chris bangma

Cine-Ranger Laser focus system $500 off, now $2495 5" HD-SDI monitor with image flip $325 Great for dolly grips, backup monitor etc. Preston Motor Mounts $180 Shotball "handheld" head $1100 19mm Reducer Bushings $15 Alexa Steadicam Plates $350 Cinetape Eyebrow Mounts $50 Arri 1-2-3 Blocks $110,150,$165. Great for mounting accessories, motors etc. Also works on any cameras that use the Arri accessory standard. Arri Utility rod $100. For mounting motors off of 1-2-3 blocks, carrying handles etc. Universal Carrying handle 15mm and 19mm versions $250. Great carrying handle, works with any camera equipped with 15mm or 19mm lens rods. Works with Steady-rig also. Telescoping Steadicam monitor arm $275. Orderable for any post size. Arri carrying handle $165 Butt Dolly $995. Adjustable in height, great for smith rolling handheld shots. RBQ quick release plate $525 Stainless Steel castle nut wrench $75. Fits a variety of castle nuts. Modhead Remote head $40,000. www.Film-Stuff.com

The design and manufacture of this are fine. The problem comes in assembly. The screens with light at the bottom are due to the stack separating, and the screens with bright spots on the left side are due to pressure on the lcd panel.

Lars, We have treated our customers quite well. There are many that will attest to this. Some of them are a bit unrealistic in what they expect, which is the nature of the film business. My complaint is with the small number of people who no longer own our products, yet have to say something negative any chance they can. What if a producer hires you, doesnt like your work, and then on every job he does from there on he talks about how terrible you were. Would this not be a little excessive? I understand you cant please 100% of the people 100% of the time. As for undercutting, thats what competition is all about. You also dont know the personal circumstances of the person. Maybe someone was undercutting because he had to, and would lose his house otherwise. Yet everyone is so quick to judge and hang someone out to dry, which isnt very supportive.

Peter, There was a lot of planning up front, but when the total time and money comes in a 3 times what was originally quoted, what are you to do? Total development costs on the Gen2 have been over $350K. The preorder was done to finance the final overages, and we were told it would be finished faster than it was. Many companies in this situation would have just pulled the plug. Brooks, you dont have any insights into the behind the scenes between Afton and Cinetronic. Both Afton and Jens have both sold their monitors, but if you look back at any post I have made, they always chime in with something negative. Even when non monitor products are announced, the response from them is negative. It just shows their bitterness, since they feel the need to constantly say something negative. At some point it just gets excessive. But if I speak up about it I am such a bad guy? Even from the very first post I made, talking about building a better monitor, all there has been is negativity. One of the first comments was "oh, not another one". Go back and read all the comments from operators on here, and truly see how negative people are here. You claim to support each other, but look how quick you are to stab each other in the back as well. Just look at how nasty people get here when the hear an operator is working at a lower than normal rate, and see the witchhunt that ensues. Not very supportive and productive of a community...

Peter, do you honestly want to compare a tally light or a plate to a monitor??? I think we have a bit more invested in R&D than a tally light or plate. All of our software updates are free, as are all of our hardware updates. We have always covered return shipping on our monitors, and have often times covered shipping both ways. We have repaired many peoples monitors, that were out of warranty, without charge. We have also done repairs and updates on customers monitors free of charge, who had bought their monitors second hand. So dont go off claiming that support is not good when you dont have any experience with us. Some repairs have taken longer than expected because parts were not in stock, which is beyond our control. There is a very big difference between supporting something made of metal and plastic vs supporting something that has 300+ different components from 50 vendors, and runs on 1 million+ lines of code. If I made a $10 tally light, it would be easy to keep those on the shelf and ready to go as well.

Dont worry Peter, we wont be selling any more Gen2 monitors. Nice of you to always chime in though despite not having any experience with us.

