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rob norton

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Over the years I've hardly ever (if ever) gone with 100% natural lighting but in the case of these experiences (gallery and institute of sport), we just moved through extremely quickly.

Everything was handheld with easyrig/blkbrd mantis (quad tube), focussing solo with DJI focus pro/NiSi Athena 25mm/50mm. For the sports one I stayed on the 25mm all day (!). With each shot being between 1 to 2 seconds, I think handheld works (didn't even bring a tripod with me (travel job)). IMO it would've been a mistake to rig up a gimbal unless you were committed to designing shots that could eat into the valuable 30 seconds. With the swimming pool group shot standing on the blocks, you can feel a little bit of a pendulum swing but the shot is so short. I directed/shot/edited
 
rob norton said:
Everything was handheld with easyrig/blkbrd mantis (quad tube)
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Ah, finally someone who can speak to the blkbrd mantis!

I've been eyeing it and thinking of picking one up to add to my Vario5 and I've been curious what the handling is like compared to the stock easyrig. Any insights you can share Rob?
 
Copying part of my post from another theead, but basically you don’t feel like a human tripod anymore, which the easyrig is fantastic for, but also why I didn’t like it anymore (and yes, I know the easyrig is also used many handheld scenes with lots of movement).

The boom range of the mantis was so freeing compared to the hard stops of the standard easyrig line. It's taken the easyrig from an unenjoyable support system that was nearly sold, to an almost critical piece of equipment that got me excited about shooting again. This might be more of the honeymoon effect, but freedom on the z-axis for handheld work is quite significant!

I still think it’s what the easy rig should’ve been. If you have the standard arm and are thinking of adding a stabil arm, I’d redirect all of that $$$ into the mantis, after your own testing of course!
 
rob norton said:
Copying part of my post from another theead, but basically you don’t feel like a human tripod anymore, which the easyrig is fantastic for, but also why I didn’t like it anymore (and yes, I know the easyrig is also used many handheld scenes with lots of movement).

The boom range of the mantis was so freeing compared to the hard stops of the standard easyrig line. It's taken the easyrig from an unenjoyable support system that was nearly sold, to an almost critical piece of equipment that got me excited about shooting again. This might be more of the honeymoon effect, but freedom on the z-axis for handheld work is quite significant!

I still think it’s what the easy rig should’ve been. If you have the standard arm and are thinking of adding a stabil arm, I’d redirect all of that $$$ into the mantis, after your own testing of course!
Click to expand...
Thanks for that insight. It's definitely helping convince me that the Mantis could be what I'm looking for.

One of the things I'd love to be able to do is not have to break out the gimbal every time I want to do a little walking shot with a decent measure of smoothness. And to also stay on the same camera body that I may be shooting my other shots with. I've seen some really interesting footage on BLKBRD's social media lately with them showing the Mantis doing exactly that.


I've never been that impressed with the stabil arm as an option. It just adds more height and weight to the rig that I'd rather avoid. The Mantis seems to be pretty low profile and not too much of an addition weight-wise.
 
DustinSchmidt said:
Thanks for that insight. It's definitely helping convince me that the Mantis could be what I'm looking for.

One of the things I'd love to be able to do is not have to break out the gimbal every time I want to do a little walking shot with a decent measure of smoothness. And to also stay on the same camera body that I may be shooting my other shots with. I've seen some really interesting footage on BLKBRD's social media lately with them showing the Mantis doing exactly that.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's exactly what I was up against. Looking at the edit now, if held in the hand would be too shaky, and setting up a gimbal would be too slow, it seems like a nice compromise of not too jittery without changing rigs. This was the second time using it, I'm sure you could get somewhat convincing push ins over time. I'd definitely test if possible.
 
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