Hi guys! just an update on my uh video camera mounting rig system: uh that I've experimented with in a previous video and I'll link it in down below if you haven't seen it. where I installed a slide in uh, slide in pull out mechanism under my bench here to possibly mount a camera on that and slide along the bench and move in and out to allow me to uh, film tear downs and all the other stuff mailbag and all the other stuff which I should on one of my main benches here. and as you're probably aware, I pretty much the only thing I use at the moment is a man Frodo uh, what is it a 785b? uh Modo tripod and I really like this bloody multimetal leads getting in the way here and uh, this is what I use. it's got one of these uh, joystick, uh attachment, you know, pivot heads.

it can rotate from side to side and up and down it can go vertical. and I've also done a video which Lincoln as well where I convert this into a microscope attachment by plugging the whole thing upside down and uh, you know I don't mind this but it gets in the way but it is very flexible because I can move the thing up and down so I can get low shots on the bench here like this of products like directly facing front panels of things and then you know this isn't as high as it goes. it does actually go higher again than this if I extend the legs out and if I can get that damn thing back in there. there we go and um, yeah, it's not bad, but it's in the way you know.

I'm always sort of. you know, straddling the thing like this, you know, trying to work and I'm working around the camera and it it is a bit annoying, but it is incredibly flexible. You'll notice that I do a lot of uh, you know, I do a lot of different angle takes and things like that. I'm always moving, adjusting my camera, putting on, screwing on and off my macro lens, and uh, stuff like that.

So it's really, it's really good just to be able to get here and then zoom out and get this angle and that angle. but there's some disadvantages. As I said, got to straddle it I can't really get over the bench like that because you know it's just not really practical sometimes I do, sort of. you know, hold it like that if I want to get a vertical shot.

That's pretty much why you never see direct down vertical shots on my uh video blog here. So anyway, I thought I would, uh, try out one of these. uh man, Froto 3section articulated Arms This is the model uh 396 and we'll take a quick look at it, but it doesn't seem to do the business. but anyway, it is a neat bit of Kit so I'll show you.

but before I show you that, I'll just uh quickly. State My aims of what I'm trying to get here on the bench. What solution I want for my camera basically I want the joystick? uh, joystick maneuverability of this thing I mean this is really nice I just love being able to just you know, uh, sort of pan and tilt that around and then zoom in and you know it's absolutely beautiful. So I love these joysticks.

It's just got like a thumb thing on there and you can adjust the friction. it's not like I do you know, like you know, panning shots like that or anything like that I don't need that I just need to be able to change the angle quick and easy like that I need to be able to bring it in and my camera in and out like this so that I can get wide shots of uh, products and stuff like that of course I need to be able to adjust the height like that and um, which this one does all that beautifully except as I said, you get in the way. but the extra thing I really want is it' be nice to be able to sort of Swing this inside over the bench so I can look down and things like that and then I could sit here on my chair and actually you know, um Point things out without the whole tripod thing getting in the way. So that was the goal of this uh, sliding mechanism which I installed here.

so I could move it in and out, slide it across, and then get over like that. and some people have suggested tested uh, you know, one of these uh Maggie lamp type articulated arms and I do have one of these things here in the lab, but you know, yeah, it's it's going to kind of work. you know I could attach a camera to here, but there's nothing. There's no locking mechanisms to sort of keep it stable.

And the thing is when you're using a video camera like this I'm always you know, pressing buttons on the thing and I don't want it when it's on the tripod like this is quite stable. I can push a button and the camera hardly moves at all and I can you know operate the camera without the thing just bouncing all around the place and you know, screwing up my shot generally. So I want something fairly rigid but something that's easy and quick to sort of, uh, sort of release and things like that and no before anyone us again, no. I can't hang anything from the roof completely out of it.

I can't really hang anything from the uh shells up here. they aren't sort of, you know, stable enough. all the all these shells up here do actually move. They're not attached to the wall or anything like that, so you know, really? I've either got to get something mounted to the bench like this or something well floor mounted.

I've already got the tripod, so maybe the tripod is a solution with one of these Man Froto things which I'll show you in a minute. one of these flexible arms which are really neat. phone's ringing better answer it. So here's this Man Froto: Uh, 396.

they've all got part numbers. 396 is the part number. It's a three section articulated arm. There are different models of this that this is the the Dual arm one.

So this is uh, can hold more weight than the single arm variety. So I wanted as I said I wanted something rigid that when I mount my camera on here. um the top here. oh sorry, you can't see that when I mount my camera on this bracket here.