Jens, it is not speculation about George and Bob Derose, this came from Chris Haarhoff, who I had many long conversations with, and who was very much involved with Pro. Afton, You talk about delivery in a timely manner. What do you consider a timely manner? It is not unusual to wait 4-6 months for a Preston focus system. If you order a mosys remote head, the wait is often 6-9 months. When dealing with custom products there are typically wait times, that is the nature of this business. It is very hard to give firm delivery times when your suppliers can never give you firm times. When the bonding company says the work will be done in 2 weeks, and they take 2 months, there is not much that can be done. And since we are talking about being timely, how are we to run a business, when customers like you are not timely with paying? You took over 9 months to pay for your monitor, and you complain about me being timely? It is also difficult to refund people when there is no money to refund them with. We dont intend not to refund people money, just need the money to do so. Last I checked inventory, offices and utilities weren't free, and employees dont work for free either. Yet everyone just expects there is a big mountain of cash for everything. When a few people only say negative things on the forum, and there are no sales, then there is no money either. Rather simple economics. Brooks, I am sorry you are in the less than 5% who were not happy. The are plenty of operators who use the monitor every day, and comment how happy they are about it. You expect that things "just work", yet how many updates have there been for the Red cameras and the Alexas?? This is the nature of the digital age, there will be bugs, and there will be updates to fix them. If you want something that doesnt rely on firmware, buy a Pro green screen monitor. From your comments on the SmallHD, it looks like you have problems with that one as well. You comment about releasing 5 new products, without fixing the monitor. Where do you expect money to come from to pay engineers???? People do not work for free, just as you do not do Steadicam for free. I develop new products to increase sales, bring in more money, and keep the doors open. Do you really expect a company to keep dumping money into a product with no sales? The new products I develop are all done in house, so there is less reliance on outside companies and engineers. This allows us to free up more money to take care of the other products. Would you suggest that we just shut the doors and leave everyone else hanging? You say there is a "wave of disappointed" film-stuff.com customers, yet how many have you actually spoken to?? We have sold products to over 600 customers, if 10-20 of them complain, is that a "wave"? In reality is less than 4%. Do you get the shot 100% of the time? Everyone thinks that developing things like monitors is easy, yet how many other companies have attempted to build a new monitor from the ground up? Please dont comment on how easy you think things should be unless you have done it. I would welcome anyone here to give it a try and build a steadicam monitor. Greg Bubb said 1 1/2 years ago that the TB7 would ship in 8 weeks, yet it still isnt here. The latest estimate is mid 2015. In reality it is a very difficult thing to build a monitor, especially a 7" monitor. There are no 7" industrial screens, so the only screen you will find comes from a tablet, and you will be lucky to have a 12-18 month life. This makes development very difficult, since by the time you find a screen, create a design for it, and build a product, there screen will be discontinued, and you will be back to finding another one. As for PsF, you can blame Sony for this. Sony and a few of the other big companies proposed a HD-Sdi standards list. These standards were adopted by all the HD-Sdi chip manufacturers. The new standards for HD-Sdi do not include 720 24psf. Older chips support 720i, which is essentially the same, but the new chips no longer support this. The only way around this is to have a custom chip, which costs significantly more money. This is why many older monitors will support PsF, but new ones will not. When we originally proposed the Gen2, the engineers were told it must support PsF, but they were never able to get it to work. We spent over $30K on the PsF problem alone, with no results, continually being told it could be resolved in software. At this point the only solution is a custom chip, which would run $50K, and without any significant sales is not possible. These are all things that you learn along the way. For those who think they could handle things better, and keep the customers happier, you desk is waiting for you. I will happily set up your desk, and forward all the calls to you. You can be paid the same as me, a free lunch each day, and gas for your car...

Jens and Afton, I really dont see the reason why you must throw in your comments every time our name comes up. Granted you were not happy with your monitors, but is this really needed?? We are doing what we can to support the people who bought our monitors and are happy with them. You seem to be doing everything you can to drive us out of this business. I dont think this is really fair to the 250+ owners of our monitors. When the doors do close, we can refer them all to you guys for the reason that we closed. As for Afton, your behavior has never been befitting of a moderator, and you should really set an example as a moderator, and not as a platform for just expressing your personal opinions. (you see what happened to the last guy who did that) As to the others on the forum, little do you realize how poisonous you have made things here. Many top operators I have worked with have commented the forum is only useful for selling equipment. They have tired of the endless bickering here, and the know it all's who really dont. The steadicam community is great at pushing people away. One of the reasons George Paddock left was that he was tired of dealing with many of the operators. Bob DeRose quit machining for steadicam operators as well, because of the attitude. Do you not think one of the reasons Pro moved to Oregon was to reduce their interactions with some of the more annoying operators, and wannabes? In the end you will drive all small companies away, and you will only be left with corporations who really dont care what you want, and just sell you crap from China. Less than 5% of Cinetronic monitor owners have been truely unhappy with the monitor. Overwhelmingly people have been very happy with it, and we have received many comments from operators saying it is the most sunlight viewable steadicam monitor built. It has been a long road to build the monitor, and has personally bankrupted me in the process. The constant negativity of a few of the operators on here make me wonder why I ever had the stupid idea to try to build a better monitor in the first place. I hope people read these things before they get involved with the steadicam community, and they realize that it is better not to build anything for steadicam, since there are a few unappreciative people here who will do all they can to make things miserable for everyone.

Yes, The vibration isolator is in use, and has been used on a good number of the superbowl commercials airing this year. The transmitter and ModHead are in final testing.

Videos of the ranger in use on set, with preston interface. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=898147210216476&set=vb.225241610840376&type=2&theater

The Cine-Ranger is currently in use on 4 continents, being used on commercials and features, including the new Bond movie.

Check out film-stuff.com for end of year discounts on Accessories. Arri Alexa steadicam plates $495 till gone Arri 1-2-3 blocks, $60 off Preston motor mounts (PAM) $155 Preston reducer bushings $25 www.film-stuff.com

The Cine-Ranger is nearing completion, the head and remote units are ready, a couple of accessories are being finished up. The Preorder for the Cine-Ranger will end October 31st, so there is only one week left to take advantage of the Preorder pricing. Full production on the Cine-Ranger begins next week, and units will be readily available. Preorder now for $2975! http://www.film-stuff.com/cine-ranger.html

The last 6 Gen1 6.5" 1500 nit monitors now on sale for $1250ea.

Funny, every set I have been on has Cinetape, sniper, or both. All with "A list" first AC's