side has almost endless functionality and add-on options. with arms, wireless plates etc..

The list can go on and on and it is the prefect combination for ANY and ALL users in any market. I don't think that Zacuto can make a product that doesn't preform better than your expectations. All I can say is I cant wait to get more!!!!!!

 

[eddavid]

Great review. I just placed an order for mine.

 

[TimurCivan]

yea i just got mine as a prize for second place in Horror fests.... its Rad....

 

[Lill Creates:]

After spending almost a year with my Zacuto system here's my thoughts:

The first impression is one of joy, as is usually the case when receiving any new equipment! However, looking at all of the contents in the box, beyond the silver matte finish of the rods, being red or shiny black, it adds a little more pizzazz to the “brand new” feeling of the usual standard black and silver matte box system.

My initial order was just short of what Zacuto now calls the Cine Baseplate Kit. What I ordered includes the base plate and rails, the Red Plate mounted to the double-mount with accompanying rails. The Cine Baseplate Kit has an additional battery mount added to the bottom of the Red Plate, more on the battery mount later.

After the initial exhilaration of opening the box, it’s time to see what my hard earned money has been invested in.

First we will look at the rails. As previously mentioned, the color of the rails is a pleasant, matte-finish aluminum. Build-wise, the rails are lighter than the standard steel versions. They are perfectly round, as the rolling off the end of a table test proved and the threads inside the rails are smooth with no evidence of burrs or other manufacturing imperfections. The main rails are included with the baseplate.

The Baseplate shows the same attention to detail as the rods. There are no visible manufacturing imperfections to be found on any part of the baseplate. The camera plate itself is made of aluminum, in a sexy red (if one can say a base plate can be sexy). Both ends of the main plate are sandwiched between a small flat metal plate and a height adjustable end piece. The small flat metal plates on top of the sandwich are flush with the red main plate and held firmly together to the end pieces with four allen bolts.

There is 4.5” of fore/aft slide adjustment with 3/8” or ¼” screw sizes for attaching your camera to the plate. The whole sliding piece (slider?) is replaceable via four smaller allen screws underneath the camera plate.

The end pieces attach camera plate to the tripod plate on either end using an allen screw. This is the key to the baseplate’s height adjustment. Using just one bolt on either side allows simple and, more importantly, quick height adjustment. This comes in handy for matte boxes and the use of 35mm adapters. The tripod plate also boasts 4.5” of fore/aft adjustment and takes 3/8” or ¼” screws.

One of the best things about this baseplate is the use of levers to tighten the plate to the rails themselves. Some plates I’ve used have allen bolts to adjust or remove the rails, which means you need to have an allen wrench handy. With the levers on this system, a quick twist and you can make your adjustment and move on. It’s a nice feature for an AC, almost a necessity for the one-man camera crew. By the way, lever tightness is fine-tunable using allen bolts. Oh, did I mention the levers are red?!!!

The Double Mount & Red Plate, each is available separately but attach to one another to work as a team. The Double Mount is what works independently, the aforementioned Red Plate attaches to the Double Mount via, you guessed it, allen bolts.

The Double Mount is basically a half-sized version of the tripod plate part of the baseplate. The difference being it doesn’t have a camera plate, it’s not height adjustable and is primarily designed for use with articulating arms (Israeli Arms) and it’s proprietary Red Plate.

The Double Mount has a set of two ¼” threads and a set of two sockets with 3/8’ threads. Each socket has a bolt that tightens against the hex nut of your accessory to ensure a secure hold. And of course, the levers are red! The Double Mount does come with rods that screw into the main rails included with the baseplate.

The Red Plate attaches to the Double Mount via four allen bolts. Using the Red Plate allows you to attach a Switronix V-mount battery plate (also available in Anton Bauer) to the bottom, the threads are there and waiting. Though I haven’t done it yet, using the battery mount with a battery (duh!) you should be able to power virtually everything from that one battery. Arguably the coolest thing about the Red Plate is it’s great use of space with spots for up to five wireless plates. It’s also red; hence, its name Red Plate.

The wireless plates mentioned above are also made by Zacuto. They are tough, with specially machined, hand turn-able screws for quick and easy use with the Red Plate. They also come with velcro ready-to-go but unfortunately, nothing red in color.

Before making the purchase, I did quite a bit of research into other systems. Some were much cheaper, some much more expensive. In the end, I chose the Zacuto system and, though not inexpensive, it has been well worth the investment. Since it is designed to work with any camera, it may be with me my whole career or at least it will hold its value for resale.

The whole system is meticulously engineered and something to be proud of to own. The people behind the company believe in their product and not surprisingly have excellent customer service. For instance when I inadvertently ordered an additional set of main rails, I intended to order a set of extension rails, they shipped-out the rails the same day with no questions asked; furthermore, they took the time to find-out about my camera set-up and made recommendations on how to get the best use out of my baseplate configuration. In fact their recommendations saved me money from my original plan.

Note: Zacuto is consistently evolving their products, so they now have 2nd & 3rd generations of the products reviewed above. They also are adding new products all the time. Again, their stuff isn’t cheap… but the investment is well worth it in my humble opinion.

Here’s a few pictures of my Zacuto Rails in action.

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

Similar praise for both Zacuto and their system. Love it!