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I need advice regarding choice of Arm


vicken joulfayan

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Hello,

Wanted advice from steadicam owners, will be purchasing my first rig finally. i was renting up until now, looking into buying the Artemis 2. my question is the arm choice, whenever i do a search or follow operators on instagram, i have never seen anyone using the Arri Artemis Carbon spring arm. is it that bad? like i literally did not see any single person using it. i can't afford the higher end arms like Gpi Pro or Tiffen, i will be using the arm for heavy setups.  

My options were either SmartSystems AX1 ( 75lbs payload ) or flowcine Xarm ( 64lbs payload).

My initial choice was AX1 from Smartsystems but they have a 3months backorder.

Any advice would be amazing, the reason i am asking about the arri arm is because we don't have a seller here in doha so will be ordering the whole package from dubai, but will have to exclude the arm since i dont see anyone chosing this arm over any other arm in this industry.

Thank you in advance.

Vicken J.

Edited by vicken joulfayan
adding thank you at the end..
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19 hours ago, vicken joulfayan said:

Hi Vicken 

You should consider the silver spring arm from Steadyrig https://www.steadyrig.com Hugo reputation in the industry is 2nd to none .His arms will cover all the range you are looking for .Very simple to maintain and Hugo's customer service is the Best . A fantastic thing Hugo offers is a Payment plan which many new op's have done as well .

Good luck

Louis Puli    

 

 

 

Edited by Louis Puli SOC
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Hi Vicken, 

I´ve never tried the Arri Artemis Carbon spring arm but I have tried:
Tiffen g70x, Pro arm, Flowcine arm and Smartsytem. 

 

IMO The ones I Iike the most were the flowcine arm and smartsystem. Flowcine has an impresive boom range and it is supersmooth but I did have doubts as It has a rubber springs that need some maintenance (nothing to crazy just some lubricant ) and  it need to be adjusted a little if you change to extreme weather  either cold or hot.  I just got my smartsytem arm few months ago, I´m so happy with it. It has a really good boom range too, really good quality of the springs. It works by compresing the springs  that works like a lift in any arm tuning the height of the arm but it has a X-tune that change the behavior of the spring you can go to a really smooth arm like the feeling of a Pro arm to a much more springy feeling that it helps when going hardmounted or running. An too the smart system arm it has a plus that is it´s light weight

Just my two cents: If you can wait for Smartsytem delivery time, do it, if not  Flowcine is a super arm too, just write them asking about how it will perfome in really extreme conditions. I saw too many operatos with this arm using it with the Trinity and no one had a complain that I´m aware of.

Best

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31 minutes ago, Angel Goday said:

Hi Vicken, 

I´ve never tried the Arri Artemis Carbon spring arm but I have tried:
Tiffen g70x, Pro arm, Flowcine arm and Smartsytem. 

 

IMO The ones I Iike the most were the flowcine arm and smartsystem. Flowcine has an impresive boom range and it is supersmooth but I did have doubts as It has a rubber springs that need some maintenance (nothing to crazy just some lubricant ) and  it need to be adjusted a little if you change to extreme weather  either cold or hot.  I just got my smartsytem arm few months ago, I´m so happy with it. It has a really good boom range too, really good quality of the springs. It works by compresing the springs  that works like a lift in any arm tuning the height of the arm but it has a X-tune that change the behavior of the spring you can go to a really smooth arm like the feeling of a Pro arm to a much more springy feeling that it helps when going hardmounted or running. An too the smart system arm it has a plus that is it´s light weight

Just my two cents: If you can wait for Smartsytem delivery time, do it, if not  Flowcine is a super arm too, just write them asking about how it will perfome in really extreme conditions. I saw too many operatos with this arm using it with the Trinity and no one had a complain that I´m aware of.

Best

Hey Angel!

thank you for your response! sorry if i am adding questions, but i checked your website ( great work first of all) secondly, you are using full on Smartsystem gear, sled,vest,monitor. would you recommend it? trying to cut the budget down, i saw that yours is the chimera with the volt costing 33k without monitor so abt35/36k with monitor, which is back to the cost of the artemis 2 package i was checking( includind the cables necessary including powering arri cameras and hdsdi cable)

 but how about the matrix one extreme package? 20k including vest and arm, looks like a great deal! 23k including monitor seems perfect.. also, the package still misses all the necessary cables though right? sorry for all the questions, trying to figure it all out.

worrying to chose the sled since any high end sled is 20k and up so trying to chose and not regret afterwards.

 

Thank you in advance! 

 

 

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To choose your rig it is a really hard decision. I did a long research, I have contacted many operator via Instagram asking abour their Sled, arm, etc.. They are really nice and always had an answer. I did contacted some operators close to me  and I flew to visit them. I contacted all the brands to aks where I could try their rig in the "nearest" city I found in my case It was Paris so I went to visit some rentals and retailers. At the end you have to spend money in the research as you are going to spend a fortune buying the rig, in my case that money I spendt during the research it was worthy, it gave me confidence when choosing the rig.

