Any new impressions on EXOVEST?

[Quaid Cde Baca]

Hello all,

So the other day I stopped by Tiffen to mess around with some of their gear (Mike Craig and the guys were way cool and nice about everything, helping me out).

I fly a Master sled, arm, with a Klassen vest and an Elite vest (for different called situations.

The Klassen, I can more easily endure heavier weight, and longer endurance for live event.

The Elite, is smaller and feels snug, but the socket block pushes more on me.

 

The Exovest I tried on at Tiffen was... 'new' for me. So bare bone, and more of a harness than a steadicam vest. It has thick padding on the shoulders and waist (much more than the klassen shoulder pads). It is so basic, but performs INCREDIBLY. I had the socket block in the front (interchangeable goofy or regular/ front or back within seconds) for ~30 minutes while flying around the building and talking to Mike and Zack, and I didn't feel anywhere near the pressure that I would have with my Klassen or Elite vest within the same 30 minutes. It's very free, contrary to a standard vest that hugs your body, the Exovest is open and has few contact points, but works magically.

Another big thing for me was the hip/ waist padding was able to rotate with your hips. It was very very comfortable and free moving to my operating. Also the rods on the front and back section collapse and extend easily and can literally fit ANY body. The vest collapses to ~1.5 feet to extend to ~2.5 feet (all roughly to what i can remember). I am a very small guy 5'8". The Elite vest at it's smallest fitting barely fits me, the Exo has zero issues with fitting. Mike roughly fitted it for me in 2 minutes and it suited me great!

 

Overall, I would best describe the Exovest to feel free and healthy. It does oddly enough feel healthy on my back and open to any position and move. It WILL be my next big buy for sure.... let me know if anyone is in the market for a Klassen and/or Elite vest!

[gregor yalmanian]

I second you Quaid what a magnificent vest .. i am using it for a month and half now. i was on set shooting a film last weekend with a sled approx. 45 pounds did not feel any pressure on any place of my body the weight is soo evenly distributed on your body with the Exovest that you can wear it all day long. and one more thing is that once you open that blue latch all the vest relaxes on your body even you can go to sleep with it without noticing the vest on your body :P :P .. great job Chris fawcett and Tiffen steadicam.

[Lars Erik]

I have to chime in and say it's a wonderful vest. It took me a few days to figure out the proper way to use it, but now it feels great.

 

Shooting a drama series with the Alexa plus. Rig+camera weighs in just over 55lbs / 25 kg, and I must admit, sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm actually wearing the rig. And the fact that I can breathe freely is a plus. Slow moved are also easier.

 

Great new tool for the Steadicam world!

[Osvaldo Silvera SOC]

I wish I could get one as a loaner to test out, I've asked a few times, even got Frank Rush to send out an inter office email letting folks know to get one to me. I wonder why it slipped thru the cracks, knowing I could buy it in a sec if I liked it enough.

As for now, a Klassen Dual Mount 16.4lbs and a GPI/Pro 5.8lbs are doing the job. But I will try it out one day......one day.....one..d.....

[Sanjay Sami]

Doesn't make much business sense not to get one to you. I would be interested to hear from any live operators who do long takes in excess of a half hour in the vest to see how they like it.

I agree with Lars Eric. It took me some days to dial it in, but I love it now. It made me iron out some of my postural flaws as well. I still have many others that need ironing out :-)

[Tom Wilkinson]

I liked it a lot when I had the chance to test it out for a bit. I liked the added control I felt I gained by smoothing out the height of the socket block when moving slooooooow. I Did have some bruising from the lower pads but I think that could be easily remedied with a layer of different padding. but in the purchase phase it has proven to be a bit of a unicorn.

Hi Dash. what did you do to the socket block to 'smooth' it out? also what do you mean about the purchase phase being a unicorn?? your post is pretty cryptic!

 

tom

[James Davis]

I think he is talking about the pivot point at the bottom of the hip spar, which provides another point of isolation between your body and the rig during slow moves.

[Rich Cornelius]

Tiffen kindly let me use it on demo and I found the vest very comfortable after a lot of fiddling to get it right for me.

I found myself raising and lowering the front bar length as I found the strain in the upper part of my back which was something new.

