DSLR RIG REVIEW

by Sebastian WöberJanuary 23^rd, 2010

Arri

Arri provides industry standard products when it comes to professional camera support. Their gear is usually very rugged, easy to use and highly compatible. It can be found on every high budget film set and wears a price tag to match.
By manufacturing gear for semi professional camcorders and DSLR cameras, they entered a new market.

Here we reviewed:

• Arri MBP-1 Baseplate + Arri HD DSLR Riser
• Arri MMF-1 Follow Focus
• Arri MMB-1 Mattebox

The first thing you notice when you touch Arri gear, is that it is really well crafted. All parts are very solid and feel quite unbreakable, even the follow focus and matte box feel rugged. It feels like they could take a lot of abuse before they’re done, if you know what I mean. We like that.

The one screw here that holds the rods is amazingly strong. Even though you only twist it lightly, you can be sure the rods won’t come off. I’d hang my car on these rods with no problem. They are easy to open, easy to close and both rods can be locked with one screw alone. Wow, perfect.

Now on to the base plate itself. They put a DSLR riser on top of the base plate, that can be easily detached with a screwdriver. Without the riser you can use this base plate with any other camera. We really like this idea, because it means you will have a use for this base plate in the future. Or also if you just want to use a different camera with this unit.

To mount the camera you always have a ¼-inch screw on all base plates. Instead of using a screwdriver or coin, you can attach this one with your fingers, because the screw’s head is so wide. We like that, although we must say we had to fiddle a little on this one. Mounting the camera took about 14 seconds. That’s OK.