This Week’s Top 10 Deals for Filmmakers – Atomos, DJI Drone, Gimbals and More

NewsIndustry

by Jakub HanJuly 3^rd, 2018

There are lots of interesting deals for filmmakers available online. We selected the best 10 offers of filmmaking gear from our partners’ online shops for this week. Including gimbals, Atomos recorders, DJI drone, tripod and wireless follow focus.

I went through the current deals on our partners’ websites and selected the top 10 offers currently available, which I think could be interesting for you. First, there are B&H offers listed for our readers based in the US and then a couple of deals from our European partner CVP. By shopping at our affiliate partners’ stores you are supporting cinema5D through our buy links, as we get a small affiliate commission when a purchase is completed. Now, let’s take a look at this week’s top 10 deals for filmmakers:

B&H: ikan EC1 Beholder 3-Axis Gimbal

Starting off this week’s deals with motorized stabilizers, the ikan EC1 Beholder supports cameras between 2-4.5 lb (1-2 kg), which should be enough for most mirrorless cameras and smaller DSLRs. Keep in mind though, that using heavy lenses can cause problems with balancing the setup. This is generally the case with most handheld stabilizers.

The gimbal features 360° rotation along all 3 axes, 32-bit controller & 12-bit encoder, three follow modes plus auto-inversion, lock mode & auto point-and-lock mode. It has a quick release baseplate, OLED display, 3/8″-16 tripod mount threaded hole and 1/4″-20 accessory mount threaded hole.

Buy link: ikan EC1 Beholder 3-Axis Gimbal Was: $699.00  Now: $449.00 (Savings: $250.00)  

B&H: Axler Handheld Gimbal

This 3-axis motorized gimbal stabilizer is aimed at lightweight mirrorless and compact cameras as it only supports loads up to 1.9 lb (862 g). The gimbal has a quick release plate and offset adapter, follow and lock modes and a thumbstick for pan and tilt adjustment. It can be used in inverted mode for low-angle shooting. It has a 3/8″-16 threaded mounting hole, 5V USB output and is powered by three 18650 batteries. There is a USB-Powered LED light included in the kit.

Buy ink: Axler Handheld Gimbal Was: $599.00  Now: $299.00 (Savings: $300.00) 

B&H: Zhiyun-Tech Smooth-Q Smartphone Gimbal

The smallest of this week’s price-reduced gimbals is the Smooth-Q from Zhiyun-Tech. This smartphone gimbal can take loads up to 7.8 oz (220 g). It can charge the phone via USB while shooting. The stabilizer has one-step balancing knob, up to 12-hours run time, 320° pan, tilt, roll axis rotation, 4-way joystick, zoom control switch and a 1/4″-20 mounting thread on the bottom.

Buy link: Zhiyun-Tech Smooth-Q Smartphone Gimbal Was: $139.00  Now: $99.00 (Savings: $40.00)

B&H: Canon XC10 4K Camcorder

The Canon XC10 camcorder was presented already back in 2015. My colleague Johnnie did a review of the camera. The Canon XC10 is a category of its own – looking a bit like a mix between DSLR and camcorder. It has 1″ CMOS sensor accompanied by the DIGIC DV 5 processor. The XC10 can shoot up to UHD 4K at 29.97/25/23.98p, up to 305 Mb/s 4K or 50 Mb/s HD Recording. It has SDXC/SDHC and CFast card slots, HDMI output which supports 4K monitoring. The camera has a fixed lens (f/2.8-f/5.6) with 10x zoom (8.9 to 89mm focal length), 100 to 20,000 ISO range and an ergonomic tilting handgrip.

Buy link: Canon XC10 4K Camcorder Was: $1,599.00  Now: $1,399.00 (Savings: $200.00)

B&H: Manfrotto Nitrotech N8 Video Head & 546GB Pro Tripod

This interesting video-head-tripod combo by Manfrotto is now available at B&H at a discount. The Nitrotech N8 is a 17.6 lb (8 kg) capacity fluid drag tripod head. It has a sliding balance plate with safety lock and nitrogen piston counterbalance system. The Nitrotech N8 also has adjustable pan & tilt drag, 75mm flat base with half ball adapter. We took a closer look at this video head back at NAB 2017. The 546GB Pro Tripod has a ground-level spreader, 12.8 to 62.4″ height range and independent leg adjustments.

Buy link: Manfrotto Nitrotech N8 Video Head & 546GB Pro Tripod Was: $949.95  Now: $749.95 (Savings: $200.00)

B&H: CINEGEARS Single-Axis Wireless Follow Focus Express Plus Basic Extreme Kit

CINEGEARS now has a good deal for this wireless follow focus set. It includes a wireless express plus focus controller, high-torque wireless lens control motor, 19mm mounting bracket, 19mm to 15mm adapter bushing, two hard stops, additional focus marking disc, customizable rubber lens gear ring and waterproof case with foam inserts.

Buy link: CINEGEARS Single-Axis Wireless Follow Focus Express Plus Basic Extreme Kit Was: $1,979.00  Now: $1,579.00 (Savings: $400.00)

B&H: HP 14″ ZBook X2 G4 Mobile Workstation

This multi-touch 2-in-1 computer is suitable for creative professionals thanks to the NVIDIA Quadro M620 graphics card (2GB). It has 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7-7500U Dual-Core processor, 8GB of DDR4 RAM and 256GB PCIe M.2 SSD. It displays the Windows 10 Pro (64-bit) OS on the 14″ 3840 x 2160 UWVA IPS touchscreen. Connectivity is provided by an SD/SDHC/SDXC card reader, Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.0, HDMI 1.4, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC. The set includes the ZBook X2 Pen.

Buy link: HP 14″ ZBook X2 G4 Mobile Workstation Was: $2,399.00  Now: $1,699.00 (Savings: $700.00)

CVP: Atomos Ninja Flame

This week I will start listing the European deals with Atomos recorders, as our partner CVP now has interesting offers on older models. First is the 7.1″ Atomos Ninja Flame which features a 1920 x 1200 resolution 1500 cd/m² (nit) bright touchscreen display. It is capable of 10-Bit FRC monitor processing, has 4K HDMI input/output, HDR mode with 10-stop dynamic range, high bright mode for Rec. 709 viewing. The Ninja Flame can record UHD 4K up to 30p or 1080p up to 120 fps in 10-Bit 4:2:2 ProRes & DNxHR encoding to to 2.5″ SSD/HDD media. It is powered through dual Sony L-Series battery slots.

Buy link: Atomos Ninja Flame Was: €784.33  Now: €657.37 (Savings: €126.96)

CVP: Atomos Shogun Flame

Next good deal on external recorders from Atomos is the Shogun Flame. It has the same features as its cheaper brother Ninja Flame (see previous specs) but it additionaly offers a 12G-SDI inputs/outputs. My colleague Tim took a closer look at the Shogun Flame and tested it in the field.

Buy link: Atomos Shogun Flame Was: €987.46  Now: €798.43 (Savings: €189.03)

CVP: DJI Phantom 2 Quadcopter

And finally, this week’s last deal is quite an interesting one. CVP currently has a good offer for the old DJI Phantom 2 drone. Please note that the offer is for the drone plus the remote controller only. There is no camera included, nor a gimbal. For GoPro owners this could be a great bargain though. It achieves up to 25 minutes flight time.

Buy link: DJI Phantom 2 Quadcopter Was: €292.29  Now: €112.48 (Savings: €179.81)

What do you think of this week’s selection? Share with us if you know and like any of the products.