G50 vs Master Arm

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

 

I'd be curious how many went G50 and are now in a G70 or Pro because of weight.

 

 

I know quite a few and it had little to do with the weight range...

 

Good to hear from you Erwin. Are you saying there's a design flaw or something bad about the G50 that hasn't been brought up?

 

 

:rolleyes:

 

You could say that....

[Scott Jason Gill]

Anyone care to mention what the problem is/was? I'd love to know before I drop 10k on one. At least point me to the thread, cuz I'm not finding anything major in the archives. Maybe I'm just missing it.

[Matteo Quagliano]

 

I'd be curious how many went G50 and are now in a G70 or Pro because of weight.

 

 

I know quite a few and it had little to do with the weight range...

 

Good to hear from you Erwin. Are you saying there's a design flaw or something bad about the G50 that hasn't been brought up?

 

 

:rolleyes:

 

You could say that....

 

 

 

I'm quite curious too, can you both explain better your point on G50 arm?

 

thanks

maqu

[Matteo Quagliano]

...

[Thomas K. Jensen]

Anyone care to mention what the problem is/was? I'd love to know before I drop 10k on one. At least point me to the thread, cuz I'm not finding anything major in the archives. Maybe I'm just missing it.

The G-50 arm has no design flaws as far as I know.

The only thing I've had, was a squeeking sound, that was easily cured with some Lisagav :-)

I normally fly the Panasonic HPX2100 (2000 in US) with Bartech/M-one

and sometimes even with a Link, and there's still some headroom.

So If your main market is video, then the G-50 is a great choice. IMO

 

on the other hand, If you already know that most og your Jobs will be with heavier cameras, then you want to go G-70 or Pro

but I personally love the Iso that the G arms provides.

It's just so easy to boom up and down with almost no force.

 

Thomas (o;

[Paul Gardner]

Jason,

Everyone has pretty much covered most of differences related to Master Series vs. G50. I've had a G50 since February 2010....I've worked with it extensively and, IMHO, haven't discovered any design flaws. I'm pretty happy with mine - it's quiet (no need for lisagav, yet!) I fly smaller cameras, mostly TV: SD & HD, and I find the greater vertical boom range indispensable. My two cents... B)

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

How did the G-70 and PRO get into this conversation? The question was about Master versus G-50 because those were the two in his budget range.

 

Sure, if you have the money, OF COURSE get a PRO or a G-70, but that is like telling someone who is trying to decide between a Honda or a Toyota to buy a Mercedes.

[mark morgan]

tiffen sent me a brand new post because they said something was wrong with the original

but i can't seem to blow up the original one so who knows but i still have the new post

right there in the kit and the arm works beautifully

thanks tiffen

[Jaron Berman]

 

I'd be curious how many went G50 and are now in a G70 or Pro because of weight.

 

 

I know quite a few and it had little to do with the weight range...

 

Good to hear from you Erwin. Are you saying there's a design flaw or something bad about the G50 that hasn't been brought up?

 

The G-50 is an fantastic arm. I sold mine due to the weight limit being too restrictive. However, I had a VERY tough time deciding between the G-70 and PRO. I've used the master arm, but my brain isn't big enough to really dig down and tune it to its fullest extent - one thing I always liked about the G- arms is that they are so easy to fly well. Even if you have no idea how to tune the "iso" feature, they still fly beautifully.

 

That said, I now own a PRO arm. There are a lot of (no pun intended) pro's to each the G-70 and PRO...and not a whole lot of cons to either. The G-70 has more boom range, is lighter, and less expensive. It's also tool-free. BUT, when I tried the PRO, I fell in love with the feel of it. It is absolutely frictionless...which seems like an obvious feature to ALL good arms...but it's not. Try a G- arm next to a PRO and you'll see - they feel very different in terms of the feedback they give you. I had to essentially relearn my right-hand control skills (STEADICAM...) because I had gotten very accustomed to the way the G-50 felt and "read" back my movements to me. There is a very tiny teensy amount of friction in the movement - which 90% of the time is incredibly useful to me. But for super-creep-slow starts and stops, the PRO felt a little more accurate. That made my decision at the time. (The ability to tear-down and clean the arm, sealed bearings, etc... also didn't hurt my decision - I'm bad about covering up my arm BEFORE the dust kicks up).

