I went out looking for a moderately low-budget rig. I saw a lot of them on Ebay, and then I saw a guy selling one on Craigslist. Turns out he had a storefront, and just used the CL to garner a bit more interest.
It looked similar enough to most of the rigs I was already looking at. He was personable, and he offered to throw some items in. I checked out their site, it looks pretty alright. My main interest was the follow focus, which he said he'd include.
Here's their site. This is where all the info he gave me came from.
http://monaceio.com/
He didn't send the User Manual until it was scheduled to arrive, which was yesterday. I look a look at it today when it arrived in the mail.
My first concern was that it was packaged in a very small USPS flat rate box. I couldn't imagine the rig he showed me and described in detail as fitting in this box. When I opened it, the rig was wrapped in a Target bag. I got worried. Then I saw it.
It's very cheap materials, probably pieces together from $20 of parts, and... poo pooing LEGOs. This would be the kind of thing I'd use on an indie film if I built it myself for $25, but I'd never even leave the house with it professionally.
http://i.imgur.com/PQGkv.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ukZtf.jpg
It's made entirely of a few brackets, some aluminum tubing, a few screws, and the LEGO construction. The tripod mount piece is a fotopro.com piece, and the bracket for the follow focus is a zip tie.
I looked at the manual, and I now understand why they waited until it was going to arrive to send it, and it isn't available on the site. It tries to guide you through how to use this jerryrigged thing. Had I seen ANY of those photos or info prior to ordering, I wouldn't have.
(The manual they sent me only after I ordered it, detailing how to use their junky LEGO rig was here, but they PMed the moderators and threatened copyright lawsuits, what a bunch of scumbags)
Stay clear of these guys. I'll be returning this.
It looked similar enough to most of the rigs I was already looking at. He was personable, and he offered to throw some items in. I checked out their site, it looks pretty alright. My main interest was the follow focus, which he said he'd include.
Here's their site. This is where all the info he gave me came from.
http://monaceio.com/
He didn't send the User Manual until it was scheduled to arrive, which was yesterday. I look a look at it today when it arrived in the mail.
My first concern was that it was packaged in a very small USPS flat rate box. I couldn't imagine the rig he showed me and described in detail as fitting in this box. When I opened it, the rig was wrapped in a Target bag. I got worried. Then I saw it.
It's very cheap materials, probably pieces together from $20 of parts, and... poo pooing LEGOs. This would be the kind of thing I'd use on an indie film if I built it myself for $25, but I'd never even leave the house with it professionally.
http://i.imgur.com/PQGkv.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ukZtf.jpg
It's made entirely of a few brackets, some aluminum tubing, a few screws, and the LEGO construction. The tripod mount piece is a fotopro.com piece, and the bracket for the follow focus is a zip tie.
I looked at the manual, and I now understand why they waited until it was going to arrive to send it, and it isn't available on the site. It tries to guide you through how to use this jerryrigged thing. Had I seen ANY of those photos or info prior to ordering, I wouldn't have.
(The manual they sent me only after I ordered it, detailing how to use their junky LEGO rig was here, but they PMed the moderators and threatened copyright lawsuits, what a bunch of scumbags)
Stay clear of these guys. I'll be returning this.
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I mean, just to see how it works. I still have all my legos, I should try building one. Of course, legos aren't cheap, but, in my work with them for camera use, (I was trying to build a head for a gopro) they are too jerky, not any easy way to dampen them, and the motors are LOUD!!!
