I am the kind of shooter who likes and needs to travel light. I also like to keep setup times to a minimum. The Pocket Rig from Turkish company Edelkrone solves two problems in one really tiny package. Firstly it has a fold out gun stock style support which when combined with a viewfinder such as my Z-finder pro provides a very steady support for run and gun/handheld shooting. Secondly it has a pair of industry standard rods which fold out so you can attach a follow-focus and matte box when on a tripod.
The pocket rig really can live happily attached to my camera giving me instant stability wherever I am without having to carry a separate bag for a rig. The first thing that struck me on unpacking it was how good the build quality is. It is made out of 100% machined aluminium from what I can tell and the gun stock support is very strong despite being quite thin. Edelkrone gives you a Lifetime warranty too which is quite reassuring.
As a fan of the old-school transformer toys when I was a kid, I love the way this thing twists and locks Megatron-style to fulfil it’s different roles. The only problem I have found with it is that the its ‘foot’ is quite narrow which makes attaching it securely to my manfrotto quick release quite problematic. A minor design flaw.
One word of warning is that you will need to pay import tax, a point neatly tucked away in the small print on the Edelkrone website.
