I am a tripod snob and I am very picky with fluid pan heads.

The tripod pan and tilt head is the most important part of the camera chain, in my opinion. If I put it all together in order of importance I would say, one tripod, two camera, three lens, and four viewfinder. Of course you can shoot all hand held, but for what I do and my style of shooting, the camera support is extremely important. The point I am trying to make is the fact that even if you have the best HD camera and biggest lens, you cant hold or compose a shot with a bad fluid head. The pan and tilt head then extends to slider, crane and dolly use as well.

When operating a television camera covering sports, the pivot point is most vital part. I need to know exactly what is going to happen when applying force to a pan arm. The pan head must be perfectly balanced and super smooth in tilting and panning, especially when doing both at the same time. The sum of these parts equals predictable and repeatable movement and the end result is exactly what I want.

The pan head I use to cover Boston professional sports is the Vinten Vector 70. I have been using the same Vector 70 for over ten years and it still performs like the day it left the factory. It is the secret to my signature shot, following the baseball super tight as it leaves the yard. The 70 model has been updated by the 700 and 750, but until the Vector 70 is taken away from me in Boston, it will be my personal favorite. (I actually wish Vinten re-releases the Vector 70TG …the “TG” stands for “Totally Great”, not what you may think…)

So…… there’s a brief glimpse into my tripod insanity. Until you understand the “feel” of the perfect pan head, you will continue to think I am crazy. Please read the rest of my blog before you watch the video blog review below.

I have said many times before that I feel the tripod is the one television tool that I could not live without. I use a tripod as much as I use a camera and I use both almost everyday to earn a living.

If I am going to carry around all the extra weight that a tripod creates, it is going to be the best. And simply put, Vinten is the best.

Over the years, I have used many brands. Cartoni, Miller, Manfrotto (Bogen), Satchler, O’Connor, and Libec. The only head the comes close to the “Vinten feel” is the Satchler. The Vinten Vector series for large studio cameras and Vision series for ENG cameras are as good as it gets. The UK based company knows what they are doing and best of all, they are listening to crazy people like me!

In addition to the perfect balance and buttery action of the Vinten is the fact that the company makes a very durable product. When taken care of, a good Vinten will be the last pan head you ever buy.

I was discovered by Vinten a few years ago because of this website and since that day, Vinten has sponsored and invited me to NAB twice. I have spent time with people who work for Vinten and now I consider them my friends.

I asked the Vinten team last year if they were thinking about making a pan head for DSLRs. I was not totally happy with the feel of the Vinten ProTouch range they were marketing for light weight cameras. The ProTouch heads, in my opinion, were similar in design and feel to the Manfrotto 501 and 503 heads. I did not like the stick and slip feel of the ProTouch range when using cameras like the Sony EX1 and Canon 5dmk2. But, these heads were priced very low, so you get what you pay for even if there is a Vinten logo stamped on the front.

Avoiding the ProTouch range, I was using my expensive Vinten Vision 3 with the smallest user-changeable spring available to make it work with a DSLR. It did the job, had the “Vision Feel” I was after, but was not the solution for light weight cameras. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Vision 3!

I wanted a Vision range pan head that worked with lighter payloads, but could still be adjusted using the perfect balance knob (when the camera got heavier with accessories) and perhaps, was a bit cheaper. The HDSLR market may not widely adopt a pan head over $1000, no matter how perfect it was. But, the demands for a nicely balanced and professional level tripod head were present since the Canon 5dmk2 DSLR was being used in high end production. These DSLRs weigh in at about a pound when not loaded with accessories. So what tripod can perfectly balance such a light weight?

Vinten answered with the Vision Blue. This head is affordable and just under $700. You get a lot for your money here. This inexpensive Vision Blue model functions with a DSLR like a $5000 Vision head functions with a Sony F900 HDCAM! This opens the market to lower budget professionals who can finally spring for a professional tripod.

You can go to Walmart and see just how hard it is to pan and tilt a non-fluid head. If you are just using the tripod as a locked off shot, fine. But you can also use a rock or tree stump for that.

The next step up is to spend a few hundred bucks and get a fluid head that is not really that “fluid”! If you have been using an inferior tripod fluid head for years and you get on location with a Vinten Vision, you will finally understand the point I am trying to make. Once dialed in, It will change the way you use a tripod and the words “finesse” and “silky” will come to mind.

