- Okay, so this is my long-time review
of the Sachtler flowtech tripod legs and Ace head.
(electronics beeping)
As you can see here from the wear and tear on this tripod,
I am not just gonna baby any of these.
I'm really working with them.
I'm taking them out all the time,
I'm throwing them in the back of my truck,
I'm putting them on my shoulder, I'm hiking into places,
I'm typically out shooting three or four times a week
throughout the whole year.
So these are things that would come out with me a lot.
So when I say long-time review,
I mean a year and about six months or so,
I got this February,
2018, just when this came out or just after these came out.
And I was very excited to try out these sticks, this tripod
as I'd been a long time user of the Miller SOLOs.
And Miller SOLOs are kinda known to be used a lot
in the documentary and branded content,
that style of filmmaking
because they were very quick to use,
you could bring the legs down
and you could also get away with the same set of legs,
the sticks, the tripod, the legs of the units
that you could get really low and really high, very quickly.
It kinda replaced if you were traveling by yourself
or doing stuff with a small crew
needing to have a Hi-Hat with you,
which is a funny name for a really small tripod.
Kinda give me the best of all worlds
and allowing you to get really high and really low.
Now, when I saw these come out,
there was a few things I saw about them.
There was...
The things about how it kinda goes on your shoulder
and how it kinda fits in your shoulder
when you're traveling and carrying your camera
with using the way that they've done the legs.
And this is really nice.
This is a great feature of these tripods.
The other big selling point where these things
are these little flaps here,
these kinda leavers for bringing your legs down.
These are a very cool way of quickly allowing you
to get the height of your camera up and down
and having it at the height of your camera.
That's a lot of time, is the issue,
when you are operating on your own,
you don't have other people with you.
If you have a heavier camera on
or even a regular weight camera or not a regular weight,
but a lighter weight camera on your tripod,
sometimes, if you're adjusting the height up and down a lot,
it becomes a big pain
if you're undoing all these different leavers,
you're twisting up different parts
of the legs to get it there,
and especially if you're trying to lift things yourself.
This has been a huge saver for me on many occasions.
It's just the speed of this. So these are great.
There is limitations and issues
because of the way it's designed
and the way that the leg come out,
it has a certain weight capacity.
So if I a very heavy camera on it
and I'm pushing down on it,
or if I'm pushing down on it myself,
if I have a slider on here and stuff,
I've had problems with the leg slipping.
So they, they start to push in.
You can see that doing that there.
Now they're rated for a certain weight.
So this is normal.
This, just being able to push that leg down,
you can tighten it up.
There's some things that I have a link
in the description below that Sachtler has that
on how to tighten up these parts of the legs
to make them a bit stiffer,
but you'll never get it so you can completely lock it.
There'll always be some give to it.
And that's kinda one of the downsides
you're getting with this.
But knowing that, going to things
and going into different shoots,
knowing that that could be an issue,
I might choose to pick and bring a different set of tripods,
a different set of sticks
that maybe can hold a heavier weight.
Where these have been extremely great for me
is when I'm hiking into a location.
When I am doing a bunch of stuff,
shooting myself on Beaumont on Ski Hill,
they're light, these are very light sticks.
I can move very quick with them
and I can still had no problems getting my Sony FS7
and my FX9 on this thing and having it balanced really well.
Part of that goes down to, which is talking to you guys
in another video about tripod heads
and the importance of tripod heads,
and how do you pick different tripod heads.
So on this tripod, I have the, which was a kit with this.
It's the Sachtler Ace.
It's not a super robust head, 10 pounds or so,
you're kinda maxing out, I think on it,
It's decent, I mean, I've used it
because it's very light as well,
but if I am traveling and wanna use this,
I'll put on a heavier head.
This is a 75-mil bowl version.
So the coming off of here,
the bowl is a part here in the bottom
where the head mounts onto it.
So there's kinda traditionally in the film world,
you have different sizes of bowls.
So you can get a 100-mil bow and a 75-mil bowl.
Those are kinda two of the standards
and there's some different tripod mount for heads,
but those are kinda two big standards.
But what I would do in some scenarios
is change out to my Miller.
This is a Miller SOLO or the DS20 head,
that's a much rated for a lot heavier camera on here,
but still a 75-mil bowl on it.
And I can still mount this
and fit this onto the flowtech leg.
So if you're looking at investing
into these flowtech sticks,
you can buy these with different heads.
You could use any head that has a 75-mil bowl,
you could put on there.
So if you have a decent Manfrotto head
that you wanna put on these sticks, you can do that.
There are a great packages when you buy these
with a head as well, but check those out,
check out the weight and what you're doing
with your weight of your rig
and what you're gonna be primarily using on it.
So some other kinda technical little things
with these legs,
I have had some issues when I'm carrying it on my shoulder,
especially in the winter times
when I have a lot of jackets on, other things.
These things getting caught on my shoulder
and the legs coming out as I'm walking.
I've had that happen a few times,
not really a huge deal, not a deal breaker for these things,
but definitely some things that have happened a few times,
I did lose two of these feet
and I had to replace these feet and they're not cheap.
They seem to be come off pretty easily.
So to wrap up my kinda overview
and my review of these sticks,
of these tripod, of these legs, with the flowtech,
a lot of people making claims
that this is the best tripod ever made.
I would not say that.
I would say this is great for a lot of my needs
and does a lot of great jobs,
but I don't think this is groundbreaking
and, you know, changing the whole world of filmmaking
and not everybody should get these.
These will fit the purpose for certain applications,
for certain people, for certain styles of shooting.
a lot of run-and-gun guys,
a lot of people doing stuff like I'm doing
where you're going out as a one-man band,
or maybe a small crew, these can be great.
But as I spoke about the weight issue
with these on how much weight you can put
on the actual legs themselves.
I couldn't attach,
or wouldn't wanna attach a jib to on this.
Some of my other legs I have,
I can be going to a location and be putting a jib on it
and have enough weight that I can do that with the leg.
So there's some limitations with these.
I would still say if I was to buy these again,
I would buy them again because they've been very useful
in a lot of situations,
but they're not the best tripod of all time.
I still haven't found that yet.
I don't think there really is,
like the best camera of all time.
It's all what you're using and for what jobs are using
and what works best for you.
So let me know, guys, in the comments,
are you thinking about purchasing the flowtech?
Do you have a set of these flowtech sticks
and what are your thoughts on them?
Have you had any issues with them?
We'll see you guys on the next video.