The single hip pad on the clasp side I found a little bit out on a limb as it didn't really have a dedicated place on the vest and was only really held on by a small amount of Velcro which in time would definitely fail or ware.

The other issues I had was hat once the vest was fitted and the clasp fastened it didn't want to clasp shut a second time after relieving yourself from the previous take. The runner for the Velcro straps seemed to ride up into the lever over clasp mechanism which I found very frustrating as the clasp became redundant and I had to resort to using the Velcro straps to tighten the vest.

Roumer has it the vest has now gone back into redesign but don't quote me on that!

I was all set to purchase until I actually demo'd it

[JamieSilverstein]

Wait a redesign! From Tiffen! Well THAT's never happened before.

Gosh I hope the bearings aren't sticking.

And how much will the new mods cost those who purchased the vest already?

I certainly hope that Tiffen chooses to upgrade the early adopters for free......

Sorry I couldn't resist.....

[chris fawcett]

Hi Rich,

 

Thanks for your consideration of the vest, and I'm sorry it didn't work out for you.

 

That strain in your upper back is felt by all Exovest users on their first few times in the vest. What's happening is that in traditional vests, the torque of holding the weight out in front of you is resisted by either chest straps or a back-mount spar that engages part way up your thoracic spine. The Exovest resists the torque right up at the level of the shoulder blades, the same place your body resists the torque of holding something in your hands out in front of you. This longer lever arm reduces the force inserted, and engages the entire erector spinae muscle group, not just the lumbar region in resisting the force. The length of the rods, front and rear, is adjusted so that force goes horizontally into your trapezius, without loading your shoulders. You'd find that those muscles in the upper back tune up pretty quickly.

 

To your other issues. I was also worried about the velcro fastening for that front left waist pad, and it's something we considered redesigning; however, I'm nearly 3 years in the Exovest, and it just never became an issue for me, so I guess we forgot about it. I'd be interested to hear what other Exovest users think.

 

As for the latching problem, I'm wondering if perhaps the waistband had been set for large-sized waists. I enclose a picture of the one-time adjustment for that. If so, the waist slider would draw right forward into the waist over-centre lever, causing it to jam just like you describe. I'm curious to know if that was the case or if you encountered some other problem.

 

In the first year since release, we made several changes to the vest, such as new waist-band materials, with a different curvature to allow for easier latching, redesigned dovetail latches top and bottom, also for easier latching, new waist over-centre lever for easier unlatching, and other bits and pieces. All Exovest users will be upgraded with all updates free of charge. They have the choice of returning their Exovest to the factory for a rebuild, or of fitting the new parts themselves. This has taken longer than I'd hoped, but it is in progress, and it's a process I'm continuously monitoring with Tiffen. The demand for the vest took us by surprise, and it's taken time to ramp up production to match.

 

I understand if you're not tempted to give it another try, but if you do, we can do a Skype fitting (my user name is steadivision). This offer is of course open to anyone.

 

All the best,

 

Chris

[chris fawcett]

Jamie,

 

Your reply, though undeniably amusing, and perfectly inoffensive, illustrates precisely why I just don't visit the Steadicam Forum anymore.

 

Bye for now,

 

Chris

[Sanjay Sami]

The latching problem is due to the vest being set to the larger waist size. I also had mine delivered like that and it took me a while to figure what the problem was. Once I did, it is a 2 minute fix.

This vest is worth the effort of breaking in. It is so radically different that you are bound to take a little while to get it set right. Once you do, you will appreciate the design greatly.

[Aaron King]

For those of you who own the Exovest, what was the wait time when you placed the order? Curious to know as I am heavily considering one myself very soon.

[Nathan Chapman]

Aaron, I was in Lemac (Australian distributor) last week, and they said there was a wait time of 4-6 weeks, not including shipping.

 

I presume this is the same as the rest of the world, that there isn't a special factory just for us Aussies.

[JamieSilverstein]

Chris

Sorry for the cynicism. Undoubtedly the Exovest is a wonderful piece of equipment that might prove to be a game changer. For that I applaud you. However this is a forum that should allow all members and visitors the ability to express opinions. In my case the opinion is based in fact that I was party to.

So congratulations Chris on your spectacular creation.