AMBITFUL MF-01 Metal Heavy Stainless Cross Arm Steel Longest 232 cm Photo Studio Kit Boom Arm 94 cm - 232 cm 37-91 Inch Light Stand Cross Arm for C-Stand

I’ve not had a boom arm with such a build. Absolutely heavy duty - which is what’s needed when an 11lb monolight and a 10lb sand bag. The arm has some friction regarding the loosening and tightening of the sections. Chrome flaking happened during deployment and storage. I used four yellow/black striped sand bags filled with pea pebbles (two .5 cubic foot bags can be purchased at a big name Blue label hardware store [or the orange one] for $5.20 each, water spray to remove dirt and air dry) to anchor the heavy duty light stand - here, a 17 foot tall Meking light stand, $60 - a March wind was present but the bags did the trick. Tighten the boom at a 45 degree angle rather than 90 deg to the horizon, that will place less stress on booms. I put the red and black sand bag to use because the counter balance helps keep the rig stable. By the time all were raised to desired level (about 8 feet high, 5 feet extended) the rig almost felt as if it were bolted to the track. Such boom arms correctly anchored make the desired lighting adjustments a breeze once you lift that heavy sucker (the subject stood by to anchor once I raised each section). It was a pleasure being able to finally set up clamshell lighting with the main 32x32” softbox mounted on a 600ws studio flash, tapped in to a household current at the stadium, directly above and a smaller 2x2ft softbox on a 300ws unit below the subject, allowing me to step back and compose with a 28-300mm lens fully extended the Godox lights have built in 2.4Ghz wireless receiving which made the shoot effortless. The stud has the flat ridge so that the heavy flash won’t sag down, and the beefy steel clamps grip each extension with no issue. The shoot went well and tearing down was tedious with all the gear necessary to create the lighting. That’s how location shoots happen. Once I began packing everything I noticed that the red sand bag was not built well, as a metal rod wound up protruding through the bag mesh because of shoddy build design. The bag was an included item. Do yourself a favor. Get one or buy 20lb wrist weights to strap them around the base of your boom. In the past I’ve gone for the cheap booms. But they WILL fail because they’re not designed to hold more than about 11lb total. My light itself weighs that. This boom replaced one I purchased here some years ago and it was so shoddy that I bought a Dollar Tree sharpening stone to grind down one side of the stud to stop light sag. Then needed some Super Glue to anchor the locking grip to the boom base for a shoot of pro ball players. It held for 3 hours but once Photo Day concluded I kissed the darn thing for its service and discarded it into recycling. Always live with good Karma.

I bought this arm without paying much attention to the size, thinking it was exactly like my others, but this is more compact and will fit in more travel cases. I actually love it more than the longer ones that I own.

It’s heavy. Very heavy. It’s long, very long. It does what it’s promised to do. It’s just very heavy and very long.

This is not a light duty item or even a medium duty item. The arm itself is very large and very heavy. It weighs 12 freaking pounds! In fact you will need a super duty light stand to even be able to mount the arm on. Also the tube diameter is enormous. The outside to visit an inch and a half in diameter and collapse to the arm is over 3 feet long and extends to 7 feet. This thing is an absolute monster. I wasn’t sure if it came off of a Transformer or the Iron Giant or something. Seriously, this thing is bloody ridiculous. If you hit somebody with that they would not be getting back up. The fit and finish is a little rough. The main tube is chromium but the collard and hardware appear to be zinc or some kind of pot metal and are either plated or burnished and you can see the mold marks easily. I’m not sure how well that chrome plating is going to last on the hinge. But I’m pretty sure the hinge itself is going to last forever. And the actual knobs seem to be made of plastic that’s painted to look like silver. Still the bolts are all steel and hopefully the plastic knobs will be durable enough. I’m sure they’re trying to knock down some of the weight. And yes it’s not aesthetically 100%, but this is a behind the camera tool and really wasn’t made to look so pretty. I think the main Takeaway here is that this is an industrial monster and as long as you have a tripod that sturdy enough to hold it, you can get a 2m extension that has both counterweighted and sandbagged. No I’ve seen metal that it’s been cheaply made break before but this feels very sturdy and well-made. I think you’re looking at a good solid addition to commercial lighting kit. You just need to make sure that you have the right stand to put it on. That means a good solid stainless steel tripod, not aluminum, with a very large footprint. It’s supposed to hold I think 25 pounds on the end and adding it to that it’s only 12 pounds you’re looking at 32 pounds plus counter weights and sandbags so, wow. At least I won’t have to worry about the wind blowing this one around. I was a little put off at the plastic knobs and the roughness of some of the finish on the hardware, but I’m still doing 4 1/2 stars here. I’m going to mark it as five though considering $100 for an arm of this strength is pretty value priced. But I will be honest with you I could’ve gone four stars on a given day I think. I will revisit this after I actually use it in the field and we can see how it performs. I should mention the best used case of this would be on a job where you have hired somebody else to carry your equipment around. I don’t look forward to hauling it myself.

Abosult stabil und massiv. Und entsprechend schwer. Aber ich mag es so. Kein wackliges Teil. Absolut zu empfehlen.

I use this with a Neewer Heavy Duty Light stand that has a 30kg payload, in order to boom a COB light with a 90cm lantern over the top of people for filming. It’s really sturdy, my only slight worry is about the reliability of the little loop that the sandbags clip onto, but not had a problem yet - just seems like a potential point of failure. It’s not light, this, so be prepared for a heavy piece of metal!

Het artikel voldoet volledig aan de omschrijving en is van stevige kwaliteit.

Seems well made, surprisingly far reaching and sturdy. It even has a junior pin for larger stands which you should probably use with one of these. It’ll have to survive the test of time and rigors of being on set but I think it’s pretty good. Only downsides are the sandbag is single zipper and that carabiner will not last with a full sandbag. The only one other concern is how the clamping adjustment bolts seem to be really small and a bit underwhelming for how much torque the clamp is gonna be receiving. But only time will tell.

Ho potuto testare questo braccetto trasversale nel fine settimana appena passato. Devo dire che si è comportato molto bene: l'ho montato su uno C-stand, caricato con un flash Godox SK400II e un ombrello da 150cm, allungandolo per circa 1,5 m e non ho avuto problemi di sbilanciamento del sistema, soprattutto usandolo con un piccolo contrappeso posteriore (ho usato la sacca e il moschettone che sono compresi nell'acquisto; nella sacca, invece che sabbia, mi sono limitato a metterci 2-3 libri un po' "pesanti"). Anche una volta caricato, è stato molto facile regolarne la posizione e l'inclinazione; una volta serrate bene le maniglie, inoltre, non si è più mosso nulla finché non sono intervenuto io per le mie necessità. Non ho ancora provato ad allungare il braccetto al massimo della sua capacita, soprattutto a pieno carico; sarà sicuramente il prossimo test che realizzerò.