DSLR RIG REVIEW

by Sebastian WöberJanuary 23^rd, 2010

Vocas:

Vocas is a company from the Netherlands. Their slogan is, “ultimate lightweight management” and they are very much into lightweight design, and high quality. We like this concept since lightweight design, and high quality, are two important aspects DSLR shooting.
Here we reviewed:

• Vocas DSLR 15mm Rail Support (baseplate, rods, tripod platform)
• Vocas MFC-1 Universal Follow Focus Kit w/Flex Gear Ring
• Vocas MB 210 Compact Matte Box (+ bars adapter)

Similar to the Redrock system, Vocas’ consists of two independent parts that can be combined. One that serves as a camera base and the other that holds your quick release plate, to be able to put the whole thing on a tripod.

It’s cool when those things are separated, because you can move your tripod platform around without changing the position of your camera base plate, thus allowing better balance of the rig on a tripod.

The downside of the Vocas version, is that you’ll have to take your whole setup off the rails whenever you want to reposition your platform. You also have two additional mounting points on the rails that take up more space, which you sometimes don’t have. We see the point of an external tripod platform, but we prefer the combined solutions provided with the Arri, Chrosziel, or Genus base plates.

You will have to close two more of those clips on the external tripod platform (the Vocas rig uses clips instead of screws to lock things to the rails). But since the clips are the fastest way we’ve seen to lock anything to a rail, this isn’t such a big deal.
Remember how we praised the Arri screws? Well we like these Vocas clips even more. They’re a perfect way to securely, and quickly lock everything down. We will talk more about these clips, when we’re reviewing the handheld stuff.