This is one really cool matte box. I really don't think there is anything better value for money out there for under £300/$500. It's still not the same as high end MBs costing £1000 and more, but for the money you do get plenty of features, including a swing-away arm, 2 rotating 4x4 filter holders, carbon fiber flags, so really nice MB. Will soon do a round up of all best MBs availible on eBay, so will be able to tell how the price will fair up against the competitors.For now, I Highly Recommend it to anyone currently looking to buy a matte box.

I'm happy to welcome  you to the 2nd edition of “eBay Auction Bargains”. This is my weekly post with my latest eBay findings.  Rather than usual “but it now” listings, I will post the auction listings that will finish within this week or so.  I’m a massive fan of eBay and as mentioned before, most of my own kit came from eBay, even my own 5D, so I know how great these actions can be.  From my own experience final price of action listings is usually lower than it is of “buy it now” listings, because a lot of people can’t wait for the end of auction and happy to pay a bit more to have the desired item as soon as they can.  So let me show you what I found today.

Gini keeps listing great BIN deals. In my last to posts, I talked about great prices on the new iFucus and very cheap shoulder rig. Today I found 2 really good BIN listings which include both FF and Rig at a great price, making the deal even better if you are looking to buy both FF and Rig. At such prices, Gini really puts competition out of business. I use my Gini rig all the time and I love it, so I definitely recommend taking a proper look at these rigs if you still haven't got one. If the listing have ended, just see what GINI currently has on offer from their 2 eBay pages (1st rig is ongini778, second is on gini-2011). Most likely that they have listed more of the same of similar deals.

1: DSLR RIG SJ-5 Set is quite simple rig, but has everything to get you started including Gini's new i-Focus Follow Focus, which I ordered last week too.

2: DSLR RIG EXTREME-1700 is full blown rig, with loads of extra bits, including a top handle, magic arm, cage like brackets. Of course it also comes with the ifocus. At $299/£185 it is a great value for money. Just about 3 months ago I paid £300 for a similar Gini rig on it's own.

 DSLR RIG EXTREME-1700 on eBay

 2 days ago I ordered GINI’s new iFocus Follow Focus. I paid $299, but today gini-2011 listed some at just BIN price of $199, $100 cheaper than what I paid :(

There are 6 left at the time of writing. They get snapped up really quickly, around 1 every half an hour, so there is a chance there will be none left by tomorrow, unless they put some more up for the same price, which I think they might, because earlier there were just 2 left out of 7 and now it back up to 6 out of 7.

If you are looking for a decent follow focus at a bargain price,  this might be one of the best deal on eBay at the moment, so go grab it while it’s cheap, or you will end up buying it later for $299 like it did :)

Just noticed some incredibly good value GINI Rigs on eBay. Just $159/£99 for such a nice rig, I have very similar myself, which I originally paid around £300 for, so grab them while you can!

Finally my first edition of “eBay Auction Bargains”. This will be (hopefully) my weekly post with my latest eBay findings.  Rather than usual “but it now” listings, I will only post the auction listings that will finish within a week or so.  I’m a massive fan of eBay and as mentioned before, most of my own kit came from eBay, even my own 5D, so I know how great these actions can be.  From my own experience final price of action listings is usually lower than it is of “buy it now” listings, because a lot of people can’t wait for the end of auction and happy to pay a bit more to have the desired item as soon as they can.  So let me show you what I found today.

I was going through my usual searches, checking out what’s new on eBay and came across the Falcon Follow Focus. This is a second time I found one on eBay and this time it is cheaper too at £145 + £4.99 for UK buyers. Not such a bad price, for a unit that looks very interesting indeed. I must say the Falcon is the most futuristic follow focus I ever seen, with its curved, flowing design. Good looking/ugly? I think it looks quite cool, but I’m there are people who will hate it. More importantly is it any good? I just ordered the new Gini iFucus, so definitely not going to spend another £150 to test this thing out. Does anyone know anything about this unit, any proper reviews? I haven’t seen anything that looks like solid, independent information.

From looking at the demo video on Hangrip Youtube page (see video below)  it appears that there is some play in the gearbox. Anyone has firsthand experience with this unit? If the play is minimal, then this price is not bad at all, but if there is a lot of play, then this fancy design is for nothing. The only thing people really care about is play, not design.

But if you are someone looking to buy their first Follow Focus, this could be a decent choice. I can’t personally recommend, because I don’t know anything about it, but see it for yourself, it’s on BIN listing with 28 days left.

 

Gini is one of my favorite brands in Budget Filmmaking  bracket. I bough my first 15mm rail based shoulder rig from them and since bought an updated rig, that I haven’t even used yet, but the price was so good, that I just couldn’t resist it. I love the built quality of Gini rigs. I’ve used one of them for more than a year and it still works like new, no problems whatsoever (long term review coming soon).

