Today's video is all about magic arms.
Well, these ones specifically from iFootage,
because I am in love with these, they are excellent,
and I can finally replace those SmallRig ones
that have been bugging me for years.
Let's get undone.
[offbeat music] ♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy. ♪
What's happening everybody? I'm Gerald Undone
and I'm not far sighted,
I just have a long minimum focusing distance.
OK, disclosure, iFootage sent me all of these things
to review for this video.
But I actually already have my own older versions of these
because I've actually been using these for several months,
and I've been kind of putting them in some videos,
little easter eggs, but never really talking about them.
Some comments have asked me,
"What was that arm you're using there?"
They're finally launching them now, so I can finally
talk about them. I've been using them for months.
I really like them. That's the reason I was telling you that.
But these ones that I'm going to be showing you today,
were all sent to me from by iFootage for free.
But this video is not sponsored by iFootage,
but it is sponsored by Storyblocks.
Also, this video, if you can't tell already,
is unscripted because I thought it'd be fun
just to talk about them off the cuff so you could see
how excited I am about them, because otherwise, I mean,
a magic arm video might be kind of boring, right?
OK, there's four arm products
and then one big arm and the other one.
So the prices vary on them.
So let's start with-- I'm going to start with the one
that I'm most excited about, which is this one.
This is the MA 3-4 from iFootage.
They're all from iFootage.
And if you guys watch my videos, you know
that I generally really like iFootage products.
I find them to be exceptionally high quality,
just like the Monopod that I've been talking about
for a couple of years now. This is the same great quality.
And these little guys that come in the box
are really what makes this set so awesome.
There have been other friction arms in the past that have used
some kind of quick release system, but usually
they require you to bolt a piece on.
In fact, Kondor Blue, a brand that I really like,
has something like that where you sort of screw on
quick releases and then your friction arms can go into them.
This is probably the most elegant solution
yet for that system.
And if I loosen this off, you can see the teeth here
are very pronounced and do a really good job
of gripping quite tightly.
And they have a weight limit on these things,
you know, like a few kilos or whatever.
But really... it is nearly impossible to get them
to budge, so that's awesome.
And then just like any other friction arm, you know,
the top and bottom parts also rotate
and you can clamp those down. But what's great
is that you can see that they have those buckles,
the same ones that I said that I really liked about Monopod.
And they latch onto what goes inside here, which is these.
So this is a 3/8's and inside is a quarter 20.
And then these are ARRI locating pins.
And then at the bottom is there's three little holes here
that are attached to this part that you can use to tighten it.
But those three holes coincide with pegs recessed inside there.
And so you drop this in and then those buckles
secure the whole thing in place.
And this is extremely solid.
I've tested it on quite a few different devices
and it's never once sagged or let go or anything.
And the best part is compared to some of the cheaper ones
out there, like I complain about the SmallRigs all the time,
is the SmallRigs use rather than locating pins
and having this method of latching them down,
they just you tighten them on. Now, these are the cheaper ones.
I'll be honest. This is SmallRig's, cheaper ones.
These are only like, I don't know, $10 to $15 USD.
And the iFootage ones are more expensive.
But if you've ever used these, you know what happens,
is that they use these anti-slip rubber things here
and they eventually fall off because the glue gets loose.
This is my own glue I've added to try and hold them on.
It's very annoying. These are very annoying.
And they do tend to slip because if we compare teeth,
can you even see the teeth on the SmallRig one
there compared to the ones that I showed you
on the iFootage that are super pronounced?
So that's the main issue that I have with these, is they slip
and these little rubber things aren't very good.
But these we can now get into sort of the whole ecosystem
with them because once you screw those on,
you can hot swap them as well. So if this was attached to
a camera or something else I'm going to get into,
then you can just take this one off.
There's a quick release button right here that you can press
and then pull them out. And then you could then
stick this on the next thing or stick it on something else.
And three of their devices all use that system,
which I'm really happy with.
So, this is MA 3-4 meaning that's the size of it
because they have a larger one as well.
Pricing on this one, by the way, is $94.
So it is not cheap.
For comparison sake, these ones, like I said, only $10 to $15.
But if you get them with gadgets, they range anywhere
from $30 to $60 and you should never be paying
$30, $40, $50 for these SmallRig ones
because they're just not good.
And if you do, you're going to be disappointed.
$94 for this one is expensive, I'll admit that.
But I feel like it's one of those ones where you're
gonna buy it once and that's the end of it.
Lifetime, I would assume that it's going to last you.
I will be providing a discount for people
if they want to order through my links below,
which are affiliated links.
You get 5% off if you use the code "undone" at checkout.
And there are stores for both US and EU.
People have asked me about this iFootage stuff before,
what to do if you're Canadian. Right now, because I'm Canadian
as well, you have to order from the US store,
which means you're going to be paying in USD
and it will take a little bit longer to ship.
But iFootage told me that they are working on getting better
Canadian distribution, they just don't have it currently.
And then for the EU, it's a different store
with different European prices and that kind of thing.
OK, so they also have a larger one.
I'm not going to go through a full demo with every one
of them because you get the point of it.
But this is the MA 5-6.
And as you can see, it just-- it's a bigger version,
basically, but you get the exact same accessories
with it in terms of size.
It extends about this much.
Now, in each one of these kits, there's also this extra
little cold shoe bit that comes with it.
So you can then, you can see here, you can attach
the locating pins to this cold shoe part.
And that's what the little wingnut-looking thing on this
side is for, is to let you tighten that down
and then you can slide this into the cold shoe of your camera
and then you can spin this part down like that.
