Lastolite Skylite Griphead

Comments about Lastolite Skylite Griphead:

I purchased this (made by manfrotto) unit for use on my lastolite non-rotating extending arm to turn it into a boom arm for my elinchrom quadra ranger head, the grip head is super strong and does not move once locked in place. The grip gives you 4 options on grip diameter 19mm, 20mm, 25mm & 28mm. The 25mm slot was a little tight for the extending arm i had so a little file was enough to make a perfect fit, now I can still use the arm as an extending handle but also a boom arm & it will support up to 1kg in weight.

Comments about Lastolite Skylite Griphead:

Lastolite wisely got Avenger (Manfrotto) to make these for them. You'll get one with a Skylite kit, but it's almost essential to have two- even though the Skylite is light, if it isn't set up with its weight well-balanced, you might find slippage occurs- not from this clamp mind you, but whatever it is attached to, and you'll want to stabilise with a second fixing point.

It relies on friction, rather than an indexed, toothed clamping action, but this does mean you can slacken it off a bit to reposition, and can set it exactly where you want, a worthwhile compromise. A large winged knob will give you all the tightening power you need.

If you've used any of the Arri/Avenger/Manfrotto grip heads, you'll know what to expect in build quality. It's just scaled up to handle the much wider diameter of the Skylite frame- 28mm. This is even wider than the maximum that their jumbo grip head will do, don't make the mistake I did and think it'll suffice. The other available diameters are 25, 20 and 19mm.

It mates with either a grip rod, or a standard baby stud lighting stand.