DinkumSystems™ was previously known as The Clamp Flag Company and is the brainchild of cinematographer and inventor John Mans.  The company was rebranded in mid-2009 to reflect the inter-connecting and expanded nature of the range.  The quirky and unusual name of DinkumSystems™ came into being during an intense 100-day shoot that John spent on a ship in the Southern Ocean.  Being stuck in a confined space with several Australian camera operators during the filming of Animal Planets’ highly successful TV series “Whale Wars” expanded John’s vocabulary to include the well-known Aussie colloquialism of something being “…fair dinkum”.

A phrase used when something or someone is genuine, kosher or the real deal, the highly useful lens shades and mounts that John had bought on-board became known as “Dinkums”.  In challenging and often dangerous shooting conditions, with rough seas and long nights spent in the crew mess, the moniker stuck, and when back on dry land John adopted DinkumSystems™ as the new company name and FlareDinkum™ as the umbrella brand for the lens shade series.  The fact that Operations Manager Andi Lucas hails from ‘Down Under’ was a happy coincidence!

The first product in the line was the clamping French flag (now sold as the FlareDinkum™ CINE), a highly practical device dreamt up by John more than twelve years ago to solve the problem of lens flare on large film cameras without using matte boxes.  Over the past decade, consistent demand for the CINE, positive reports from other professional shooters using the products in the field and the high definition and digital SLR revolution saw the need for John to expand the range.  The second addition to the line was the more streamlined lens shade for smaller HD video cameras (the popular FlareDinkum™ PRO), followed by the trusty FlexiMount™ microphone mount for audio techs on the move.

The move from using off-the-shelf component parts to the specifically tooled and engineered products available today has seen significant design refinements while remaining true to the original form and function of John’s invention.  Years of use in the field by industry professionals under some extreme conditions have enabled John and his colleagues to test our full range of incredibly useful devices and to bring more than 20 years worth of experience to improving the products.  The full launch of the complete line including the new consumer-friendly models the FlareDinkum™ COMPACT, the ActionPod™ and the ActionPod™ PRO occurred in March 2012.