Premium Members Mark Schlicher Posted December 16, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 16, 2011 Which Tiffen guys did you try? Email Michael Craigs at mcraigs@tiffen.com. 818-567-7945. At this point you may want to cc. Frank Rush, GM of Steadicam, frush@tiffen.com. If you've emailed twice with no response, this is definitely not an acceptable situation. Sorry to hear. I'm sure it's frustrating. As for the screw, you just need to measure the length & diameter. Any fine-thread stainless steel screw should do the trick, for convenience you may choose a thumbscrew deaign but not necessary. Ron, the Zephyr's post diameter is smaller than big rigs, and the rig doesn't use a dock ring, so I doubt that Jerry's ring will work. Sounds like a great idea for big rigs, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members RonBaldwin Posted December 17, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 Ron, the Zephyr's post diameter is smaller than big rigs, and the rig doesn't use a dock ring, so I doubt that Jerry's ring will work. Sounds like a great idea for big rigs, though. ah..I thought it might be smaller than 1.5" (why would it be 1.5" anyway? Then any accessory would fit and we wouldn't want that!). But McMaster-Carr will have any and every size under the sun to sandwich the gimbal. Didn't realize just the screw broke, that is a simple fix. Thought the clamp itself was toast -- even if the threads are stripped one can use a smaller screw with a nut/washers. Nice to have back-ups. Siht will eventually happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Ryan Rodinis Posted December 17, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 17, 2011 I emailed Craigs and CC'd Peter. And for my situation, the screw is fine - it's the thread mount metal piece (where the screw screws into) that is WITHIN the blue clamp that is no longer able to turn to allow the clamp to close back down. Nothing seems broken, it just won't rotate within the blue clamp any more. The only solution I see is to have to use a Hex key to tighten and loosen each time I need to make an adjustment. :\ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Ryan Rodinis Posted December 20, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 resolved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Erik Brul Posted January 14, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 resolved. Well, first of all.. i don't own a Zephyr. I was excited about the rig but it is on the market for almost a year now and i have seen, heard several horror stories about the Gimbal + post clamp. On paper and in real life the clamps look very sexy.. but that's about it. Today i saw another quote: 'yeah man.. The clamp became so tight I dun dare to lock or unlock. For now I am using Allen keys. Sometimes when I do a whip pan the whole gimbal will give way and change position.. Omg lol' This particular operator can still 'laugh' about it but i think i'm scared about this rig. Maybe Tiffen should consider to loose the sexy clamps and replace them with old fashion clamps.. the phrase 'no-tools' is... well.. Just saying, Erik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Wan Zhong Wei Posted January 14, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 14, 2012 Hi everyone, I am the particular owner of the zephyr that Erik has mentioned.. haha. been wanting to post about this issue, just came back from another shoot. the zephyr gimbal clamp has been giving some issues, when you take out the entire screw and the clamp, i notice that the clamp itself it is very hard for the internal "ring" to rotate. fyi the internal ring is the main component of the clamp, the hole in the middle contains the screw thread that will lock itself to the allen screw. this means that, when i loosen the allen screw, the clamp is supposed to lock/unlock easily, but in this instance with my current gimbal, the previous mentioned is impossible ie. at no matter what tightening strength of the screw, the clamp is still as hard to clamp down as possible. when i first unboxed the sled, everything was fine, after a few more flights, the clamp is starting to give me problems. right now i am very worried that the gimbal clamp might give way anytime. when i do whip pans, should the clamp is not tight enough, the entire gimbal will rotate, wow! will try to post some pictures when i have the time. anyone that i can email or get some assistance from? i can really use a neater gimbal clamp, my zephyr is less than 1 month old :( thanks folks! have a great year ahead. zhong wei singapore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Wan Zhong Wei Posted January 22, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted January 22, 2012 Hi friends, a quick update. The good folks over at tiffen responded to my email, am glad to say the situation is resolved, took out the gimbal clamp and gave it a good dose of lubricant. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Mark Schlicher Posted March 25, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 25, 2012 If you have an unresolved gimbal clamp/extension clamp problem, I recommend contacting Tiffen. The engineers have come up with a modification that, so far, resolves every problem I had. My confidence in the clamp is restored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Darren McDonald Posted June 21, 2014 Premium Members Report Share Posted June 21, 2014 Hi Guys, This same problem has happened to me. Is there a fix to this from Tiffen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Victor Lazaro Posted June 21, 2014 Premium Members Report Share Posted June 21, 2014 Hi, Call Tiffen, they will send you a space clamp. The clamp breaks if it gets over tightened. You can add some Purple Loctitle (low strength) to the thread to stop them from tightening themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Darren McDonald Posted June 22, 2014 Premium Members Report Share Posted June 22, 2014 Thanks Victor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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