The Light Widow FIZLock was unveiled back in late 2024, and it was a product that I personally was very interested in and wanted to look at more closely.
The FIZLock is a clever little device that was designed to overcome the issues you can get from FIZ motors flexing and moving off a lens when they are attached to a rod. It also allows you to easily swap out lenses without having to fiddle around with the motor bracket, which can lead to the motor moving out of position. Sometimes the simplest things are often the most useful, and the FIZLock solves a real-world problem many of us have experienced.
The Light Widow FIZLock is an articulating FIZ motor mounting arm/dogbone that allows for fine-tuned positioning and engagement of the motor to the lens. This makes it so a user can quickly disengage the motor by just a few millimeters for an easier lens change, and then re-engage without having to re-position the motor.
It also allows the motor to be engaged with added preload, making it easier to position high-torque motors so that there is no possibility of the gears disengaging during use. It can be used on top or bottom-mounted 15mm or 19mm rods, which makes it very versatile.
The FIZLock is compatible with any motor system that uses 15mm or 19mm rod mounting, including cForce, Preston, Teradek, Tilta, and DJI.
What do you get?
In the FIZLock Universal Motor Mounting System, you get the following components:
- FIZLock with 15mm and 19mm Modules
- 19mm Rod
- 19-15mm Adapter
- Motor Offset Arm
- Anti-Rotation Bracket
Everything comes in a nice little bag.
Build Quality
Everything is solidly made and works as advertised. There was nothing I came across that concerned me in any way.
How easy is it to install?
The Light Widow FIZLock is relatively easy to install, but it does take a little bit more time than simply attaching a motor directly to a rod.
How you want to actually use the FIZLock is entirely up to you. As there are multiple ways of mounting it, you can configure it depending on your rig and your requirements. I tried it with a cForce Mini, Tilta Nucleus II, and Movcam motors.
You can mount it on bottom or top rods.
In the FIZLock Universal Motor Mounting System, you get an Anti-Rotation Bracket, which is very handy if you are using 15mm top rods. It adds an added layer of stability.
You can also do things like mount it from the left-hand side top rod, to create a more streamlined build. The only caveat with this is that you need to allow enough space to change a lens over.
Mounting it this way allows you to position the motor so that it isn’t sticking a long way out from your camera.
For this configuration, I was also using the Motor Offset Arm.
Real World Use
The FIZLockIt is very easy to use once you get the hang of it, and it’s hard to go back to using a motor without it.
The thumb screw is all you need to use once everything is attached.
This allows you to get a good, solid connection between the gear on the motor and the gear on the lens.
And then when you want to change a lens you can simply loosen the thumb screw and move the FIZLock off the lens gear. If you are working with prime lenses or zooms that all have unified gear positions, this saves a ton of time.
Once everything is set up correctly, you get an ultra-tight connection between the motor and the lens gear, and it won’t jump off or move in any way.
Above, you can see how strong the connection is. I am certainly not going to do that with my own camera!
Price & Availability
The FIZLock Universal Motor Mounting System is $199 USD, and the standard FIZLock Motor Mount is $139 USD.
Thoughts
Sometimes the smallest bits of gear can make all the difference, and that certainly is true of the FIZLock. I can’t tell you how much I hate it when a motor comes loose on a lens! The FIZLock solves this problem.