I´m so happy with my rig. Their post sale service with smartsystem it is super. Andrea the CEO and Lara are doing a super nice job. They even help me out on Sunday, they answered me withing minutes. So I feel safe with them. 

I have to say that I did like the MK V sled, I liked the feel of a 2" gimbal but there is no answer from them so I decided to move to another brand.  The Bezt tools Rig Sled it is amazing too. I love the Bezt tools Top stage thats the best on the marker IMO but I don´t like the botton sled. I like the botton Sled from Tiffen Sleds,  Smartsytem it is somehow in the same way IMO.

Now I got use to my 1,75" M2 Gimbal and I,m super happy too. The only thing I would change from my sled it is the topstage, i´m not loving the way to put the camera on ,  you have to slide in the camera. Otherwise the smartsystem Top stage is a rigid, vibration free and safe.  I´m confidence with it.  I guess that top stage design it allows them to make things cheaper.

To me if you are going for smartsystem  sled get the Chimera Sled so have the M2 Gimbal with the Volt so you are ready to work in any job that they require you to have it. If you are not going  for the Volt at the begining you maybe can buy another Sled and in the future add the volt.

Flowcine and Smartsytem they have a wonderfull equipment but there weren´t in the market for a long time so they are winning trust in the comunity. Only with the time we will know if their equipment it was built to last as other main brands. Smartsystem has a life time warranty if something fail they will take care of it.

I hope that helps

Best,

Angel

 

Edited by Angel Goday
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28 minutes ago, Angel Goday said:

To choose your rig it is a really hard decision. I did a long research, I have contacted many operator via Instagram asking abour their Sled, arm, etc.. They are really nice and always had an answer. I did contacted some operators close to me  and I flew to visit them. I contacted all the brands to aks where I could try their rig in the "nearest" city I found in my case It was Paris so I went to visit some rentals and retailers. At the end you have to spend money in the research as you are going to spend a fortune buying the rig, in my case that money I spendt during the research it was worthy, it gave me confidence when choosing the rig.

I´m so happy with my rig. Their post sale service with smartsystem it is super. Andrea the CEO and Lara are doing a super nice job. They even help me out on Sunday, they answered me withing minutes. So I feel safe with them. 

I have to say that I did like the MK V sled, I liked the feel of a 2" gimbal but there is no answer from them so I decided to move to another brand.  The Bezt tools Rig Sled it is amazing too. I love the Bezt tools Top stage thats the best on the marker IMO but I don´t like the botton sled. I like the botton Sled from Tiffen Sleds,  Smartsytem it is somehow in the same way IMO.

Now I got use to my 1,75" M2 Gimbal and I,m super happy too. The only thing I would change from my sled it is the topstage, i´m not loving the way to put the camera on ,  you have to slide in the camera. Otherwise the smartsystem Top stage is a rigid, vibration free and safe.  I´m confidence with it.  I guess that top stage design it allows them to make things cheaper.

To me if you are going for smartsystem  sled get the Chimera Sled so have the M2 Gimbal with the Volt so you are ready to work in any job that they require you to have it. If you are not going  for the Volt at the begining you maybe can buy another Sled and in the future add the volt.

Flowcine and Smartsytem they have a wonderfull equipment but there weren´t in the market for a long time so they are winning trust in the comunity. Only with the time we will know if their equipment it was built to last as other main brands. Smartsystem has a life time warranty if something fail they will take care of it.

I hope that helps

Best,

Angel

 

Thank you so much man, i have been contacting a lot of operators on instagram, they are all responding and giving me so much advice. i tested the M2 sled when i was in LA, tried the Artemis as well and the GPI pro, but according to budget i think i will go with matrix one extreme bundle and then upgrade it with the volt in the future, the difference is 13k$ before monitors and all cables and extra accessories, which is too high for me at the moment to get the chimera. I will start with this package and upgrade in the future. 

Attached the list of items, still missing all the cables and batteries will purchase from a local store because it's for some reason really hard to purchase batteries and ship it to Qatar Doha.

thank you so much man, 

Smartsystem Cart.png

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Hi Vicken,

I forgot to mention that the Steadyrig arm that Louis had metioned it is a really good arm too. A really top operator here in Spain got it, He thinks the same than Louis about post sale service.  He has MK V sled, W.Klassen  back mounted vest and the silver Spring arm, I tried the rig and the arm it is super strong and super smooth, it  is a good option too. To me it is a bit short in the boom range but nothing you can fix changing the arm post for the shot.

Edited by Angel Goday
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24 minutes ago, Angel Goday said:

Sounds like you have it already well planned.

You may want to add a hard mount system to your quotation.

Best of luck

the hardmount system lets you attach the arm to tubes and other places when we are in a vehicle correct? definitely needed and would me more efficient to operate that way then holding it the standard way on my body.. will check final budget.. haha i saw there is a coupon section on the checkout, asked lara if there is such a discount, if there is then will add the hardmount i guess.

for low mode, you use the J bracket right? is it easy to go from regular to low mode with your setup? i am adding the dropdown kit for low mode, Lara already quickly replied to my mail, will check what the dropdown kit has.

Best,

Vicken

 

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