It nice to see that Jeff has added the plate with guides to the wedge plate. This will add to its stability.

I've been using the prototype now for about a month. The rigidity added by the base plate alone is both astounding and very comforting. Jeff has, very wisely, endeavored to accommodate the widest variety of preferences by making the system expandable. If you just need tripod rigidity, then this piece is enough!

For those who prefer the shoulder-mount option - it is a slightly different part, as the "baseplate only" option was made to just fit the camera body and nothing else.

If you want to mount a battery, you can add on the hinged plate at any time - this is also the key piece to the balance puzzle. It takes care of wrist torque as well as lightening the load on your arm. With added weight (plates may be available in the future), you can effectively balance the whole thing. If you don't have a battery mount system, he has one that we arranged from Anton-Bauer.

And don't forget the wedge plate. I get a smile on my face every time i place it on/take it off my tripod. I'm new to the world of the VCT tripod plate, and I'm so glad I went there. The solid click of the base is great.

I recently drove from Tampa to Austin (last week) and had the camera mounted on the tripod over the passenger seat the entire way. Shooting time lapse, I gathered about four minutes of footage during the 16 hour trip. Wish I could have driven it that fast! (Reminds me of Niven's "Neutron Star")

Anyway, I hope these products fill a niche - or several, as the case may be. Jeff assures me that every piece of the production unit has received major improvements to my prototype. I eagerly await the final product.

Oh, and please don't forget the best thing about working with a smaller company like Jeff's - if you have a component that it doesn't yet work with, and you think that many others would benefit from its inclusion, let Jeff know. He may be able to accommodate changes that make the solution ideal for you and increase the value to others.

As I said in an earlier post, I ordered mine on Monday as soon as he posted pricing, and Jeff replied he was hoping to get it shipped on Tuesday.

Part of what I am going to emphasize in an upcoming article will be the innovation of small desginers/producers who themselves are video pros. Folks with ideas such as yours and production/marketing skills like Jeff represent a very important niche in the business. I can think of at least several others who have created products to achieve what should have been built into the product had it been designed by actual users. And it's the sort of thing my editors like to cover.

Good work and I can hardly wait to mount it on my EX-3. By the way, I bought the shoulder mount version.

Interesting, PCI/VF Gadgets must be listening to the comments here. The pricing on their baseplate configs are now lower. Looked at the ones Ted designed and they sure look good.

I appreciate that, Andy. To be clear, though, the engineering that I began back in August or thereabouts has undergone many changes - including the beneficial changes that Jeff made in the fabrication process of both the prototype and the final production unit. In other words, in it's current state, Jeff shares a considerable amount of the credit in the design.

Maybe I haven't done enough research, but the VFGadgets plate looks a lot more "machined" than it's new competitor. Maybe the machining on the plate has some additional use? Strength? Maybe it makes it fit more snug against the base of the camera? Dunno. Sure nice to see them reduce the price right before I'm ready to buy. :)

Does Ted's plate have the machining like the VFGadgets plate?

Relief.
 

Hopefully Simon W. will notice the price-drop and look more favourably on the VF device now. Seems that competition can be good for the consumer and while I wish that I got mine cheaper, I don't regret having paid for the peace of mind in the mean time. Hope they can come up with an attachment for the rear U14 pin.

As with a lot of metal parts, 'relief-machining' dramatically increases the stiffness of the said part by removing material that might otherwise transmit flexing or torsional forces along its length. This works well on beams and plate-like parts. A good example are airplane parts but almost anything well designed in light metals (like fancy bike and car parts) can be finished in this way. It is, however, possible to take this too far and make things too thin and filigree. The VF gadget item seems to avoid this pitfall, does not 'ring' and is very stiff.

Jus.

You guys are beginning to speak beyond my range of knowledge. I will offer this, though. I asked Jeff about the color - mentioning that I thought he was going to anodize black. He mentioned that he opted for "hard" anodizing instead to increase durability, and that this method procludes color. He said the resulting finish is, however, pretty cool and high tech.

All the parts are all CNC machined, given a brush finish on the outer surfaces afterwards, then given a hard coat anodized surface. I planned to do more structural machining, but it turned out that the weight savings would have been negligible.

Hopefully the first customers will be seeing their plates soon enough to give third party accounts of what it's like, maybe this weekend or early next week.

I look forward to that Jeff. It's going to be a tough decision for those of us who haven't made a purchase yet. Both plates seem to be very well made. Impressive! :)

fold up battery plate
 

Hi Ted -

Just checking to see that the fold up battery plate can be used for counter weight, but WITH the long life Sony Battery installed in the camera. Does it still fold up properly?

Thanks,
Zac

Neither Ted or I have the long life battery to make a definitive test, but the plate is deliberately positioned far enough back to clear the longer extra-duty Sony battery, based on dimensions Ted found.