I don't want this thing to uh, you know, uh, just move around and stuff like that. So it's got all these locking mechanisms here and you can just slide these things in and out. they're just single turn, they're not. um I'll show you a closeup of that, but they're actual.

You know you can't just smoothly do that. they have like a ratchet mechanism in there, but you know you can slide this all the way along. and you can do lots of neat things. And I can move my camera bracket all the way up and around like that.

and uh, this is the standard camera uh bracket Mount that comes with it. but I was going to get like a joystick. um, if this sort of worked out well, I was going to get like a joystic mount for this thing. So um, you know it, it looked the business, but there's a few issues with it and it's it's decent quality.

I don't mind it for for things in fixed locations. it's really quite neat, but you can see it's not entirely rigid there even though I've got it all screwed in place, you know. and when it's further out on the arm like this, then you know it's not that great. So if I push a button on my camera, eh, not the best.

So as you can see, it's actually pretty flexible. But you know, I can bring it down like this and my camera. can you know go down to low shots down here like this and you know it. It really is quite nice and then you can move it in and out.

So it really has a decent range from sort of right over here like this somewhere if I did that all the way right out to here. so it has quite a decent uh, not even sure if that's in the shop, but there you go has quite a decent range to it and I can move that upside down. imagine if I had a joystick Now it's looking a bit silly, but uh, you know it can even get down low like that under the bench. you know.

Really quite nice. and these are only sort of like quarter turn. uh, clamps on these things and it really does work. Quite nice.

But as I said, you know, push the button. That's not the most stable thing, but it it probably does the job. But there's two issues with that. that which really don't make it suitable for my particular work here.

The first one is that on this, uh, super clamp that I've got it mounted to and I'll show you this in a minute. it doesn't move in and out. I made the silly assumption that I could rotate that I could you know pivot this in over the bench like this and out. and well.

I can do that. But I've got to undo that. Press a button here, lift it up and it's You know it's only fixed, uh, locations. really.

So it it's You know it doesn't allow any pivoting in there. There we go. it's now. it's in my bench a bit more.

I can rotate it again, but you know it doesn't have a ball joint or anything like that on there. and I just ah, I just assumed it sort of, uh, would allow me to sort of at least undo a screw here and move it in and out. But well, so that's just. you know, blowing it right there.

it's just not suitable for the job. So in addition to needing something that swings in and out like that I uh also need something that's a bit more fluid than sort of. you know this quarter clamp, quarter turn clamp and the next thing while I do like these, uh, this clamp mechanism, you can see the uh ridges in there so it you know it can't go with any arbitary angle. it sort of locks in place and that's how it really keeps the rigid uh nature of that.

It's great for a single position. uh thing. and I can slide that in and out like that is you. You know if you Lube that up and with uh, time, that would probably get better.

but that's not the smoothest action really. I would have preferred. uh, smoother there. but yeah, I mean that's a really nice me mechanism, but not good for just you know.

sometimes I've got to do, you know, 100 or 200 shots in a video and I'm always moving the camera around. You know, a good 1 hour video might have 200 shots in the thing and you know it might have, you know, 50 or 100 different angles or something like that. So uh, you know I'm just subtly always moving the camera around. so this isn't the best way to do it.

It's great for a fixed uh camera or a fixed video camera. but no, the amount of times I move this thing around, this just doesn't work for me. But one thing. I really do like is this, uh, super clamp and uh, you know everyone Raves about these These are fantastic.

They allow you to, uh, clamp around poles and things that's got and a pull out attachment like that so you can clamp it around. you know, uh, poles or handrails or anything else that you want to do it. Or as you saw here, you can attach it to a flat bench and it really is incredibly grippy. incredibly stable.

all this stuff is made in Italy by the way, um, you know, hi to all my Italian viewers. Absolutely fantastic quality and it's got a button here which then allows you to. That's how you insert. that's how you insert that like that you just pop, press that button down there and that just locks into place and you screw that up.

But as I said it, once, that's in, it doesn't allow you to rotate. If you want to rotate anything, you need some sort of additional ball joint uh attached on top of here. But as I said I Also got one of these Man Froto flexible arm arms and this is really good. I mean this is really rigid, high quality, can hold a lot of weight.

I mean my camera is only like, you know, this one's only like half a kilo or something, but you know it really is quite nice. and uh, it goes into uh, the various uh camera. This is a standard camera mount, but as I said, I'd probably get one of the uh friction. Well, I'd certainly get one of the joystick um camera mounts that you can get from Manfroto as well and this can just sit inside my super clamp there and uh, this actually works pretty good.

