Beast Grip Pro

At long last I got myself a Beast Grip Pro.

This is in my mind the gold standard of iPhone or mobile phone videography when grips are concerned.  They also offer custom cage that's specific to phone models or iPhone models, i.e. if you upgrade your iPhone, chances are you need to upgrade your cage.  The only advantage I can think of is a much customed fit when it comes to attaching optics.  The cage is cut to fit exactly over the lens so there is no guess work or any adjustment to make sure lens alignment is right.  Of course the drawback is the cage can be obsolete when you need another model of the latest and greatest iPhone.

The beast grip pro on the other hand is quite adjustable, at the expense that you need to align the lens mount when attaching optics and you may or may not knock the attachment out of alignment in use.  The latest iteration of the grip has better clamps to accommodate smaller or bigger phones to make sure a snug fit.  The lens opening has another insert to take into account of dual camera phones.  I own a cinema mount grip and its 37mm threaded wide angle/macro lens adapter.  It fits right on the beast grip as well.  The advantage is quite obvious.  The cinema mount I own (bought few years back) is kind of sloppy when compared to the beast grip.  There is just more play to all the adjustments, the alignment can go out of place quite easily and the screwed down clamp isn't all that smooth.  The beast grip is definitely a win but then it costs I think at least twice as much if memory serves me well.  Also I think Beast Grip years ago won the case against Cinema mount Grip and the latter could no longer sell the product in the US (ops, just checked Amazon, they are selling in the US, so I don't know, legal stuff what do I know right?).

Right now I just use my iPhone SE with the BGP.  I moved the lower clamp one notch up so it's more snug when clamped down.  It involves a hex key and two screws so it's not exactly convenient to change phone say swapping out the iPhone SE for the bigger iPhone 8 Plus.

Before I bought it I always wonder how snug the clamps are, now I know, it's reasonably snug so that normal touching of the iPhone won't screw up the alignment.  But then again, it will never be a better fit than a customed Beast Cage for a particular model of iPhone.  Another advantage is the BGP is it does provide an actual grip on the right hand side.  For the cage, if you need a grip you really need to buy another add-on in order to have a grip.  The cage only provides an interface so one can attach optics, mic, light and other accessories but it's not really a grip per se.  Like I said before, however, attaching optics or optical adapter should be much easier and accurate for a cage.

Beast Grip sells the BGP and a few limited products on eBay at 15% off.  Its official website with some other promo offers 10% off.  So for BGP, eBay is the way to go.

Nikon 20-35 f/2.8

It still pains me that the lens is broken and can't be repaired because the necessary parts aren't available anymore and even if they are I suspect it makes more sense to buy another copy as the repair costs at least an upward of $300 plus dollars, which is what an "ugly" copy costs on eBay.  Of course by repairing you save the lens.

This is my excuse to buy some nerdy, dad harness so as to hold my gears on my shoulder securely.  It's going to look ridiculous but hopefully my camera won't be sliding down my shoulder anymore.

I swear the camera only slid down from my shoulder and along the way, I was able to absorb part of the fall with my hand and leg ...  But still bad enough to crack the filter and worse ruined the focus and zoom mechanisms all together.  I think I paid more than $600 for it from KEH years ago when I shot a dinner party.

Zero Halliburton

I try to find more information about the cases.  But there isn't much to be found.  Then again, if you just try a bit harder you may be able to find something to connect the dots.

I own a couple of Halliburton cases, they are called camera cases.  And since they have Zero as part of the name so they aren't exactly old or prior to the acquisition by the Zero Japanese company.  I am just writing from memory which isn't very good.(Edit:  This proves my memory is really unreliable.  The Japanese company that bought Zero Halliburton is called ACE and it was done in 2006.  ZERO bought Halliburton in 1952)

You would think that a company with this legacy would have more information about old models and their dimensions and what accessories go with them.  Alas, that isn't really the case.  When I first got those cases a few years back, I searched online and I found the Zero Halliburton website just terrible, I'm sure I wrote about that back then.

Halliburton is kind of falling out of flavor I think.  If people want aluminum cases, they might opt for Rimowa.  If people really want to carry the load they opt for Pelican.  Where does it leave for Halliburton, I don't know.

I tried again to find some information on the cases.

This is from Pop Photography 1981.

So my cases are 105 and 111.  At least I now got the model numbers right I think.

I always want to find foam and inserts for them.  And now I find some lead.  Though I have to say foam is not really ideal as they tend to disintegrate in a nasty way.  Hopefully the dividers last.  I barely found one store that sell new old stock for the cases ...