Mobile reporting platform frame evalution: The pre-evaluation
It’s evaluation time for the three platform frames. I’ve been looking forward to this, since it seems like there’s not a perfect product on the market.
Here’s a family picture of what’s getting evaluated:
The first test environment will be a college men’s basketball game. Test machine will be an 16GB iPad3. I’ll shoot a quarter of stills and videos with each platform. Videos will be shot with FiLMiC Pro, photos with Camera+. I’ll shoot some combination of handheld, tripod and monopod.
Each pad will get one quarter of shooting, and then I’ll shoot one quarter with a Nikon D7000 DSLR for contrast and probably some iPhone5 shots taken with a monopod and a Joby GripTight mount.
Testing disclosure: Both iOgrapher and Padcaster sent frames to me, gratis, for evaluation.
1st quarter: DSLR + iPhone
2nd quarter: Makayama Movie Mount
Pre-eval impressions: It’s nice and lightweight, but it feels like cheap plastic and I’ve had a problem with tablets falling out of the frame before. We’ll see how that goes. Several cold shoes for mounting stuff. The full-size iPad frame has a sliding lens attachment so you can go back and forth more easily between the native lens and a 37mm lens (the mini does not have that capability).
Pre-eval impressions: The thing’s a tank. It’s aluminum and high-grade rubber. The iPad fits snugly inside and it has lots of holes for mounting stuff. It has no cold shoes. It comes with the Lenscaster lens adapter to use other lenses, but the adapter isn’t stepped-down to the common 37mm size used for mobile platforms.
Pre-eval impressions: Very light, but also feels like cheap plastic. Lots of cold shoes. The handles on the side are interesting. Has an integrated mount for a screw-in 37mm lens.