C stand m-m-madness!

[Mark Sasahara]

Matthews are great. A bit expensive, but worth every penny. For C Stands, I wouldn't buy anything else. I have bought mostly Matth gear and I expect that, if my grandkids (I have to have kids first) are in the industry, they'll be using my old Matth gear. Probably the Norms gear too.

Norms are also great. I think they still have a 20% discount, if you ship C.O.D. I'm East coast, Yo? So, THAT's a DEAL! They are not a rip off, their gear is well made, I have a C stand, bought in '88 that's still good. Their flags and scrims are also top notch.

Avenger are also good, as Charles pointed out, they were making Arri's gear, before they were Avenger. Not a fan of their C Stands, but I'll likely be getting some of their Combo stands. I have a bunch of Arri/Manfrotto double and triple risers that I bought back in '90 that are still going strong.

Also Modern Studio, American Grip and B&M make good grip gear. And Cardellinis. Gotta have a couple of Cardellinis in your kit.

Bottom line, get good grip gear and treat it halfway decently and it will be around after you go to the great Camera/Grip/Electric Dept. in the sky. Just a little basic maintenance- clean, lube & adjust, will keep everything running smooth.

Note: I don't rent out my gear, so my gear doesn't leave the shop without me. I'm usually a pretty protective and meticulous about my gear. Anyone I catch throwing MY gear off the back of the truck gets a gobo upside the head, golf style. That's also part of the reason my gear has lasted so long, except for that one 40" arm with gobo head. I also have respect for other people's stuff too. I try and treat everything as if it were my own. Makes for less hassles and the producers like it when there are no damages to pay for.

[Josh Bass]

any thoughts on jtl c stands?

[Mark Sasahara]

My thoughts on JTL

[Josh Bass]

They. . .make. . .babies cry?

[Mark Sasahara]

And doves.

[Josh Bass]

Ok, so, I thought I'd rant about a recent/ongoing experience. So I bought a dynatran/amvona c stand from the ol' Ebay. It comes, everything seems fine, then I notice the legs sort of move around a little bit within those fittings, ok, I guess not that big of a deal. . .I'll just tighten the fittings. No, that doesn't work, they're already as tight as they get. Ok, so, whatever. Oh wait, look! One of the fittings is cracked!

So I get a replacement base. I'm attempting to put it on the column, and no matter how much I screw in the knob, the base just slides right off the column. So I examine closer, and what do I find? Well, the "screw hole" the knob fits through on the leg fitting and the one on the cylindrical piece of metal that goes through the center of the base aren't lined up, which means you can't screw the base to the column! At this point, I might have actually said out loud "are you kidding me?". Furthermore, I couldn't MAKE the holes lined up, it's like they were machined wrong. So I decided to put the non-cracked fitting from the corresponding leg on the new base where the cracked one was on the old base. Seemed much easier. Ah, but it was on the middle leg, which, when disassembled, causes the top and bottom legs to slide closer to each other, making it seemingly impossible to put the middle leg back on without first removing the top one. So. . .I screwed with it for a while, then decided it was time to quite for the night.

So Amvona/Dynatran. Stop hiring blind employees. I'm not sure whether I should keep screwing with this or just send the whole thing back. I mean, I know what I SHOULD do on principle, but principle aside, I mean.

[Mark Sasahara]

You could take it apart, completely, and make some kind of funky sculpture out of it.

Sorry that it didn't work out.

[John Hartney]

I'd reccomend you stay with Matthews or Avengers... I use both and haven't had any problem with either. They take a daily beating and serve for many years... Worth a few bucks extra.

[Richard Veil]

But I like Avenger detachable base c-stands.
I like the superclamps articulated and variable arms.
I like the A475B convertable boom...
I like Chimeras 8000 kit but I digress.
Matthews is good. American is real good and very nice
Avenger is more progressive in some ways and you can always ask for Ken if you have a real problem and run into a bogen drone. that is ken E.

Originally Posted by Charles Papert

Avengers are good gear, they used to be the Arri house brand. Matthews are of course the old school industry standard. Both are built solidly and will last.

[Josh Bass]

So I'm finding.

It seems I finally put my c stand back together. In addition to other problems mentioned, it would seem the fitting with the screw hole on the top leg was machined correctly , as it would not fit in to the other fittings when the screw was in, and the screw holes aligned. So I switched it with the one from the other base, and I now I have a complete c stand. It's quite stiff when you try to open it (maybe I tightened something too much?), but it seems to work.

I shall scour various places for brand names, from now on. I still refuse to pay $200 a stand. Here's to hoping a matthews/american/norms/avenger shows up on ebay/craigslist for 80 bucks or something.

[John Hartney]

I bought my first Avenger C-stand from an ebay seller about 5 years ago for $80.00. It is the model A225S which has the removable base, which Richard mentions above. It came with the boom arm and grip head.

Older Matthews were my stock to that point, and since all the new additions have been Avengers. Having the option to take off the base makes them easier to transport, unless you have a dedicated grip truck. Two will fit easily into a long pelican case or such along with heads and poles. Look on www.cases4less.com for good prices on transport cases when the time comes. And good luck.