Soon after receiving the pre production Vinten Vision 3 AS to review last year, it became apparent that the counterbalance system of the 3 AS simply wasn’t going to play nice with my Canon XH A1 in “straight out of the box” mode. Luckily for me, my standard rig included a substantial shotgun microphone and wireless receiver, so I could, at least, get the unit to counterbalance at the heads minimum setting, thus making the entire review process viable.

I think it fair to say I left Vinten in no doubt that I felt this was an opportunity lost, both to themselves and to many, many shooters with similar (or even smaller) size, weight and cost cameras to my own, and that they really needed to address the issue at a price amateurs and semi professional shooters would or could be prepared to pay. To cut a long story short, Peter Harman, Product Manager for Vinten, agreed (who say’s companies don’t listen?) and he and his team set about making it happen.

Click www.dvinfo.net for the whole story.