Richard James Lewis Posted August 29, 2010 Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 So I shall be changing arms in the coming few weeks. I currently have a G-50 which has been absolutely fantastic for me, a real pleasure to use. It's looking like the G-70 would be a logical step for me financially, and with having used the G-50 for the last 4 years. It would be great to hear some feedback and reviews from owners, or previous owners. I have heard some concerns, and I know of a few who have sold theirs, or who are thinking of. What has caused you to do this? If the G-70 performs identically to the G-50 then I imagine I will be very happy. If something hasn't quite worked with the design from the 50 to the 70 then I would like to hear. Feel free to PM me if you don't wish to post publicly. Cheers in advance, Rick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Sanjay Sami Posted August 30, 2010 Premium Members Report Share Posted August 30, 2010 Hi Rick, I have been using the G-70 for 2 years now and am very happy with it. Besides which, if you are in the UK, you will get phenomenal service from the Tiffen team there headed by Robin. Regards Sanjay Sami Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members RonBaldwin Posted August 30, 2010 Premium Members Report Share Posted August 30, 2010 Hi Rick, I have been using the G-70 for 2 years now and am very happy with it. Besides which, if you are in the UK, you will get phenomenal service from the Tiffen team there headed by Robin. Regards Sanjay Sami I have heard of bouncing/friction issues on very slow moving shots. I tried it briefly (liked it very much) and did not notice anything out of the ordinary, but it was on a walk and talk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Thomas English Posted August 30, 2010 Premium Members Report Share Posted August 30, 2010 Have you heard any workarounds to these friction/bouncing issues? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members mark morgan Posted August 30, 2010 Premium Members Report Share Posted August 30, 2010 Have you heard any workarounds to these friction/bouncing issues? i have been using the g-70 for around 3 years and have never noticed these bouncing/friction episodes,so i believe it all depends on how you have your ride and lift set up on the arm for the different camera weights but i did notice i get further travel left to right or right to left with the back mount vest so moral of the story play with the lift and ride knobs til you find something that fits your body style and operating techniques Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milos Kodemo Posted August 31, 2010 Report Share Posted August 31, 2010 Hi, I've been using a G-70 for two years now and I am very happy with it. No problems as described below. It it a fantastic arm. I keep it at highest position for the RIDE all the time and it is a great . Kodemo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Thomas English Posted September 4, 2010 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 4, 2010 Making it ever so slightly negatively balanced does seem to eliminate the friction issues for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Stephen Consentino Posted September 5, 2010 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 5, 2010 I just bought a G-70 arm and love it so far. They have made some minor improvements recently that seems to have licked the issue of "bounce". It feels like the smoothest Iso-elastic arm I have ever used in my 20+ years of doing Steadicam. Stephen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Eric Fletcher S.O.C. Posted September 8, 2010 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 8, 2010 Have you heard any workarounds to these friction/bouncing issues? Yes there is a conversion kit available. It's called the PRO Arm. Seriously, I know of people that have lost jobs because of the walking bounce in the G-Series arm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Tomas Riuka Posted September 8, 2010 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 8, 2010 Have you heard any workarounds to these friction/bouncing issues? Yes there is a conversion kit available. It's called the PRO Arm. Seriously, I know of people that have lost jobs because of the walking bounce in the G-Series arm so i guess i made the right choice buying PRO arm then :) a number of G70 arms seems to be on the market for sale, and that should be for a reason... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard James Lewis Posted September 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2010 I decided to go with the G-70 after spending a good few hours with it the other day. I noticed nothing of this bouncing issue. Tiffen have changed aspects of this arm over the last months, so maybe that has rectify the issues people have had. I look forward to having it, and shall report back with my findings. Rick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members mark morgan Posted September 8, 2010 Premium Members Report Share Posted September 8, 2010 as long as i have owned my g-70 i never experienced a bouncing issue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members JobScholtze Posted July 23, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted July 23, 2011 Used the G70 for 3 years, great arm. Tested a pro 4 month ago, and after 5 minuts i bought the pro arm. Nuff said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard James Lewis Posted July 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2011 I had my G-70 for about 2 months. Eventually sent it back to Tiffen and got a refund. Bought a PRO. Never looked back. Superior arm in every way. LOVE GPI and everyone there, such a different ethic with them. Super helpful, attentive, and very quick to respond. Lesson learnt. Rick. Used the G70 for 3 years, great arm. Tested a pro 4 month ago, and after 5 minuts i bought the pro arm. Nuff said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard James Lewis Posted July 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2011 Someone PM'd me, so let me expand on that a little... Everyone I have ever known at Tiffen has been lovely. Whenever I have spoken to Garrett he has been wonderful, and naturally I have a lot of respect for him. There is however something about the internal structure in place at Tiffen which can make some issues that should be solved in days or hours take weeks to be resolved. It's just the way the company seems to be organised, many emails have to be sent back and forth and different people have to be copied in, darting all over the company, different departments etc. When you rely on your equipment for your work and you get paid the rates we do time is of the essence. Any issue or query you have about your investment needs to be addressed like it was yesterday, and it needs to be understood that anything no matter how small is of great importance to that customer. When I had issues with my G-70 all I wanted was initially was reassurance, a courtesy call from the factory maybe telling me that they were sorry I was having issues and that they were on the case. This never happened, instead I was left to chase up my problem for weeks, which turned into months. Tens of emails, and I was still chasing. It was only when I asked for a refund that anyone seemed to start to prioritise me. Every dealing I have had with PRO has been exceptional. If you get them when they are open you can expect an email reply within an hour, if not minutes. I had a small query with a canister and literally moments later the phone was ringing and Jack was talking me through what to do. Lots of communication and I felt really taken care of. They just understood. With regards to the arms. I had good operational performance with the G-70. It was very smooth no doubt. I pointed out some issues with the implementation of the renewed design which until me finding them had gone un noticed. I understand these points have now been addressed and anyone buying a G-70 as of maybe December / January has a great arm. I do however feel that you get a lot more for your money with the PRO. The standards of manufacture in my opinion are higher. The machining and the construction is a lot more solid and sound. I felt that the G-70 had been built very cost effectively and sold at a high price in order to fit into that part of the market. You can see where the expense comes with the PRO. Each bone is beautifully milled out of a single piece of aluminium, it's really a piece of art and you can see the cost involved. The canisters work beautifully and having seen one disassembled the engineering is fantastic. Potential reliability and problem solving in the field is also a concern of mine. With the PRO you are much more able to deal with issues that may crop up. There are noted advantages of using sealed compression springs versus exposed expansion springs. With the PRO and 8 canisters you essentially have a complete set of new springs. Should anything happen to a spring you simply unscrew a bolt, swap out the canister and keep on working. The lifetime guarantee on the arm chassis shows how confident they are in the build. Maybe if you were to have a G-70 spring issue by nature of the design you would be sending the whole arm back to the factory. I don't know. The post clamping mechanism on the G-70 also caused me issues. At the time it seemed to slip if you were constantly swapping out posts, the lever lost its ability to clamp tightly if you went from a differently machined post to another. Someone suggested that I should, and they had some clamp rings made up for the posts to stop them slipping, surely this is missing the point tho... Maybe this has changed now. PRO follow the convention of clamping and swapping out arm posts takes seconds now and they aren't going anywhere. I have no arguments with anyone at Tiffen, but at that time and with that experience I lost faith in the arm and thats why I changed to the PRO. Love all round. Rick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.