New Fawcett/Tiffen exoskeleton vest

[Sanjay Sami]

Dear fellows lucky enough to be at NAB,

Would love to sneak a peek at some pics of this new promising vest. Can anybody, before getting too drunk, upload some pics for us folks not attending?

Have fun there

Fabrizio

 

http://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/the_wire/2012/04/16/steadicam-takes-a-quantum-leap-forward-in-anatomy-gear-with-new-fawcett-exovest-%E2%80%94-on-display-at-nab-2012-at-the-tiffen-booth-c8818/

 

From what I know of Chris Fawcett as an operator, a thinker and a human being, I think this product will be extraordinary and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

[Jerry Holway]

I'm trying to attach a movie of GB, the exovest, and the three section arm. file is too big for high res, sorry.

 

Jerry

 

that didn't work. sorry.

[Thomas K. Jensen]

The Fawcett vest was really cool.

I have bever been a big fan of the Ultra Vest, because it doesn't fit me that well, but this vest was just a blast.

On the slow walk, the pivot helped alot, and I also took a run with it, and at te lock off I couldn't see my breathing.

I am looking forward to september, when it should be ready for shipping, to see how much better this product will be then.

Congrats Chris. Great work.

[Mariano Costa]

I'm trying to attach a movie of GB, the exovest, and the three section arm. file is too big for high res, sorry.

 

Jerry

 

that didn't work. sorry.

 

...a video clip on youtube would be much easier for both, you and us :)

 

I`m interested in this vest, too - until now I was thinking of buying a complete pro system, including vest and the new atlas arm, but now this vest looks much more promising!

Edited April 18, 2012 by Mariano Costa

[Sean Murray SOC]

My friend Jim Mathers has been doing his annual video reports for Digital Cinema Society from NAB. If you go to their site, you will find streaming video interviews with various equipment manufacturers. Updates are posted as soon as they can get them onto the site. Currently there is an interview with Garrett and Chris that gives a great look at the new vest. Just forgive them some rough editing. I know they are inundated in the mad rush to get news out from a lot of different interviews and this service is mostly a labor of love put together with a small crew and tight deadlines.

 

But I think that anyone who isn't able to attend NAB and who is interested in getting an early glimpse at new products, like the new vest will appreciate the work that Jim is doing and this great resource that DCS is providing.

 

I'm looking forward to trying on the new vest as soon as I get an opportunity!

 

http://www.digitalcinemasociety.org/content.php?page=NAB%202012

 

Sean Murray, SOC

[Osvaldo Silvera SOC]

Excellent Job by the Digital Cinema Society on that interview, Thanks for posting about it Sean.

Looking forward to trying one out on a live or live to tape show.

 

Osvaldo Silvera

[Dean Smollar]

As someone who will be in the market for a new vest, I'm interested in hearing the critique of people who got to try out the prototype. What do you think they're going to change/improve before they have a production model?

[Pedro Guimaraes SOC]

Well i had it on for about 40mins at the show.

 

Chris was nice enough to go over his concept and design aspects then help fit the vest to me appropriately.

 

For the first 25mins or so I was flying a ultra2 with a F65 on it. I had the arm front mounted on the vest.

 

Initial impressions were strange.....as one might expect with anything new and drastically different. I normally use a pro vest....

 

Chris asked me some questions about where I was feeling pressure and we adjusted and he added a pad to the top rear portion.

 

Finally I started to get more used it....and sure enough some of his design ideals were becoming evident.

 

-When moving the sled father away from my body the load did not feel strong single points of pressure.

-My chest was free to expand and collapse from heavy breathing.

-I felt very good after the initial 25mins or so...

 

I then switched to the back mount & the 3 section arm.

 

I picked up the heaviest sled there....the ultra2 with the alexa-M on it in low mode.

 

 

Immediately I felt a difference. I could now feel more of a pressure point on my top back pad. A bit expected as the weight and leverage had changed.

 

I spent another 30 mins in this configuration....running, slow moves etc...worked up a good sweat even.

 

I can honestly say that the vest felt better in front mount. Like it did a better job there at distributing the weight properly around the contact points of the vest.

 

On the back mount I felt alot of pressure on the top back pad....much like you would on a klassen.

 

Now I don't own a klassen so I can't really compare it properly. Although I have used one a few times.

 

While my chin did not make contact with the top spar it came very close and it was definitly weird to have that spar so close to your chin.

 

Compared to my pro it was very interesting. Not really sure how I feel about it at the moment. I will reserve further comment until I can do a "back to back" comparison of my pro vest and the exovest.

 

I need a more controlled setup to gather a more clear picture.

 

As I operate heavy 3D cameras alot I'm very interested if this vest really makes a difference.

 

It definitely deserves more testing....my mind is open.

 

 

Also pricing would play a HUGE part in my decision to actually buy one of these. I have my opinion on what this should cost but I'll keep that to myself for now.

 

Here is a closeup of the back mounted socket block

 

 

The triple g70 arm

 

Well.... i felt super awkward when I first put it on and took it for a spin...

 

then Garret came over and started to adjust the ride and lift of each section.

