Crane 3s

[LongLensPhotography]

I would like to get some basic feedback if this is a safe and reliable purchase at all?

I bought one, supposedly mint, and it's DOA, just blue red led and no signs of life, and one lock a little dodgy. eBay refunded in full, while seller won't admit he sold a failed item, and never even bothered to issue return label. I doubt it failed in transit, but give it 1% chance. Perhaps it died while sitting on his shelf, or maybe was knowingly sold dead. The point is it died on him, and that's sort of what I would want to avoid myself.
Secondly are these actually good at stabilising the footage.

I've got weebill s from same company. It works reliably, is too small for my kit, and that's that

3S is Heavy, bloody heavy yes I know, you don't need to tell me that. Only other option is DJI rs3 pro for using r6 with sigma 40mm art, and EF 24-70mm ii. That's double price. So I need to pick the best bang per buck comprise. Video is a small fraction of my work currently

 

[ah5168]

I have used a Crane 2 for a few years. It has worked fine with a Nikon D750 and Nikon 24-70 which is heaver than your proposed set up. The Crane 2 can be had for about £200 used. The main reason I keep it is that it that it takes regular lipo batteries so that you can replace them during a shoot and I don't think gimbal technology has actually improved much over the intervening years.

Gimbals are better than handheld but still need some practice to get smooth results.

 

[LongLensPhotography]

It has worked fine with a Nikon D750 and Nikon 24-70 which is heaver than your proposed set up

gram per gram it may be heavier with 24-70s; sigma 40mm art is a monster of a lens. The main difference is the adapter really sticks them out by an extra 3cm and the are very front heavy quite long lenses, and now very light back. I could easily balance 5D3 with 24-70 on weebill-S, but can no longer do so with R6 and same lens. There is physically no space to move them back any further, and you start removing lens hoods, filters and still get nowhere with most lenses. I can just get 35 ART and 16-35 f/4 balance. Just, Now that 35 is getting replaced with optically much superior 40 the gimbal situation needs fixing.

 

[ah5168]

Have you thought about adding some counter weights.