Using the new Fawcett Exo Vest from Tiffen

[TJ Williams Jr.]

Hey everyone-

 

I bought an Exovest last year after trying it at NAB. I owned a WK vest for the last seven years and felt it was time for a change. There are a lot of things I loved about my WK, but at the end of the day it was an older model, and was very wide and difficult to get through doorways with, so I was looking for a slimmer option.

 

So far the Exo has delivered everything I hoped it would. I find it to be a comfortable vest once you get it fit to your body well. Its true that it places stress on different back muscles than the standard vests do, but they are higher up on your back and feel like a larger muscle group, so I havent noticed any enhanced fatigue. I do like how the WK distributed this weight a little better, but for a slim vest it is much better for me than standard vests.

 

At any rate I would love to answer any questions people have about the vest. I start a flim in May and will have a chance to stress test it over a long project, but until then I have only been doing one day jobs here and there.

 

Ask away and I'll do my best to answer!

 

Hope everyone gives the vest a chance. Its a pretty great piece of gear.

[chris fawcett]

Chris,

 

You can try re-padding your vest. I had a fair degree of success trimming my LX to better fit me, though changing the pelvic placement will have limited effect in a flexible vest. No matter how comfy you make it, the vest may still rotate into your abdomen because of the torque of holding the Steadicam out front. You are right that just adding padding may end up displacing the inguinal ligament. It's a balancing act, but well worth attempting.

 

I'm fairly sure the Exovest reduces the frontal pushing forces, though I couldn't claim that it halved them. What I think it may halve is the force needed to resist the aforementioned torque, which it does by extending the lever arm of the torque-resisting structure to the trapezius.

 

Simply, what we try to achieve with the Exovest is to mimic what the body does with forces. All weight you carry on your body, by most any means, ends up in the pelvis, and that is where we place the bulk of the weight, directly, loading other structures as little as possible. Of course, we can only do that from the outside, so we choose to load the bony protrusions of the iliac crests, front and back, avoiding the sacrum, the abdomen and the superior attachments of the gluteus medius muscles. With the torque, we again mimic what the body does. Anything you pick up in your hands and hold in front of you imparts torque into the trapezius muscles via the scapulae, so it is directly to this muscle group that we aim that force.

 

Alan,

 

By raising the torque-resisting structure to the trapezius, we now engage a longer section of the erector spinae muscles that run up to the rear of the spine to stabilise it, much like a set of guy ropes. We're used to feeling the pain in our lower backs below the level of the chest straps in the front-mount, and the rear spar in the back-mount. Now this work is spread much further up the back to the high trapezius. The idea is to both increase the lever arm, and to share the work among a larger group of muscles. I also noticed muscle fatigue a little higher up than usual after my first day of working in the Exovest, but in my case, it was gone by the second day. TJ?

 

All the best,

 

Chris

[Chris Poynton]

Love the detail of the response Chris. Many thanks!!

 

It would be great at some stage to see some official PR materials (e.g. in the Tiffen product PDF?) that might show some diagrams of the Exovest interaction with the body (i.e. the leverage structure / body loading points compared to a conventional vest). It would help sell the benefits of the concept quickly and graphically, especially for those who don't know the medical lingo. Thanks again.

[chris fawcett]

Hi Chris,

 

Thanks for your interest in the Exovest. I'm sorry to say that nothing like you describe exists. We might draw up something one day, but for now we're more curious to see how people react to the vest in everyday working conditions. Even after a year of beta-testing, we're still learning.

 

When the patent document gets published, you'll find plenty of detail there, but the vest will stand or fall on its performance in the field, rather than on its design principles.

 

All the best,

 

Chris

[Evrim KAYA]

Hello comrades!

 

I had the chance of extensively testing out the Fawcett exo-vest during the Istanbul gold workshop last week. I was there to help-out as an assistant instructor without salary (so no monetary connection with Tiffen whatsoever)

 

I put the vest on 3 different occasions.

 

First one was more of a demo than anything. After Chris fitted the vest for me, I picked up the heaviest setup (an ultra2 with an ENG camera and added weights to simulate a bigger payload) and tried few different scenarios including very slow walks, running, heavy breathing, pushing the sled away from my body etc.

 

The second one was more of a real life use simulation; I put the rig on and did the test scene which we prepared for the students. The scene involved multiple actors, relatively slow walk, several whip pans as well as several switches.

 

The last one was more about the endurance; I carried the Tango with the exo-vest for 25 minutes while walking long distances without taking it off.

 

The verdict?

 

Just wow! Imagine the joy of hard-mounting; being able to operate without carrying the rig and add freedom of movement to that sensation. As the lever is much higher on your body, you don’t feel the strain on your back. The pivoting structure really helps a lot about the stability. You don’t need to alter your normal walking at all. Also upper pivoting structure helps on distributing the load on your shoulders evenly –think of uneven shoulder positions while using the rig in low mode-. On top of all being able to breathe freely and having all this room under your arm was a great feeling.

 

The construction quality was perfect. It really gave the impression that the vest was built to last, while being light in weight.

 

It will be my first purchase when I’ll have the necessary funds. I recommend everyone to take a test ride in it. It was a really wonderful experience.

[James Davis]

I just recently had the pleasure of trying the vest out for two days of live work, 1 hour on 1 hour off with another operator for 13 hours each day across two days.

So I had a nice big chunk of time in it over the course of the weekend.

 

All I have to say is really just an echo of all the positive comments above, it's incredible, it spreads the load over a much larger group of muscles, it's the most comfortable vest I have ever used and allows you to breath freely.

 

The level of control you have over the float point/flying of the rig is simply superb and beyond anything I have ever experienced with any other vest I have tried.

 

Super comfortable, sublime control and precision with the rig, running...walking...standing all just felt easier/better than in any other vest.

 

Loved it and I will be buying one as soon as is financially possible.

 

If anyone has any questions about my experience with the vest please feel free to ask.

 

All the best

 

James.

[Peter Abraham]

Fair to say that at this point I have been flying an Exovest longer than anyone else in the field except Chris. I can attest to the success of the concept as well as to the precision of the manufacture. I routinely do a show that has a segment that is 9-14 minutes long that never cuts away from my shot. Using the Exovest has meant that I can comfortably operate a shot with a camera of any mass for as long as I need to.

 

What a remarkable thing that is.

[Bryan Trieb]

I tried the Exo at NAB last year and didn't find it particularly comfortable.

Flash forward to another test at the recent Stabilizer Expo and wow...the evolved design was super comfortable. I was surprised and impressed.

I've always had pain in a front mount (to be fair, I haven't flown a PRO harness for longer than a few mins which wasn't measured to my body), and have been loving my Klassen Harness for many years now, which causes me no discomfort and allows me to operate at great lengths with zero soreness. The Exo gave me a similar feeling to the back mount. To be fair I didn't fly it for more than 5 minutes, but for me that's long enough to see if it feels funky.

 

I would definitely recommend considering this harness. We all have different body types with different strengths and weaknesses. It's cool to have another option which may help us fly the rig in a physically comfortable zone.