So after doing a bunch of research on carbon booms, getting some quotes done from known sources and others that I know of, I decided to get the Car Camera Rig 19' carbon boom. All the quotes for custom made rigs were several hundred dollars more than the cost of the Car Camera Rig system. I could have bought all the pieces myself and made it for cheaper, but I was having a hard time finding ferrules that were tight enough in tolerance to where there wouldn't be any slack, and I don't poses the knowledge or skills to custom make my own. So I thought I'd do a quick and dirty review on the boom, since I wasn't finding any information outside of www.carcamerarig.com on the booms itself.
Truth be told, if I had the time I would have made a boom out of aluminum tubing for MUCH less and only had to sacrifice a little in weight. If you have the time and knowledge/skills to make an aluminum boom, do it.
Nerd stuff:
The kit comes with 4 tubes, 3 with ferrules and 1 without. The ferruled tubes are each 67" long and the non ferruled tube is 59". The tubing OD is 2.137" and the ID is 1.958", the side wall is .084". The ferrule is 7.875" long, and the OD is 1.966", ID is 1.807", with a .075" side wall. From all the research I did, the tubes you can buy off the shelf from are only .060" sidewalls. Each ferruled tube is 1lb 15oz and the non-ferrule tube is 1lb 9oz, so the whole things weighs in at 5.35lbs. Not too shabby! From talking to several manufacturers, you needed at least a .080" side wall to be able to hold roughly 9lbs of gear (Super clamp + Magic Arm + Nikon D700 + 14-24 f2.8 is ~ 9lbs, that's where that number came from) extended at 18-20 feet. So the car camera rig meets this spec.
Overall, the boom is very nice, and very well made. Out of the box, I tried to assemble it, and the tolerance between the ferrules and the ID of the tubes is so tight that I had to rub a thin layer of petroleum jelly on the ferrules to be able to assemble the rig. Once it was lubricated, it went together very smoothly.
My only gripes about the boom are that it doesn't have retaining pins. I'm not so worried about it coming apart, however, my issue is that you can't articulate the magic arm outside the CG of the boom. Once you do, the last tube just rotates. This could be fixed with gaff taping each tube together, but for the money being spent, include some damn retaining pins and pre-drilled holes already! Secondly, the tubes are too long. I'd rather 5 shorter tubes vs 4 longer tubes. The longest C-Stand bag is roughly 47"... Looking into having a custom bag made so I can check these on flights.
Shiny pics (the green tape is because I'm a clumsy bastard and to show you the length of each tube assembled):
DSCF5075.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
DSCF5074.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
DSCF5073.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
DSCF5072.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
DSCF5071.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
You can see here that the super clamp is almost fully extended.
DSCF5070.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
DSCF5069.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
DSCF5067.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
DSCF5065.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
DSCF5063.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
DSCF5062.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
Field of view with D700 with Nikon 14-24 f2.8 at 14mm on the magic arm directly below end of arm.
DSC_6558.jpg by KeysarPhoto, on Flickr
Hope this helps someone out.