IndiSYSTEM - Ultracompact Rig
 

After a lot of research and days of combing ebay and waiting for the mail to slowly bring me pieces of my rig I finally have it almost finalized! I made a few mistakes along the way trying to do it affordable as possible.

First off I bought the cheap 80~ mattebox with French Flag on ebay. I find the piece rough, small and not supporting side flags. Currently looking for an alternative (and hopefully one that supports wide angles). Secondly.. before actually getting in the shoulder mount I bought blocks and rods to prepare to mount the accesories on the handle only to find a simple 1$ screw from home depot was all I needed for the most part.

Right now i'm pretty satisfied with what i've gotten. Not shown are the Indisnap Lens gears (sweet item) and the Dfocus follow focus (Which I haven't gotten yet). I'm a little dissapointed with the Dfocus guy. His follow focuses are 4 weeks behind according to his website and in the last two weeks he has went on vacation and now is at NAB showing off his gear. While everyone needs a vacation and time to market it seems he could have hired someone to handle putting together and shipping of his follow focus's while he was doing this. This added with the fact he's still taking orders just doesn't sit that well with me. I know i'm being really harsh on the guy but it's just my jaded opinion :)

I also will be going to Singapore in about 2 weeks so decided just to go and pick up the lightcraft filters while i'm there.

Took some quick snaps (sorry for the horrid lighting) to share with the forum. Thanks guys for all the advice and information that helped me piece this baby together.

In this picture is

5d II :D (2499)
IndiSystem Ultra Compact (299)
Lilluput 7" LCD with Ebay battery (180+29.98)
Rode VideMic (115)
Tascam DR-100 (289)
Hasselblad Chimney Finder Gorilla Glued to Ebay LCD Hood (9+15)

"I'm a little dissapointed with the Dfocus guy. His follow focuses are 4 weeks behind according to his website and in the last two weeks he has went on vacation and now is at NAB showing off his gear. While everyone needs a vacation and time to market it seems he could have hired someone to handle putting together and shipping of his follow focus's while he was doing this. This added with the fact he's still taking orders just doesn't sit that well with me. I know i'm being really harsh on the guy but it's just my jaded opinion :)"

So sorry William

I was in Florida for a week, back a week, then in Vegas for NAB for the week. I have had 2 guys working full time for the while I was gone building D|Focuses. We shipped about 80 units while I was back for the week, but we still have so many to go. Growing pains.

Believe me, I understand that a 4 week lead time is too much and I am going to be making some changes (hopefully as early as Monday or Tuesday next week) to make better use of my time.

Really nice rig, William!

I see you've installed both a monitor and a hoodloupe-kind-of-finder, could you point out which one you use during setup and shooting?

I assume there's enough space to use the finder when you've got this rig on your shoulder?

I'm thinking about this rig with the Zacuto-finder, or skip the finder altogether and use my lilliput instead...

Hey Michiel,

Yes i have them both on just to show how I have it setup but when I have it on my shoulder the finder sits perfectly where I need it. I'm still tinkering on where the best place is to put the lilluput. I usually only put on the monitor when I have it set on a tripod.

Hey William, how long did it take you to get your Indisystem rig. I ordered a Pro system a couple of days ago but haven't gotten even a confirmation email yet.

Hey Rick,

Your best bet would be to call the guy (I had the best luck from around 11AM-2PM EST). It seems he's just super busy all the time and hard to get in contact with. Prime example is the ultra compact and indisnap gears have been available for awhile and hasn't even updated his site with it.

I do know he was a NAB the past week so it might have slowed things down. You just reminded me I need to call him myself as I was missing the whip i ordered in my package.

[Note now the gears and ultracompact is on the site]

Thanks. I finally got hold of them yesterday. Supposed to have my order shipped by today.

BTW they have a good video up on the IndiSnap Gears. You guys should really check it out. Amazingly convenient.

Indisystems
 

I just ordered my Ultra Compact. William, is it pretty easy to use your rig setup like that? Looks like a bit much weight up top.