 

I am not the best op in the world, or among the elite - but the little nuances I felt were real enough to justify trying something new and different, even if it meant relearning some of my technique. Would I use a G-70? In a heartbeat! When eventually I add another system, I'll probably get a G-70. I like both. Bottom-line - FEEL IT FOR YOURSELF! I had my mind made up until I tried a lot of different arms. With my ~5 years experience, even I can feel the little characteristics of each element...and I can only assume that ops with 2-7 times the experience feel it that much more. But if you're butting up against the weight limit - there's a steep price to the upgrade but you'll find that the REAL 70lb arms perform magnificently. And the service from Tiffen or PRO are both excellent.

[Matteo Quagliano]

 

I'd be curious how many went G50 and are now in a G70 or Pro because of weight.

 

 

I know quite a few and it had little to do with the weight range...

 

Good to hear from you Erwin. Are you saying there's a design flaw or something bad about the G50 that hasn't been brought up?

 

 

:rolleyes:

 

You could say that....

 

 

Hi Erik

 

can you explain better? What you and Erwin are referring to?

[Anders Holck Petersen]

tiffen sent me a brand new post because they said something was wrong with the original

but i can't seem to blow up the original one so who knows but i still have the new post

right there in the kit and the arm works beautifully

thanks tiffen

 

The original G50 arm post was designed wrong. Basically the G50 arm post consists of a steel inner core, with an aluminium cap. The original one was designed with a smaller diameter inner steel core than the updated one.

 

How do I know? I actually had an early serial G50 arm where the post snapped right off mid shot, because the steel core broke. This was while riding a pretty light camera, but with a long post. The breaking point was right at the point where the core had a machined groove for the fixscrew of the alu cap. Fortunately no one was hit by the sled, but I had moderate camera damage as it was a slow lowmode shot. I'd advise anyone to change the post asap it you own a lower serial arm, with the original post!

 

Never had any other issues with the arm....but upgraded later to the G70, due to the weight limits. The G70 did feel a whole lot heavier, and has a much larger footprint (where did my monitor go?)

 

I also own the PRO arm now, and generally it does feel a bit smoother overall, but as I'm a real sucker for Isoelasticity (New word?) and rapid arm adjustments, I tend to choose the G70 most of the time.

[Nick Tsamandanis]

Luv my G50 - and the Clipper that comes with it.

[Matteo Quagliano]

ok for the arm post but what I was referring to is bouncing... my arm bounces... and it's no good when you're asked to be precise... and it's not a matter of weight, I feel it with every weight on top (DSLR to RED)

so... is it a matter of what?

glad to have a nice and clear explanation

my best

maqu

[James Davis]

ok for the arm post but what I was referring to is bouncing... my arm bounces... and it's no good when you're asked to be precise... and it's not a matter of weight, I feel it with every weight on top (DSLR to RED)

so... is it a matter of what?

glad to have a nice and clear explanation

my best

maqu

 

 

Hey Matteo,

 

We both have pretty much exactly the same set-up, and I saw this issue a while ago as well....

 

For me what seems to work is dialling in as little iso-elasticity into the arm as needed for any given shot, it shortens the comfortable boom range significantly, but it certainly seems to get rid of the bounce.

I think it's maybe to do with having just too much iso-elasticity dialled in, it seems to me that it's pretty difficult to give yourself a big boom range on the arm without leaving yourself open to much more easily induced walking-bounce. I think that it's just another thing, that should be tuned on a shot by shot basis, allowing yourself just enough boom range to trim for head room comfortably.

 

That's my two pence, i'm sure others will offer their feedback too, or tell me if i'm wrong :=)

[Matteo Quagliano]

Hey James,

 

Thanks for your point. That's what I've been doing so far but I'm not totally satisfied with that. As someone said before in another thread it just happens, it's like a resonance effect if I can say that, not related to your walking. I'm just talking on very very slow walk with a diagonal or horizontal line on the frame. Other then that it's a great arm, perfect fot TV works.