I’ve recently upgraded my Glidedtrack SD to the HD model and also got my hands on the new “Shooter”. I spent a bit of time playing with them today and wrote a quick review.

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Zacuto Zip-Gears

First came a set of four Zip Gears which I’m using on my L Series prime lenses. I liked the look of the zip gears because they are low profile and easy to fit and remove. Like most Zacuto products they are expensive, in fact I’d say these things are probably the most over-priced items I’ve purchased to date. Buy them from creativevideo in the UK and you pay a whopping £407 for four! In the US they retail for around $430.

Okay so thats the bad news out of the way, so why would you be mad enough to spend that kind of cash in these tiny bits of metal? They just work really well, In operation the gears do exactly what you would expect, they mesh with the follow focus and allow the lens to be focused – pretty simple really. That basic operation is definitely not worth all the money you have to spend on them though, where these are special is that they include hard stops.

The hard stops mean that it’s possible to use modern SLR lenses like my Canon L series lenses that do not by design stop at each end of the focus rings travel.

I made the mistake of ordering mine without the red stop parts so I haven’t actually tested the gears with both stops in place yet, I’m having some shipped from Zacuto and I’ll post my findings as soon as they arrive and do a full review with pics.

[update 22-01-2010] I’ve just posted a full review of the Zip Gear.

I’ll be on BBC Radio Norfolk later today talking about my Ten Town Tour film about Kings Lynn. If you’d like to listen the BBC transmit live on the internet using the BBC iPlayer. I’ll be on around midday.

[update]

The interview seemed to go okay, it was nice meeting Graham, Karen the rest of the BBC Norfolk team. If you missed the interview you can listen to it on the ‘listen again‘ feature of the BBC iPlayer for a few days or you can download an mp3 version here.