What are these hand grips that improve camera work?

they can be found on cavision's website.

they are very good for giving you more control. much like the grips by cinetech on the watchdog. The ones that I bought were really cost effective (around $90) and mount onto the 15mm carbonfibre support rails that mattebox mounts onto. I also have a support to take the weight of my zoom through wideangle adapter off of the lens mount (it's a heavy hunk of glass).

I personally prefer the added weight, feels more like a film 35mm camera and with the handgrips, gives me a lot more cinematic style of shooting than a lightweight handheld camera.

This is also why I still shoot most of my stuff with an XL-1... formfactor is very important to me, and directly related to how I manipulate the framing of my shots. I also have a GL-1 at my disposal, but the small size and lack of shoulder supports etc make it good as a second coverage cam on a tripod or jib only.

I also saw on cavisions site a cool minirail support system for the GL-1 that has a single handle on the bottom, kind of like an old kodak super8mm camera. As some of us know, if you stick a weight on the bottom of the handle, you get some surprisingly stable shots that way (same idea behind a steadycam/steadystick).

Adrian van der Park
VFX technical director
Rainmaker Digital Pictures
Vancouver, BC

Can you mount those grips without a matte box on an XL1s?

yup. just need the rails and mount plate. I don't know the exact price, but it should be less than US$300 for a rails and grips combo. you can email them for a price sheet. talk to john anthony.

Adrian

the rails are a pretty standardzed piece of equipment. Only thing that'll change when you go to a different camera is the mount plate ($40 part).

there are a lot of accessories out there for the 15mm rod system. cinetech and stuff at XL-1.com use 15mm rods.

And you can still control the zoom rocker and focus with the rails on?