I built a jib back in high school using aluminum pipe in a basic fulcrum design. The camera was counter balanced by weights and there was no remote servo zoom, focus, tilt or panning. Now, I own a much better machined design made by EZ Jib. This well built jib uses almost the same design as the one I fabricated almost 15 years ago!

I used the EZ jib at the Boston Garden to shoot Celtics promotional work. We had a banner set up with a bunch of black material hung on the wall as the backdrop. I used my new KinoFlo Diva 400 light as the key and used Lowel DP lights as background lighting.

I again used my Sony PMW-EX1 camcorder with the Letus Extreme and the Letus Elite back focus module. I mainly used the Nikon 50mm f1.4 manual prime lens since it is one of the fastest in my kit. The depth of field was very shallow and with the player standing very close to the background, the separation was amazing.

The jib is very easy to use and easy to move around. I used an old 100mm bowl Vinten set of aluminum sticks. I mounted the Vinten Vision 10 LF 100mm bowl head to the end of the jib and operated the pan and tilt right at the camera.

I now own a KinoFlo Diva 400 light system. I have used these many times at work but I am happy that I now own one. This is a great light and the fact that you can dim it with very little color shift is quite nice. I also own five 2900k and five 5600k lamps so that I can use this light in different color temps. The light pictured above is 2900k, or tungsten.

The jib worked very well and I was able to ped up and slide around as the players dribbled basketballs. I will use this portable jib in the future on more of my nature films because of how light and portable it is. I bought this stuff used from a friend, Pat.

You can find more information about the EZ jib here.
For more information on KinoFlo lighting system, click here.