Hi, I'm Rob Kazmark with Spirit Juice Studios and the South Side of Chicago giving you my
review of the Zucuto FIENG.
Now the FIENG is an over the shoulder style rig that's modeled after an E&G style camera.
E&G stands for Electronic News Gathering, one of the most notable E&G style cameras,
at least in my opinion, is the Sony Beta Cam, which I have it on right here.
Now there's a few defining features on an E&G camera such as this.
First it's mounted up on your shoulder to bounce out the weight, your right hand is
gripping the camera to give you proper control over tilts, pans, or even just holding the
camera steady as need be, while your left hand is free to adjust zoom and focus as your
right eye sits in the viewfinder.
Now this is a very classic and traditional way of shooting, which I personally love but
haven't been able to do so on DSLRs since there hasn't been a rig on the market that
has accommodated that until the Zucuto FIENG.
Now the FIENG has some of the same basic features, it sits up on your shoulder, only this time
you have a weight and back to counter balance the camera in front, your right hand is gripping
the camera to give you proper control, your left hand is free to adjust zoom and focus,
and if you're doing any sort of documentary or news style filming, you would really want
to have a seamless control over zoom and focus, and then your right eye sits in the viewfinder.
Now if I had this for about three months and I've been very pleased, I actually took it
all the way to China and I shot a music video and a documentary on it, I chose this rig
versus some of my other ones because a lot of stuff was on the run and I needed something
with a small footprint.
Now the FIENG is only 20 inches long, so what that means is fully assembled, you can fit
this directly into a duffel bag like so.
Also what I like about it is it has three points of context, so when you set it on the
ground, you have a kickstand right beneath the EVF as one, your Z-Grip and then your
counter weight and bounce, so you set this on the ground and you don't have to worry
about it tipping over, which is a great piece of mind when you have expensive camera and
lens on there.
Also what I like about it is that the handle and back is directly in line vertically and
horizontally with the lens, which gives you very precise control on low-mode shooting.
Also you have two points of contact for adjustment, you have your Z-mount and T-mount, which allows
you to, based on the accessories you have in your camera, perfectly bounce it out so
it's not leaning to the left or to the right too much, it's perfectly even, which is great.
Speaking of accessories, I have a few different accessories on here that I'd like to just
tell you about briefly.
One is the EVF and Z-Finder, these are critical not only for this rig, but virtually any rig
that you're shooting on, I usually send almost every shoot that I have.
Second is the Z-Grip Glove, so your Z-Grip right here is made out of a hard, texturized
rubber, which works fine, but if you're shooting all day long and your hands can kind of get
a little fatigued and a little sweaty, these Z-Grip Gloves are perfect, so like 25 bucks
they slide right on, it's really a no-brainer when you're shooting.
Also I have a Manfrotto RC4 quick release plate, now this is if you want to stick the
whole camera on a tripod, fully assembled, because if you're Z-Gripping it's something
that's going to sit directly on, which I'll show you more how that works later.
And then the fourth thing I have is the OP-USB Mini Controller, now this works with all Canon
DSLRs, and it plugs in the USB and essentially controls your start stop, ISO, aperture, shutter,
and digital zoom.
It essentially acts just how your EOS Utility would work when you plug it into the computer,
but this is nicely mounted right into your Z-Grip, and it runs for about $250.
Now this and all the accessories that I mentioned are available through Zacuto, so overall these
are some of the basic features of the Zacuto PNG, let's take it out on the field and I'll
show you how it performs out there.
Alright, one of the first shots I want to show you is mounting the PNG on a tripod, as I
told you before I have a Manfrotto RC4 quick release plate, it's already at the bottom
on the tripod itself, it's really quick and easy, you simply just drop the camera on,
you lock it in, and it's sturdy, it's ready to go, let's see what our shot looks like.
Alright, let's see how the PNG performs on a basic pan.
Alright, let's see how the Zacuto PNG performs when you're trying to get a steady static
shot on your shoulder.
Alright, let's see how the PNG performs in low-mode shooting.
Alright, another great feature that I love about the PNG, and really any Zacuto product
that uses the DSLR base plate, is when you want to take your camera off, it's really
quick and simple, simply loosen and remove the knob on the quick release plate under
your HDMI cable, and pull the camera up and you can get a shot that would be very hard
to get if it was still on the rig.
Once you've got your shot, it goes on just as simple as it came off.
Stick it back on the DSLR base plate, tighten the lever, plug your HDMI cable back in, and
you're ready to go.
Alright, well we just got kicked out of the junk yard that we're filming in, so we're
going to finish up the review in this parking lot here by showing you how the PNG performs
on an over-the-shoulder tracking shaft.
This has been my review of the Zacuto PNG.
I found this rig to be very useful in a variety of ways, most especially when I want to mimic
the feel of an E&G-style camera.
I also love how small and compact this is, and like any Zacuto products, everything's
scalable and interchangeable, so this whole rig can be taken apart and used to build out
any number of configurations, and you gotta love this, made in the USA, and guaranteed
for life.
So if you want more information on the Zacuto PNG, check out Zacuto.com, if you want more
information on the work that we do at Spirit2Studios, check out Spirit2Studios.com, thanks.
