Smallrig brings beauty to efficiency : the black 15mm rod

The last item you are investing it is most of the time the rod. To be honest, I never be found of the silver look and switched to carbon fiber also to avoid the weight.

Unfortunately, the metal rods are most of the time the only way to go to get some rig design sturdy enough for your purpose. I have tried the super expensive Redrockmicro or the more affordable Skier and got with some rig with a lot of cheap Chinese one.

Most of the time, the price is not something you want to spend on just some “tube” but I stick the Skier one for a long time and they really deserve my attention. I use the carbon one for the short link and the longer one in metal for the heavy support.
Few weeks ago, Smallrig team contacted me to send me their new product, the 1053 and 1049; below are my thoughts using them on some rig combination.
First, the box you will received them will immediately surprised you. Its’ now coming on a classy box make it immediately getting away with some simple piece of metal.

Opening it, the surprise continues; They are superb black anodizing finish which is quite unique to my knowledge. I have tried to see if it was easy to scratch by a regular use, and anything happen. Locking many rig did not show any mark. I work to setup a great rig and check if it will twist as the carbone one’s: nothing wrong happened.
Last, the logo laser engraved bring even more professional look to your rig; for sure, people will ask you where these rod come from. Black is beautiful is clearly the new trend.
On a technical aspect, it’s very easy to slide your accessories as it will be with the most expensive branded one but the locking is very firm. A lot of anodizing process let a slide greasy feeling and I don’t feel safe to put a expensive camera on it, these one does not.
The weight is below the Skier one, it’s hard to tell how study they are but it should be able to handle a lot compare to the carbon fiber one. You need metal when you don’t need any twist or bend, and I was not able to get this happen even using the longest one as a arm support.

The weight is just twice the carbon but clearly less than the metal one from Skier.
Two carbon rods goes at 66g (for 30 cm long ), The Smallrig at 138g (for 30 cm long ) and the Skier 255g (for 35cm long)

My conclusion is that Smallrig definitely have a unique black design 15mm rod. This is not the piece of gear you will first be thinking of, but as they are plenty of other amazing product, make sure to visit the rod page when you will buy other accessories from them, it will be a nice idea to update for something dark and discreet!

Price-wise; it’s only 14 USD, (2018)

Below is a almost 100% smallRig rig. It works well with a Canon C300 or C100 EOS camera.

(The wooden hand-grip is a diy from my workshop, contact me if you are interested), I also have upgraded to a better shoulder mount system since.