Hey Guys, I have been very interested in some Vest Rigs that offer new potential for executing difficult shots. I have spent a good amount of time with the Ready Rig and Easy Rig. Both I have not been happy with either for different reasons. Flow cine makes some good accecories for the EasyRig that do improve functionality, but all togehter it still doesn't really bring anything to the table in terms of shot execution. I have spent the last year just operating with my arms and picked up some healthy excercise along the way haha. At Cinegear last month I got to test the Anti-Gravity Rig with the Ronin 2 that was setup on site and I was blown away with the 4ft jib extension and the smooth ability to raise and lower the camera. It also seems like it can be used in intimate enviornments with some adjustments and loss of the jib extension. I also saw that the Walter Klassen Vest offers similar capabilites at almost half the price. I don't think it's as good as the Anti-Gravity Rig, but I wanted to ask if anyone had expereience with the SlingShot Vest and what their opinion is?
I ran a Stedicam for a bunch of years, built several of my own camera stabilizers, came up with several different jibs and even put together a couple of motion control rigs. I have designed and got FAA approval on several camera mounts for airplanes and helicopters. Why the history lesson? Because in almost 48 years behind a movie camera the one thing that I have learned is that there is no one size fits all rig. Every shot has its own challenges. Last week I put my MoVI pro on a car, my Tero, my Alta, a programmable slider, handheld, on the top of a C-stand, carried it single op riding a Sequay, and hung it from my Steadicam Steadimate. Next week I'll probably hang it from a cable. The only thing that has been consistent since I picked up my MoVI Pro is that about 80% of my camera work uses the MoVi dual op because it is the easiest way I know of to get really fluid camera work with a very minimal crew. The AntiGravity Rig looks interesting and it would probably fill in some holes, but I'm guessing that for the kind of stuff that I do most of the time it would probably be used two or three times a month for shots that I couldn't get with the other gear I have. If it were about half the cost I might consider buying one.