Not everyone reading this is going to want/need the new Rhino Arc II, but it's so well designed, you're still going to appreciate it.
Kyle Hart, the owner of Rhino Camera Gear, has been making products for the last eight years. Rhino has become most well known for their electronic slider system, the Rhino Slider Evo. I tested the Evo five years ago, and the ingenuity of this product absolutely blew my mind.
The Evo was an amazing product — almost perfect — but Kyle took things to the next level with Arc II. Now, you can slide your camera while panning, tilting, and focusing the camera at the same time. This is impressive on its own, but there are already many products on the market that can do this. What makes Arc II special is everything else it's capable of doing. I couldn't even begin to explain all of its features her; instead, watch the promo video below.
About a year ago, Kyle created a Kickstarter campaign for the Arc II that raised over $350,000. Since then, I have been waiting impatiently for the product to launch, and it finally has. Instead of just sending us one for review, I convinced Kyle to fly down to Puerto Rico to visit us in person and go through each of the features one by one.
Obviously, the average photographer would have no need for something like this, but if you shoot video, this is a game-changer. Rhino sliders were never cheap, and the Arc II is their most expensive product yet, but it's so worth it. Just a few years ago, camera movements this complex would require hundreds of thousands of dollars of gear and a team of people. Now, with Arc II, you can do them by yourself.
It's rare that I get to test products that are this well designed and thought out, and it's even rarer to have those products being built by such a small company. Kyle is basically self-taught, and yet, he and two other people have built a product that blows away competing products from gigantic brands with unlimited resources. Even if you don't have a need for this product, I hope you can all appreciate the incredible talent that has gone into making Arc II.
If you do decide to buy, you can save 10% by using the code "FSTOPPERS" at checkout for the next three days.
I bought the whole kit back on kickstarter. It's superb.
You know... In weddings ive noticed that videographers no longer use sliders. They used them so much but now I see they do their panning/slider shots with the gimbals. Sure it may or may not be as good as this but it does get the job done
Yeah a slider is a pain in the rear to setup at weddings. Gimbal or steadycam is a good choice being easier to move around and keep shooting.
Lee, if you absolutely had to choose one, Rhino or Syrp?
No question, Rhino. Syrp is really only for time-lapses anyway. It makes noise and it too slow for video many moves. The only benefit I currently see with Syrp is the pano feature but Rhino will be adding it soon.
I really like the Rhino, great design choices, but I think you can set a nodal point on the Syrp. That might be the big reason to prefer it. Also I can use it with other sliders.
Why did you throw out the lav audio?
What?
Was a little room echo in the beginning.
Ya two lavs next to each other in a concrete room will pick it up.
I ran into that recently and now just use a shotgun mic over both. And less post work on each.
in February 2022, would you still recommend the Rhionbo Arc II or is there a newer better product in this price range?