Gini has started producing follow focuses, selling them as they were updating them. To me units didn’t really look complete until now. Gini recently came out with the new FF, i Focus, which looks very nice and seems to be completely finished version and from a review by cheesycam it seems to be a very nice unit worth having, so I went on eBay to see what is available. At the time when I first checked, all new FFs were already gone. I checked a few hours ago and Gini has listed some new FFs, not going very cheap (some at ridiculously high BIN prices), but one was at a decent BIN price and came with a free rig (already have 2, so didn’t really need that) so I decided to go for it.  The BIN price was $299 +$85 which, after Paypal conversion worked out total of £247 for anyone in UK looking to buy it.  Not that cheap, about the same as my Camtree FF and Trusmt T2 (now upgraded to NF2), but is it better than my other FFs? Well I think the GINI i Focus should arrive within a few weeks (not very fast delivery), so I will give you my first impressions then.

One thing I could say now, if you are also looking for a shoulder rig/rod set for your FFs you’re about to buy then this $299 deal is actually really good, you won’t find anything cheaper at such built quality. I suspect this offer will not run foever.

While some of the deals are ridiculously expensive, Gini constantly list some really look deals too, including BIN prices and Auctions. Mind you, the costumer service is virtually non-existent, so don’t except any refunds if for some reason you’re not happy with your purchase.  I saw some negative feedback on Gini’s page, but the overwhelming majority is positive, so I wouldn’t worry to much, I personally didn’t encounter any problems with this seller.

Camtree 600 LEDs were one of the cheapest around when I originally bought them and I have to say, they are great value for money, especially if you compare their price to LEDs from some top brands. I’m not saying the high end LEDs are bad or that they are bad value for money, but for a Budget Filmmaker like myself, they are simply pout of reach. 

Now that I used my LEDs on couple of shoots I can go through a few more points not covered in original review.

Recently I shot a music video mostly just using these lights with a 1k generator. What is so good about such lights is the incredibly low power consumption. According to specs it only draws 30W maximum with luminous efficiency equivalent to 500W tungsten light, which is absolutely incredible. I was able to use this very nice compact generator (of course bough on eBay) to power 2 of these light + 2 small fluorescent lights and they were barely drawing any power at all. I was getting 1000W of light while only drawing 60W form a generator. Imagine how many lights you could use with just this small 1K Generator.  If I was using the common tungsten lights with this generator, the best I could get out of it would be 800w from a redhead, or 1K at very best. I’ve worked out how much I power I could potentially get out of LEDs drawing up to 1K from a generator. According to simple calculations, I could power 33 x 600LED lights, giving me 16.5K of light!!!! Crazy amount of light and somehow I just don’t believe 1K generator would hold up, although theoretically it should.  Even then, it should easily handle 10x600LED lights still giving 5K of power, so if you are in situation where you have a limited amount of power, of just investing into your own lighting and possibly a portable power source, LEDs and a small generator could be much cheaper, lighter, more portable and cheaper solution than using common tungsten lights which require loads of power, excluding a lightweight power source like a 1K generator.

Now couple of bad points I picked up about these and maybe a lot of similar LEDs, (all seem to be produced in the same way). The power cord/cable is too short when light is fully extended and the power adapter is left dangling in the air, weighting the cable down putting a lot of pressure at the point when you plug in the cable into the light. The socket on the light is not designed for heavy use and when moving the lights about cable quite easily pops out, which can be very annoying.  Two solutions to this problem are: plug in the cable and put tape around socket (not very secure), second is to tape the power adapter to the stand, so there pressure to the power socket on the actual light, the power adapter takes all the pulling around which is fine, because it has much better, heavy duty 3 pin plug connection. As I said, cables are too short, so each light needs it’s own extension cord to use properly. I think similar problems will be found in most budget LED lights, because most seem to be designed  in the same way.

As you can see in the video, my LEDs don’t have any barn doors, which is a shame, I miss them and would love to have them. At the time when I bought mine, Camtree were only making them without barn doors. Now all of them have barn doors, so you will not have such problem.

I do recommend these lights, a kit of 2 is a good start, although I’m already looking at possibility of buying a third one, so I’m currently doing a lot of research on different LEDs currently available.

I will be posting a big article soon, covering all the best choices currently available on eBay, so if you are thinking of investing into LEDs, make sure to check back soon

This is a great little arm, also became even cheaper since I bought mine, can now be found for under £20/$30.  Not as sturdy as some high end magic arms, but also not as expensive.  Good enough to hold your Monitor/LED light/ Audio Recorder/GoPro and even a larger camera as you can see in the video. I highly recommend this arm to other Budget Filmmakers!