Imagine if I had a joystick head on that I'd be able to move that around no problems whatsoever and this allows me to come in out over down so that's really bloody. You know that's almost ideal I but I would like a bit more reach so maybe I can get a second one and put it in series like that and uh, you know it is pretty rigid I can you know Press buttons on the camera so it's more rigid than this 3section articulating arm and I really didn't expect that I thought oh yeah, this would be you know. okay for maybe I might want to uh, permanently Mount this on my bench up up on the Shelf here and then have that for like a second camera vertical shot Perman set up which I may actually use that for but even on the bench here, it's not too bad at all. but yeah, it doesn't have.

The thing is, it doesn't have that big reach in and out like the three section articulating arm does. allows me to move the camera all the way along here. and one of the ideas also was to mount something like this on my sliding mechanism under the bench here. but I you know I'm not sure how stable that would be cuz I can't.

Well I haven't come up with a really decent uh solution for locking that sliding mechanism in place easily. Um, something like that. So I think the bench mount like this is, uh, probably the way to go. but um, yeah.

I I Don't think I'm probably going to use this solution for my main camera setup, but what I can do possibly is get a new Man Froto Tripod that allows me to Mount this flexible arm into it like this and then I can use this single section arm as my main camera and then I could have it come over. so I can put this off to the side and have this come over like this. You can get mounting plates that you can screw this into and then I can have my camera come in down like that. So this could be a really good solution.

I I Really like this. It's quite nice, but just as it stands, this flexible arm and super clamp here really provides a nice uh, vertical solution. I just need a better uh joystick. Mount as I said here because this uh uh camera mount here is quite inflexible the standard one.

but uh, you know I can move that along cuz I don't often need to change the overhead shot like that cuz if I'm doing something I'd usually move it under the camera like that so I'd flip out the screen I'd do like that I can flip the image on the uh screen or um, you know and it works quite well. And the good thing about this is also that my uh mics on the camera not on this one. This is my secondary camera, but my Canon hfg10 are right on the front here so they're right in front of my face, only inches away, so audio quality is going to be awesome for that. So um, this is definitely a keep of this super Clamp.

Plus this flexible arm. Fantastic! But there's one other thing I might try first which is the Man Froto uh Magic arm it's called and it's like a got a single locking lever on it and it can you know rotate in all sorts of directions and it's got a ball pivot joint which can uh, sit down here on the bench on the super clamp so that should allow me to get over the bench. so I'll probably try that. um, this thing yeah.

3section articulating arm great for you know, fixed camera work but not really good for the you know, really? um you know, fast changing uh stuff which I have to do here on the blog. So there you go. That's just a few more things that I'm experimenting with here. you really have to do get these things in and actually try them in situe to um, you know, see if they're any good.

So yeah, this thing didn't work out um as I uh, sort of hoped I had uh, high expectations of this I probably should have got the super clamp instead, which I will do now. So I'll resell that and I'll keep this uh arm here. Really fantastic. I'll get some uh manfroto joystick uh things you can see I'm a bit obsessed with mano because all their stuff is going to interconnect and things like that.

and they do make top quality stuff which all this gear is. It's fantastic. It's not, uh, cheap at all, but hey, you know, um, if you want to, uh, do serious, uh, camera work then you know, um, you really should be paying decent dollars. and yeah, I'm sure if you got any comments on this, yeah, please do leave them.

but you know, as happened last time, I got a million people I tend to exaggerate. Maybe a thousand people tell me that I'm all doing it wrong and they've got their own way that they would do it and oh, that's got to work. it's the best solution. So so yes, I do read all the comments.

but uh yeah, um, please don't be offended if I don't think your idea is the Ducks guts because everyone's got their own idea and it all comes down to what suits my particular uh scenario and my uh workflow here. CU It's all about uh, the way I work the flexibility I need to quickly, uh, change shots and get camera angles and things like that and there's no one one. Best solution really? I wish there was I wish there was a camera that just magically floated in thin air and I just moved it there and boom, it just stayed there. You know that would be fantastic, but unfortunately there's not.

and when you start putting things on big articulating arms as I said like this, uh, you know Maggie lamp and stuff like that Yeah, they work for some people, but for me, you know it's it's just no. it's going to be a complete uh bodge. but I think I'm close to a solution. It'll either be a uh uh, Magic arm on a super clamp and I'll definitely leave these on the benches or maybe a flexible uh arm on a new uh tripod mount something like that with a joystick mount for the camera cuz I Love these joystick mounts.

they're just beautiful. Catch you next time.