Manfrotto 085BS Heavy Duty Boom and Stand
I picked up the 085BS boom/stand rig because of a recommendation by SkipD on POTN. I was originally going to pick up the PCB rig, but was advised that it is not as sturdy. Right now I am booming a 580 in an Ezybox. There’s no question that this rig is overkill for a 580 in an Ezybox, but I have something else in the works. 
Onto the pictures. Sorry for the poor quality iPhone shots.
^^^The entire rig set up with a 580 in an Ezybox and attached to an umbrella bracket for tilt adjustment. The really great thing about this rig is the 15 lbs counterweight (the orange thing). Taking into consideration torque, moment arms, and mechanical advantage, placement of the counterweight is fairly easy. I really like the fact that the counterweight can be moved anywhere along the pole to balance the boom perfectly. This makes it a cinch to loosen the swivel bracket and adjust the height/angle of the boom – I can literally do it with my pinky finger. Other booms that use sandbags as counterweights at the very end do not have this luxury. Again, remembering torque, moment arms, and mechanical advantage, to perfectly balance a rig using sandbags, one would have to adjust the weight of the sandbag. This can be a real pain if you are adjusting your boom often.
Comparing this stand to my 8′ Impact stands, I can really appreciate the portability of the Impact stands – they’re much lighter. In contrast, I can really appreciate the sturdiness of the Manfrotto stand. Obviously the Impact stands are not made to handle or support anything more than hot shoe flashes, so I don’t expect them to. But still, the sturdiness of the Manfrotto is impressive.
These last two pictures show one of the attachment points of the 3 piece boom. This makes it possible to break the 9′ boom down for storage or on-location work.
Expensive, but well worth the investment.
And here are a few shots using the boom from tonight.
And here is a basic diagram of the setup. 285 through an umbrella low camera left, 580 in an Ezybox high camera right, 285 behind the subject to blow the wall.
Big thanks to Kevin Kertz for providing the Photoshop file to create this diagram!
You can download the file by clicking here.
