Jatinder,
I haven't had a chance to use them yet - they only arrived earlier
this week !!
So I don't think I am in a position to provide the recommendation you
require, but they certainly look like they would stand up to the
rigors of normal use.
I purchased the "Long Blimp" and a normal "Blimp" - but they are
really the same thing except the long has an extension piece (supplied
as a separate item) that you insert in the middle and you get an
extra hairy cover that caters for the longer overall length (as well
as a normal length hairy cover !)
They are a copy of the Sennheiser design as best I can tell from
pictures (without a real Sennheiser to compare it to).
So the design should be good enough, whether the materials are of
equivalent construction would be difficult to tell, but its still plastic.
As I look at each part for you, here are my thoughts :
The Pistol grip is strong plastic and looks bullet proof. It has an
encapsulated brass female threaded part in the base to allow the grip
to be mounted onto a pole or tripod.
The Blimp body is made of plastic mesh covered with a very finely
woven black liner. I would say that it would be very difficult to
break this body section, it would just flex, I can't really ascertain
how well the end sections are joined to it, but a bush fix (if in fact
ever necessary) would be glue, tape or zip ties ! Each end of each
section is reinforced by a solidly made joining section which has a
simple sort of plastic bayonet fitting - seems OK to me.
The end caps would be difficult to break in any conceivable normal use
scenario. Their half dome design is very strong by its nature.
The bayonet mechanism seems robust enough considering what it has to do.
The hairy covers are lined with what looks to me to be a high quality
open eave mesh nylon liner - its quite thick, and the two zippers look
to me to be of good quality. The zippers allow the pistol grip to be
positioned and protrude anywhere along their length. The hair is a
little shorter than my Rycote - cant tell you if that is good or bad ?
The clamp which adjusts the pistol grip angle seems marginally on the
flimsy side, but strong enough I suspect, but even if it broke it
would prevent its use.
Its hollow behind and I think I might add a little strengthener into
it just in case - that would be little splint of metal like a 1" nail
and silicone it in. Possibly overkill - but its probably the only
thing I can see so far that might need improving. Its trivial.
The clamp operates on one side of a blackened steel shaft which goes
through the grip and rail and ends in a plate on the other side.
The rail system seems to me to be very strong.
In fact now that I opened it up and had a good look - I would say that
its bullet proof unless used to fight off a jungle animal !
The bottom of the rail has approx 6mm thick triangular section that
supports the grip - seems strong enough to me.
The cam operated clamps that clamp the rail to the main body are
average - not so much in strength but in the way they operate - one
end felt like it clamps well and hard the other end felt like it
clamped marginally. Haven't checked the others.
As a guess only - I suspect the holes the cams rotate on were hand
drilled and their positioning is not perfect.
Given their use, if it ever became a problem - you would simply stick
a bit of rubber or leather in between to increase the thickness, worst
case would be to glue them down, but really once assembled, it cant
move anyway. The issue would be if somehow it squeaked in use, I am
sure it could be adjusted
Thats about it really
I think the only concern would be if the plastic went brittle over
time due to UV exposure or something like that, but being black and
being covered in black fabric and then covered with a hairy cover - I
really doubt that could ever be a problem and if it was in 5 years
time you could afford to replace it !
I would say that this is a very hasty superficial report purely to
respond to you in a short time frame.
I have exaggerated the issues somewhat and my suggestions probably
make them sound much worse than the reality.
The web site probably has some info about the materials used in the
construction - cant recall.
Just looked - apperas thats it sABS plastic - so that should be tough
enough
I also noted they have a slightly different version that I think may
be even stronger its listed as the "40cm Cine Blimp windshield
windscreen" - It appears to have some metal componentry at the point
where the grip joins the rail system.
So that could be another option for you to consider, I am sure they
could answer any of your questions.
Overall I can say that I am very happy with the quality and extremely
happy with the price I paid and I would also say that I am reasonably
fussy.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Rally
--- In Jatinder Singh <>
wrote:
>
> Hi Rally, One more thing, are they well made and sturdy, I will be
using then in the jungle.
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