eimo Professional DSLR shoulder mount rig with Matte Box for All DSLR Cameras and Video Camcorders

When I saw the Eimo DSLR rig, it looked quite standard in its parts, e.g. the 15mm tubing, solid handles, etc.. Of course, then I saw the price and I was amazed! After a lot of umming and ahhing, I decided to order it and see how things went. If it was junk, I could return it thanks to Amazon's great return policies.When I received it, everything was nicely packed, but, there were no instructions on how to put it together. Still, it's quite elementary once you start piecing it together, bit by bit, e.g. the shoulder joins to the main body, the handles also attach to the main body, etc. etc. And after 5-10 minutes, it was ready to go.I put my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera on the plate (non releasable plate) and adjusted it all to fit. Once it was solid, I started moving around and noticed a definite improvement over moving hand-held. A huge reduction in shake and a follow-focus to boot!Even better, I found the 1/4" female screw points on the main body and I was able to attach the entire rig to my monopod. And because the rig is pretty light, this made for a surprisingly solid fitting. It was at this point that I was growing to love the simplicity of this rig. However, not all is so well. And at this price point, you have to expect some drawbacks...First off, the thumb-screw points are frustratingly slack. What do I mean? Well, take the overhead bar (above the camera in the pictures), this bar could be useful for flying the entire rig quite low to the ground. But, even after tightening up the handle and that semi-circular bar, it was moving quite freely! The same goes for the main handles, and even the shoulder thumb-screw joint! It's also worth noting that because the rig is quite compact, these thumb-screw parts can be close to other joints, which sometimes makes turning them quite difficult.Even after tightening the thumb-screws as tight as my poor fingers would allow, it still had some give. At this point, I knew drastic measures were needed. So, I took a pair of pliers. plus some cloth and tightened it further. That did the trick. A bit too difficult considering this rig uses thumb-screws for every joint!Secondly, there's the follow-focus. And let's be honest, that's one of the big draws of a cheap rig like this. At first, all was well. But, being new to this kind of system, I messed up. I admit, this was totally my fault here - After trying to secure the focus ring (that comes in the kit) I attached the follow-focus and tested for a second time. However, this time, the focus ring kept slipping off the ring, causing some judder...Remember when I said this was my fault? Here's why - DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN THE CAMERA FOCUS RING!!When I overtightened the included ring, it stretched the soft plastic. And because it was stretched, it didn't quite fit the teeth of the follow-focus unit. So, once I relieved the stretch on this piece, everything fell into place. You have been warned!Thirdly, I can't seem to remove the shoulder arm from the main body. I completely removed the thumb-screw on this joint, but, for whatever reason, the arm will not detach. If I try to move it back and forth, the plastic at the end rubs against the metal. I wonder if this is a drawback of over-tightening these joints. Who knows...After all these issues, I still think it's a pretty good unit. The thumb-screw drawbacks can be a little frustrating, but once it's all tightened up, you shouldn't have to alter it any further. The stability gained from this rig is nothing short of awesome and the follow-focus is pretty damned useful! Plasticy, but absolutely fine. Finally, the matte box parts are quite cheap (bendy plastic), but functional. Although, they did send two identical side parts, i.e. two left side matte box parts - this means I need to get a replacement part. Hopefully, that'll be easy to do.Anyway, I hope this helps :)

This rig came well packaged, I kept the box for transit to and from shoots. The plastic lugs on the three barn door shades are flimsy, I have had to repair one so far, however, the remainder is well built and sturdy. I have used this rig tripod mounted, shoulder hand held, and suspended with counterweights with success. The follow focus cog mounted on the lens is a trifle fiddly to set up; it can foul on the shortening lens at near infinity whilst dropping out of cog range at closer distances. Obtaining that sweet spot requires some jiggery-pokery. With some longer focus lenses this is impossible if you want to use the zoom as the lens extends and contracts beyond the scope of the focus cogs provided.In short, you will have to set up things for a particular scene before setting the follow focus cogs. You could, of course, fit the cogs to the zoom barrel and use it for that, setting the focus either manually or with AF in the camera.Good value for money, slight fiddlyness factor is a negative.

I bought a lot of cheap gear when I started film-making, just to get started. Most was replaced with more expensive kit as my business grew. Now I'm moving to more DSLR filming I'm starting cheap again (not cheap cameras, lenses or mics, just rigs) and remembering the lessons I learned with my cheap tripod.When I read about stiff knobs (ooh, er!) and adjusters that came loose after 15 minutes, it sounded familiar. So before assembling this rig I loosened all the tightening knobs and put a drop of machine oil on each screw thread. I then tightened and slackened each knob several times, tightening a little more each time, before backing off and tightening again. This cleared the threads of black paint/powder coating, got the screws running smoothly and closed the clamps most of the way down.Assembling the rig based on the photos on Amazon is a bit weird because different sellers seem to put it together in different ways. I decided it doesn't matter that much and creating a configuration that feels best to you is more important. I still haven't worked out a way of fitting the shoulder support and 'c' handle together using the clamps supplied but I can fit them separately. If anybody has got them both on together, tell me how you did it.So now my £2000 Nikon with £1000 lens and £500 microphone are on a £130 rig and it all looks pretty good, actually. The matte box is just barn doors, as somebody else has said, but I can use them with my photo filter holder if required.

Overall this is a great sturdy item and with certain exceptions, it is relatively easy to assemble. Nonetheless there are two issues with this item. First the shoulder rest is awkward and really do not fit my shoulder well. It makes holding my camera difficult and uncomfortable since I cannot get the should rest to fit me correctly. The other issue are the instructions. Instructions I received did not include focus ring and left me scrambling for information on how to attach. My advice for the price it is worth it but do not expect it to meet all of your expectations.