Ikan Product Review

Hey guys! So, get this: I mentioned in a thread a while back that "I'm not a fan of Ikan hardware". Well, Ikan customer service recently contacted me after reading the comment and opened up a great dialogue and it turns out that I'm local to their main office. This last Friday I stopped by, met some of their staff and got some hands on with a lot of their brand new gear.

Ikan has been one of the companies known for offering low prices on their products, but the whole "you get what you pay for" thing applied as well. I'm still not affiliated at all and I haven't been paid for a review or anything but after the hands on and in an effort to offer more product reviews in general, it's only fair to share it because recently they really stepped up their game and are offering some really quality products at a really budget price.



First, I got to see their rail and support systems.

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I've used several different rail kits are and the first two things I look at are how their handles and shoulder pad feel. I got to shoot with their Flyweight DSLR system ($399) at an event Saturday and so hands-on I can say the grips stand up to other more expensive brands and the pad beats every other similarly priced rig I've used. It has a weight bag too which is a nice touch, allowing you to add or take away weight to get the perfect match for your camera.

The rails are sturdy and light weight, but they aren't threaded so you couldn't extend them in the future if you ever needed to. The big thumbscrews made adjustments easy, though at first I was confused because they did run into other pieces in some configurations preventing you from tightening all the way. Well, turns out they’re ratcheting thumbscrews so you get all the leverage of a big lever but can spin the head to the optimal position. That’s a pretty great idea, as some other rigs I’ve used are either pure alan screws meaning you need a tool, or the thumb screws are so small that you can’t get any torque. It's designed to take a 3rd party quick release plate, and if you try to use it without one it's a little tricky getting the camera on and off. Still, compared to some of the similarly priced rigs coming our of China and India this thing is great and in many ways stands up to some more expensive rigs out there.

I also got to use their DragonFly. Crazy inexpensive, it's a great way to get a little more control over a hand held DSLR and if I was purchasing I'd pick it over a FigRig or similar product any day. Only $150!

All in all, their new line of EV Series rig kits are pretty great and stand up to the competition. Definitely my pick in the sub-$1k rigs.


I also got to see their LED lighting and play with it some.
ikan-led.jpg


I wasn't really much of a fan of LED light for video until the hands on. Now, it's a little more expensive than comparable tungsten fixtures, but they can run for hours off battery if you need them to, produce zero heat and on many of the fixtures dial in color temperature without gels. Tungsten will still be more practical in some situations and throw farther, but if you shoot a lot in the field and don't already own a generator, the whole "run for hours off of batteries" thing is hard to beat.

My favorite fixtures they have and the ones I'm likely to purchase soon are the ID500 and ID508. $499 a piece, but stellar little fixtures. The iLED312 is pretty great too, a little smaller. If you ever find yourself with the cash on hand, the Multi-K XL is a DP's dream come true. With the touch of a button you can make it ANY color temperature you want, then add or subtract red, green or blue as needed. It is about $2k a fixture, but the amount of control you have is amazing.


Finally, what I was most excited to see, their monitors.
ikan-monitor.jpg


I bought an Ikan monitor about 4 years ago and it honestly was never good for much, but the latest batch they now offer are beautiful. On the small/intro side is the VL5 at $299 which I would absolutely recommend over a lilliput or other cheap monitor for your DSLR. Not only is it priced the same, but it has peaking AND blue gun so you can actually set the monitor to bars and know what you're looking at is accurate. I have a cheap LCD gathering dust because we can't use it! Using an external monitor disables our built-in DSLR monitor and because we can't accurately adjust the color on the cheap LCD we can't trust what we shoot on it. If you're looking for low budget, start with this!

Then the two monitors I'm most excited about have unique, killer features. The first is the D7w. It's not out yet, but I got to play with the prototype and for $1349 you get HD resolution on a 7" color accurate monitor, HDMI and HD-SDI input and loop through, false color and luminance, clipping and peaking. Oh, and you get a built in waveform, vectorscope and RGB parade. Granted, a lot of indie DP's haven't learned their scopes yet, but they need to. This is the best price for a monitor with these kinds of feature you're going to find. There's also a 5" version for a little less with the same features. The other monitor that's pretty killer is the MR7. Aimed at directors, not only does it have all the features of the D7w, it also has a built in digital recorder. The point to their thinking? The director can watch takes and replays at his/her whim while the camera department focuses on prepping the next shot. It's a fantastic idea, but it's also $2299. While it's out of a lot of budgets, it still comes in under other brands with similar features AND has the recorder.

So, this sounds like a giant Ikan commercial, sure. After the hands on I got though I wanted to share. They have some great products at indie prices and their quality is now up to par with some of the more expensive brands. They told me they know that it wasn't always quality, but they've really upped their game and are hoping to reach out to indie filmmakers like you and I. Good stuff!
 
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