For a little demo, too, obviously,
the locating pins are tracked so you can stick it in.
I'm just gonna use this cheese plate here.
And then tighten it down with this wingnut part on top
and you can get it really secure.
And then now this is attached.
And then you would take this part and just latch it down
there and then close the clamp and then, once again.
I don't know why you'd have a floating cheese plate
on it, but this is just for demonstration once again.
It's-- it's on there.
OK, now there's one more product of this line,
and then I want to show you some of the more economical ones.
So that large one, the 5-6, is $114.
So, again, these are the super premium ones
and they're very expensive.
Now, something else I've been using recently
in some of my videos that I like that again
you might have seen is this one, which is called the SA 32,
which I think the idea behind this is that it's meant
to be kind of like a support for using sliders.
On one end, it has a really nice super clamp
and again, these are stronger than the ones that you would get
from SmallRig or whatever, they're fantastic.
And then on the other end, it's got that exact same
head that we were just talking about.
But you can extend this one. So if you release this buckle
here, then it actually extends at this length.
Like I said, the reason why I think it's meant to be
a little bit of like a slider support
is that you could take this one as a ball head on it here
and you could attach it to the leg of a tripod,
and then you could take this one
and put it into the other end of a slider.
And it kind of acts like a brace for your tripod.
That's probably like a smart use for it.
But because it's just got a grip on it,
you can literally attach it to anything.
The clamp part here is attached with the same style head
as everything else, so you could take this out and swap it,
or you could stick one of these on one of the magic arms,
like it's all interchangeable, like I said.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to bite it
on to the C-stand that I have right over here.
Then there's a little ball head thing here that you can loosen.
And these are all like, again, really, really good materials.
I believe they're all anodized aluminum.
They feel really strong. They feel great,
just like anything else from iFootage I've used before.
There's another little ball head here, you know, you could
pivot what you want it and the whole thing has this
telescopic action, and then you could attach whatever you wanted.
Sometimes I've been attaching lights here and then I use them
to kind of suspend lights in different ways.
I think that's probably the thing I've been using it
for the most. But the clamp is really strong.
And really everything about it is very, very strong.
So that's that's, just trying to make this a quick little
video because you guys get it: they're clamps and arms
and you tighten them and they hold things.
All you really need to know is that these hold things better
than anything else holds things and they're built better than
the other ones are built better.
And you have to pay a premium price
to get that and not worry about it.
And after going through, I literally have a stack of
these SmallRig ones in there and I refuse to use them anymore.
I would rather pay two or three times the price
and not have to fuss with them.
OK, now that big thing that SA 32, that arm is $134
which is actually a pretty good price
if you consider that this one is $114.
Now the next two, which have a small and a large size
as well, are $44 and $64, respectively.
And they're probably more closely matched to the SmallRig
ones in the sense that they don't have
all the fancy removable heads and those extra bits.
So this one here is the LT.
These two products are called the LT.
This one is the LT 2-3.5
and then the other one's bigger.
I'll show you both though. So this one's a lot more simple.
Just a big lock, and for each end,
they've got something different.
This one has a 1/4-20 on the end
and it's got a little dial that you can spin that tightens
it down, which again, is easier-- and for the grip,
rather than using that piece of rubber glued
on like the SmallRig one, this one has sort of like
an O-ring inside here, which works surprisingly well.
On the other end, there's just a cold shoe attached
to this one, but it has the benefit
of having those same really pronounced teeth.
So you're going to get the same level of rigidness
and non slippage when you...
lock it down, so they're really good,
this one's small and I think this is obviously meant
to go on a camera directly or something with a cold shoe.
So a lot cheaper. Like I said, this was $44,
but it still is much better than the small rig one
if you just want something simple like that.
And then lastly, we have the LT 4-5.5.
I'm assuming those numbers are referring
to the the size of the arms.
Same thing in these ones, you just get the arm
and this is the the 4-5.5.
On the one end, same thing, it's got a little O-ring.
And if the O-ring happens to be sticking up like this one is
when you get them sent to you, unlike the SmallRig ones,
these aren't glued down. So you can just push them in
with your thumb and then they're good to go and they can be
swapped out if you need to. And then again, on the other end
is the cold shoe for your camera, whatever.
But on both of these, the LT ones, you can also unscrew this
part if you wanted to and reveal another 1/4-20 underneath.
So you have a little bit of versatility there.
So, yeah, that's them. Basically, the common thread
here is that they're all made from great materials,
anodized aluminum. They have those really strong teeth.
The tightener here is really nice to use and if you've used
anything from iFootage before, like they're tripods
and they're monopods, whatever, you know what to expect.
Really high quality. They just come at a cost premium.
So if you're somebody like me who's been annoyed with your
friction arms or magic arms in the past and you want to just
sort of buy one or two and then not have to worry
about them again, these are the products for you.
And again, if you wanna pick one up for yourself,
I will be putting an affiliate link in the description.
Use the code "undone" at checkout.
Whether the EU store or the US store, and Canadians can order
from the US store and you'll get 5% off, and those links
are affiliated if I didn't say that already.
Anyway, that's it. Thanks again to iFootage
for sending these over. I'm always happy to talk
about their products on this channel and recommend them
to you guys because I think they are excellent products
and I've been impressed with pretty much everything
they've sent me so far including these new ones here.
I should also thank Storyblocks for sponsoring this video.
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That's gonna be it for me. I hope you found this video
entertaining or at least helpful and if you did,
make sure you leave the old thumbs up
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But if you did not find this video helpful
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Alright, I'm done.