Harn Z* said:
10-02-2014, 01:23 AM
Hi All,
Just wanted to add my feedback to this thread. I manage a equipment rental house in Sydney and have taken on the Cinegears distribution for Australia / New Zealand. Before taking on cinegears we had been searching for a product that was reliable and built to take the rigors of production life, especially the rigors of rental life.
The first few samples I was sent we were convinced this product had been well considered at the design phase. Build quality was high and refined. As mentioned from previous posts, what makes the cinegears products even more promising is how receptive the guys are to feedback. The first sample for us came with white/cream coloured cables and I mentioned to Steve that Black is the way to go, the white ones will look terrible after a few jobs. Without any
follow-up the next delivery arrived with black cables. Another one is the hand controller, I discussed have a larger
control knob so that it would be more inline with Bartech, C-Motion, etc. Steven acknowledged that other had
requested the same. Hence the Express version arrived 4 weeks later. I have sold a few units of the standard motor
kits and have had no complaints with the torque or accuracy when used with Zeiss CP.2’s or canon Cine Primes or
Ultra Primes. We did have issues with the use of Zeiss MK2 and old Leica lenses that were cine mod. by Duclos.
When used with the Extreme motors no problem.
This is the decision the buyer needs to make, either light weight motor which will work with all modern lenses or
the extreme motor which is larger and heavier to drive all new and older lenses. I have had customers buy the
standard single axis kit then add an additional extreme motor. This way he is covered for all situations but still
enjoys running a lightweight setup for his DJI Ronin.
I can understand potential customers being apprehensive because to be honest it is too cheap for what it is and
what you get. I have personally spend almost same amount of other brands (which I will not mention) that were
built of RC type servos customised with suitable mountings for LWS that stuttered and were so loud that recording
usable dialog was not achievable. In this particular case I was able to return the unit and receive a full refund.
We have Bartech kits with Heden motors that have been in our rental fleet for 5+ years and still going without any
issues so these units have stood the test of time and one cant flaw them. Cinegears is relatively new and time
cannot vouch for their reliability yet but what I can vouch for is the team behind Cinegears and their genuine
receptiveness to feedback and criticism.
Final comment, there is nothing out there today at this price point with the build quality and functionality as
Cinegears. As I always recommend to customers try to get one out on an actual job and test for yourself or atleast
come in with your lenses and let test the unit before committing.
Here is some recent photo of a job where the single axis (standard) kit was utilised.
https://www.facebook.com/digitalogic
I hope this helps.