If you are a Kessler CineSlider or Pocket Dolly user, you will have a blast preforming pans and tilts as you dolly left and right. One of my favorite shots in television and film is when you focus on a subject, move the camera down dolly track and pan with the subject keeping it centered in the frame. It is possible to do this with the Vision Blue because of the perfect control you get. There is no sticking or slipping in this head and as you apply pressure, the move remains consistent all the way through the tilt or pan. The weight of the camera as it moves on the head is canceled out by the inner spring in the Vision head.

I have been using a Vinten Vision Blue prototype with my Canon 5dmk2 DSLR for about a month on various shoots. I am very impressed by the Vision Blue and I am happy Vinten is offering it at a lower price. I am also using a Petrol PCBP-1 hikers backpack to get the gear in and out of locations. For the first time, I used a magnifying eyepiece on my Canon 5dmk2 made by Letus called the Letus Hawk.

At the time of this blog review, the price at BH Photo and Video New York for just the Blue head is $697. The cost of the head and the 75mm tripod, floor or mid-level spreader and soft bag is $1199.95. This is much cheaper than the $2,300 I spent seven years ago on my Vision 3! And… I had to change my own springs inside the head when using different cameras!

I tested the head with very little weight, just a bare 5dmk2 with battery and small prime lens. The Vision Blue’s perfect balance knob was set to its lowest point and just managed to balance the less than one pound camera. The only way you could find a problem with this is if you had a camera that weighed half a pound. The Vision Blue would still work, but you would feel the spring push back a bit. Not a big deal, but this tripod system was not built for the iPhone!

The tilt friction control was a bit tough to roll into when I got up around seven, eight or nine. This is also a problem with other Vision heads I have used. You can still get up there, it just takes a little more force to roll the dial. This has never been a deal breaker for me and part of the internal design of the head.

It is not necessary to buy the legs if you already own a set. The Vinten Vision Blue head is the most important part. You could use any 75mm sticks made of aluminum or carbon fiber from another company. I really like the Manfrotto telescopic carbon tripod legs. You can find them by clicking here.

When I tested the Blue with a matte box, monitor, Letus Hawk viewfinder and larger lens, I had plenty of spring left to match the added weight. The head counterbalance system canceled out the change in center of gravity when tilted up and down. The force I applied to the pan bar was equal though out the tilting action and it was very smooth.

This is all a big deal because until now, there was no Vinten Vision range pan head that could handle a tiny camera and still have the perfect balance. This is the first time the internal spring works with you and does not fight back.

Post any questions you may have to the comment section of this blog.

This video is also available on Vimeo. Click Here to view it.

First of all, I must say I am exhausted. I have not slept for days. Every waking hour I think of shooting something in high speed. All of my attention has been directed at the Vision Research Phantom HD GOLD high speed digital cinema camera. If you read my blog, you are the type who would understand this “sickness”. And if you got your hands on this camera package and the assortment of expensive lenses I had access to this past weekend, you would fight sleep as well.

My good friends at Rule Boston Camera set me up with the Phantom. Rule is a TV/Film rental house located in Boston, Massachusetts. They have an extensive stock of gear and the people who work there are top notch and understand the business. I recently bought a $60,000 Sony F800 CineAlta camera package from them and I had an excellent experience throughout the purchasing process. In fact, Rule even gave me a loaner 17x Fujinon HD broadcast lens for my F800, for free, since my purchased lens was back ordered!

I have been shooting with Fastec Imaging HiSPEC2 720p high speed cameras for the past few weeks. I am working on a New England mountain biking film called “The Missing Link” with fellow downhiller Nick Keating.

The Fastec cameras I have been using are small metal boxes with a lens attached. Very compact and can take g-forces, so they are perfect for extreme sports coverage. However, the HiSPEC2 camera that I used had to be hooked up to a PC laptop at all times. You can read more about this by clicking here. These cameras are inexpensive to rent and work quite well. Check out the lacrosse commercial I shot mocking the real Paul Rabil Maverick spot shot by NFL Films camera guys on the Phantom HD GOLD. You can see my version here shot with the cheaper alternative Fastec camera.

After spending this past weekend with the Phantom, I was able to draw a few quick conclusions regarding image quality using the cheaper high speeds verses the ridiculously expensive Phantom. The Phantom excels in resolution, speed and stops of latitude between brights and darks. Dust kicked up in bright sunlight by a mountain biker has detail on the Phantom and blows out on the HiSPEC camera. Keep in mind the fact I was using a $60,000 lens with the Phantom and a $50 Nikon prime with the Fastec camera.

