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G50X and G70X arm


Marco Dardari

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I have the G70 arm upgrade and I like it. The arm is very "free" and requires extra effort to setup correctly because it can feel too free and all over the place if incorrectly setup. I also agree with Chris that care must be taken up with setting the ISO correctly. He has an interesting way of doing it. Jerry Holloway also explains ISO setup in his manual.

 

Interestingly Chis operates with the arm in a buoyant mood (positive). Since finding this out I now sometimes do the same, sometimes negative (a la 3a) and sometimes neutral. It really depends on what I am doing.

 

I did notice the steps where far worse on my Klassen vest than my 3a vest. This leads me to think there can be something going on with physical bodies being different and walking with arms. There is a possibility that someone like Chris with his long gangly legs and so less hip movement when walking might not have noticed the steps. It should be noted that Garrett is pretty tall as well. I can pretty much guarantee that when walking my pelvis probably deflects more than theirs with my considerably shorter legs.

 

I went mental when I discovered the steps in certain shots and started practicing for about 5 hours a day to get rid of them. In fact I practiced so hard with no rest days continuously I gave myself tendinitis of the knee! Which took 3 weeks to heal. Its healed, I have an upgraded arm and I'm probably a better operator for it all. Weirdly and like other operators, until I discovered the steps I hadn't noticed them! When I discovered them they were everywhere.

 

Like i say, I am really pleased with my arm and it works great but what more of these geometric changes? These are things that clearly can't be upgraded. I know I think I can tell immediately when I look at a G70x because it does look a little different. Does any one have any more low-down on these geometric improvements and their advantages? I am happy to accept that this is just an improvement on an arm and I am quite happy working with my arm. Thanks Pedro for the light you have shone so far on these geometrics.

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"A performance upgrade is now offered for the current “G-Series” Arms. The price is $1,000 and includes a new One-Year Warranty."

 

according to Frank Rush, see post in News,Events,Workshops....

 

1000 bucks? That seems fair

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Eric looks verrrry happy in this photo. Maybe there CAN be world peace!

 

John, I thought you were going to hang onto this for blackmail material?? I do love how Eric looks genuinely happy in this picture! Hell has officially frozen over.

 

Naw, Eric is a good sport and gave me permission to post his photo. Hell is definitely a few degrees cooler though!

It was good to see all you guys there.

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Naw, Eric is a good sport and gave me permission to post his photo. Hell is definitely a few degrees cooler though!

It was good to see all you guys there.

 

Good to see you too John! It had been awhile.

 

Back on topic- I flew the old G70 without the upgrade and the new G70X arm back to back and it's a night and day difference. The X-series arms are so much smoother I can't believe how, what's the word I'm looking for......oh yeah, "sticky" it made the old arms feel. One thing I did notice, on the particular arm that I flew it seemed very finicky to try and dial in the lift settings on both arm sections. I would try to find the butter zone of each section, the area of travel where it's easiest to adjust its lift, but when I did this it was very difficult to make any minute changes to the arm. It seems as though the knobs would continually slip and made it difficult to dial it in properly. Another thing I noticed was that there was some slippage in the lift knobs when there shouldn't have been which I was assured by Tiffen would be looked into and only seemed to be a problem with that particular arm.

 

When I adjusted the ride control to dial out as much iso as possible and make the arm settle rather then hold the camera at a certain point in the arm's boom range, I had to put quite a bit of effort into booming up and down (yes I know this is to be expected). I'm merely making the observation that the effort required to boom up and down when the arm is adjusted this way is far greater then that of say, a IIIA arm or PRO arm. It's probably on par with a detuned Master/Ultra arm.

 

To sum up....IF I currently owned an older G-series arm, I would definitely spring for the upgrade. I feel that $1,000 is reasonable and the benefits greatly out weigh the cost of the new parts/service. Future buyers will be perfectly happy when they receive their X-Series arms as they are the best Tiffen arms to date.

 

Full disclosure- I currently own and use a Master series arm and will be purchasing the new PRO Atlas arm as soon as they are available.

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I have have a G50 arm for 2 years now and I have never ever had a problem like this forum is describing.

 

I used to mainly fly a RED ONE MX on an Archer 2 with the G50 and I even loaded it up with a set of Jerry's Antlers for when i had to run around people really fast or when it was really windy.

 

I now mainly fly the same rig but have replaced the RED ONE MX with an EPIC so my rig is a lot lighter, and again I have never experienced anything like this with slow moves.

 

Maybe i am just lucky!

 

Anyway I love my Archer 2 with G50 arm and i don't really ever want to upgrade to anything else. Until i wear it out.... That is!

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When I adjusted the ride control to dial out as much iso as possible and make the arm settle rather then hold the camera at a certain point in the arm's boom range, I had to put quite a bit of effort into booming up and down (yes I know this is to be expected). I'm merely making the observation that the effort required to boom up and down when the arm is adjusted this way is far greater then that of say, a IIIA arm or PRO arm. It's probably on par with a detuned Master/Ultra arm.

 

Andrew- there is a misconception in your statement above, and it may affect how you experienced the arm.

 

Iso (or more iso) does not mean that an arm will hold at a certain point; that is a function of how the lift is set.

 

More Iso means there is less effort to lift up or push down to the ends of the boom range, or a flatter force curve. It also means the arm is less reactive to vertical changes - it does not seek its float point so strongly, so there is less work for the operator to keep the arm at any particular height as the body or vehicle goes up and down.

 

When you dialed out the iso, you changed the force curve, and, as you point out, it required a lot of effort to boom up and down, which isn't fun.

 

I always set the arm for the most iso I can - less effort and more control.

 

Jerry

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