Smallrig VCT Shoulder plate for UM/UMP

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Looks nice Paul, hope it works out.
Cheers

Just got it in yesterday. Much more flexible then the original should plate. It's a huge improvement.

I finally got this shoulder plate too, after their first one was a total mechanical design failure. I got it for free as- after my complaint about the first one and lots of feedback for the new one - I was promised a free sample. I had to explain them how VCT plates really work.

Unfortunately the new one is a design failure too. I had education as a mechanical engineer I can say with confidence that SmallRig's designer have no clue what they are doing.

Basically this new shoulder plate is a complete ripoff of the Zacuto VCT Pro Universal baseplate:


It looks like but is not built with the same knowledge of mechanics.

1) The front clamping part for the rods cannot withstand if you apply a little bit of inwards pressure onto your rods and bends heavily - they could have easily avoided that if they knew what they are doing.

2) Some their clamps provide too little surface friction and therefor not enough grip.

3) The worst: they got the VCT plate wrong - again! The front part of the v-lock system has the wrong width on the outside: it measures 66.1 mm but the standard VCT plate has 66 mm.
It is at least 0.4 mm too thick and DOES NOT fit into a VCT plate. For example the Blackmagic shoulder mount plate has a width of 64 mm!

If you put the SmallRig VCT shoulder plate onto a VCT plate it sits ON the guides instead of IN the guides.

I finally got this shoulder plate too, after their first one was a total mechanical design failure. I got it for free as- after my complaint about the first one and lots of feedback for the new one - I was promised a free sample. I had to explain them how VCT plates really work.

Unfortunately the new one is a design failure too. I had education as a mechanical engineer I can say with confidence that SmallRig's designer have no clue what they are doing.

Basically this new shoulder plate is a complete ripoff of the Zacuto VCT Pro Universal baseplate:


It looks like but is not built with the same knowledge of mechanics.

1) The front clamping part for the rods cannot withstand if you apply a little bit of inwards pressure onto your rods and bends heavily - they could have easily avoided that if they knew what they are doing.

2) Some their clamps provide too little surface friction and therefor not enough grip.

3) The worst: they got the VCT plate wrong - again! The front part of the v-lock system has the wrong width on the outside: it measures 66.1 mm but the standard VCT plate has 66 mm.
It is at least 0.4 mm too thick and DOES NOT fit into a VCT plate. For example the Blackmagic shoulder mount plate has a width of 64 mm!

If you put the SmallRig VCT shoulder plate onto a VCT plate it sits ON the guides instead of IN the guides.

oh wow.. That's a bummer. Was really looking into the 1954. Not sure if i should get it now then..

Yikes, I got this on pre order too, to use with my Sony PMW-F3

I had better double check it works with my VCT plate now!

Bit of a bump to this thread - what's the forum wisdom on a shoulder plate that fits VCT-14 plates?

Budget isn't too much of a concern - mainly looking for something comfortable with a low profile. I've seen 8SInn, Zacuto, Smallrig, Shape, Tilta etc. At the moment I'm erring towards the TILTA BS-T95.

Any others and particularly any of you with real-world experience of them? I've read poor reviews about Smallrig (which is a shame as I love their cages and other accessories which have done me very well over the years on other cameras).

In the long run I'm hoping to get something like the Tilta Nucleus M on dual hand grips so I can control focus, start/stop and ideally something like magnify function or false colour/zebras etc. In the short term, a VCT-14 shoulder pad with 2 rosette mounts is my next purchase. Am all ears.

Thanks

I have now the shoulder plate from 8sinn and it works quite well.

Thanks Robert for the heads up on the 8Sinn plate, it looks grand. Going to order one also.
Cheers