 

 

after his adjustment, things got much better and more .....comfortable.

 

Still....the proper adjustment of each section is really critical....and not easy as there is alot going on.

 

so the boom range......

 

Well I guess it can come in handy...every once in awhile.....kinda like a superpost.. You don't really use it that often.

 

Plus your now limited to what you arms can reach! and let me tell you at the upper end it get mighty awkward! So much so that doing a full boom up from lowest to highest smoothly and conssistently is very tricky.

 

in the end...not really sold on the 3 arm idea. it's intresting....but I see it being hard to implement and something we don't really make use of most of the time....kinda like a superpost.

 

 

I want to thank Chris and Garret for taking the time to answer all my questions and helping me really take this thing for a spin and try to understand thier concepts behind all this innovation.

 

 

In sum....I can live with out the 3 arm section.......and I would like to test the vest further...

 

[Afton Grant]

I love new innovation like this, and am very much looking forward to trying out the vest asap!

 

Just wondering the thoughts behind the emergency release handle. Two out of the big three vests currently on the market do not have this feature, and I have never, ever heard anyone wish they did. It's not something I miss at all. It must add manufacturing (and therefore sales) cost, as well as a slight bit of weight and complexity to the design. Is it truly worth it?

 

I know it's one of those things you might say you'll wish you had it when you need it. To which I say.... well, perhaps you shouldn't have been doing whatever it was you were doing the moment prior to needing it. There are numerous studies demonstrating that as safety measures increase, so to does the severity of injuries sustained. There are far more head and neck injuries in American Football today than there were 50 years ago. Why? The advances in helmet technology give this false sense that it's ok to smash your heads together. People get into too many fatal accidents at 50mph? Make a car that survives most 50mph accidents. People will then drive 60mph.

 

I don't operate on boats. I hesitate to walk near a pool, even. I wouldn't operate near explosives (not that I'd have time to pull any sort of handle if something went wrong there). No shot is worth injury, let alone death.

[Alex Kolb]

I agree with Mr. Grant. If I feel I would need to rent vest with a safety strap, I don't do the job. I'm sure there are some who are willing to take that risk in the name of cinematography, but I am not one of those people.

[Dean Smollar]

What if you pull it in a panic, and then it turns out you didn't need to? You've lost the camera and damaged your rig for nothing. Also, just having the option might make operators feel more comfortable with doing crazier/more dangerous maneuvers, which in turn causes more risk to themselves and the gear.

 

HOWEVER, it seems like the system is not a mandatory feature. In the interview video posted above, Chris said that it wasn't active on the op who was wearing it during the demo. It seems like something you have to manually arm, and therefore is something you might only activate if the shot you're about to do has some risk. That being said, if the shot has enough danger to warrant arming an emergency release strap, then I might think twice about doing the shot.

 

I don't think this feature is anything to be concerned about unless it adds a significant cost to the price tag of the vest. If it does, I think there should be an option to buy a model that doesn't come with it.

[Brian Freesh]

The "oh shit" cord feature has to be armed on previous vests as well. Makes perfect sense they'd include the feature identically in any new vest they make.

 

I do agree with Afton regarding the danger of having it. Of the two times I know of that one was used, I don't know the full story but both sounded pretty dangerous. There's probably always a way to achieve a shot safely without having an emergency release.

 

Sure, it'd be nice to have just in case, but not having it forces me to avoid a situation I'd wish I had it. All the same, I'm totally down for it's existence. 6 of one, half dozen of the other kinda thing.

[Louis Puli SOC]

I'm looking forward to trying on the new vest as soon as I get an opportunity!

 

http://www.digitalcinemasociety.org/content.php?page=NAB%202012

 

Sean Murray, SOC

 

Hi everyone

For some reason that link will not work for me so I have found another one .

http://www.studiodaily.com/2012/04/nab-video-avid/

 

Great job Chris Like Sean and many others am looking forward to trying that vest.

[Osvaldo Silvera SOC]

Hi folks, EFP models and the old leather back 3A had Emergency releases that did not have to be armed. On my old 3A, the release was a cable with a set of pins on the end, that if you pull the strap, the pins would pull out of the flap rings in the rear of the vest and the whole thing came apart, on the EFP, the Velcro from the waist was first to go and then the large back patch of Velcro released the upper part of the vest.

On the 3A I had seen operators put a cable lock to prevent the vest from coming apart accidentally which defeated the purpose.

 

Although I have been without one for quite some time (PRO,Klassen vest). I always thought it was a good thing. How many times do any of us do a simple scene around a pool? just something simple, walk and talk, Music Video with the Hoochie mama's (technical term) dancing by the pool. One slip and your held down by 70 pounds getting heavier by the second as it absorbs water.

 

We may have only heard of 2 occasions where they were used, but not all steadicam ops are on this forum.

 

Looking forward to testing this new vest out. Price will certainly be a factor I'm sure.

Fly safe.

[Brian Freesh]

Sorry Ozzie, didn't mean to imply all previous vests. I probably should have said "other current tiffen big rig vests" as the smaller rigs don't even have quick release either.