The Phantom does not need a laptop in the field. Very little time is needed to “render out” the high speed sequence on the Phantom. The HiSPECs need extra time between takes. The Phantom can be operated like an ENG broadcast television camera. Even off the shoulder! But I was able to shoot with the HiSPEC hand held with the computer as the viewfinder and got good results. One big surprise was the fact that the light sensitivity between the HiSPEC and Phantom was about the same. You need a lot of light to shoot high speed.

All that being said, I would still recommend the HiSPEC cameras to anyone on a budget. If you are shooting a Jaguar commercial use the Phantom. If you want a few sick shots for broadcast TV or the web perhaps the $500/day rental at Fastec Imaging is perfect for your 720p high speed needs.

Now lets talk Phantom HD GOLD and an insane assortment of expensive glass for the rest of this blog. Rule Boston Camera let me take almost anything I wanted, as long as it was not being rented for the weekend! You have a lot of reading to do, as I got a bunch of stuff to say. And the big payoff is the fact you can download a file at the bottom straight off the Phantom camera… 1050 frames per second in 1080p ProRes. Enjoy that!

I grabbed the Zeiss Super Speed prime lenses. This kit included the PL mount 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses all at f1.2 (or in film talk t1.3). These lenses were super fast, lightweight, had built in follow focus treads and a silky smooth focus barrel and iris ring.

I asked for a telephoto lens and Brian brought out a Nikon Nikkor 200mm t2. Beautiful lens with an aperture blade system that must have consisted of a hundred little blades. I had never seen anything like it. Plus the outer element was huge, allowing for a ton of light to get into the lens and onto the sensor.

I wanted a cine zoom lens. I had used the Angenieux Optimo 25mm-250mm t3.5 for a job with the Boston Celtics a couple years ago. The TV station rented the lens from Rule and I attached it to my Letus Extreme (PL Mount) attached to a Sony EX1. You can read more about that here. I knew Rule had the super sweet 17mm-80mm t2.2, but I figured it would be rented out or off limits. My buddy Mike at Rule, somehow secured it and I was good to go.

The Phantom HD GOLD included a color Sony HDVF-C30W viewfinder. When I bought my F800, I thought about this LCD color viewfinder for use with my new XDCAM. But, I had never used it before and worried that the LCD would not meet up to my picky standards. Plus the C30W costs over $11,000! So I decided to go with what I was use to on my F800, the Sony HDVF-20a black and white CRT version. We use these to cover broadcast sports everyday and they are tack sharp. Plus these high resolution b/w viewfinders cost just over $3,000. Who needs color in a viewfinder if you set up the camera properly in the first place!

I was pleasantly surprised at how sharp and vivid the color C30W was on the Phantom. I never liked the RED ONE LCD version. But the Sony was much better. It was easy to focus, clear to see and there was no trace lag in the LCD image when whipping around. I was very happy with it and had slight buyers remorse with the 20a version I bought.... but wait, I needed another eight grand to upgrade to color?!

The HDVF-C30W had a specially modified connector to plug into the Phantom. This connector stuck out quite a bit and was defiantly a possible point of failure if the camera's weight fell on the connector. In fact, on my first day of using the Phantom, the cable connector was intermittent. I should have found this problem while setting up the camera at Rule, but it worked at the time. During my shooting on location, I had to pull the connector on a slight angle to keep the viewfinder powered.

Another thing to remember is never point the viewfinder into the sun. CRTs can take more heat than LCDs. Just a few seconds of diopter magnified exposure to the sun and the LCD can be destroyed. Point those diopters DOWN!

The guys at Rule asked me if I needed a tripod and I said no. I wanted to use my Vinten Vision 10 AS. This tripod has served me quite well and I am a huge supporter of Vinten. But... this camera system with Optimo lens weighed in at nearly 60 pounds! The Vinten was rated for about 45 pounds. This extra 15 pounds of weight was a bit scary at times and I was unable to get perfect balance because I exceeded the payload rating of my tripod. I still came back with good stuff tho and made sure my assistant, Nick, was always standing next to the camera when mounted to the tripod.

Let me take a second to talk about the weight of this beast. I found it impossible and down right stupid to try to carry the Phantom by its handle with the heavy Optimo attached to the PL mount. I HAD to use two hands at all times. One hand on the bottom rods and the other on the top handle. This made carrying batteries and a tripod difficult, so strapping them to my back was the only answer when working solo. The waterfall footage in the video blog was shot by me alone at Profile Falls in New Hampshire. Not a long hike, but still a hike.

The Phantom is a power hungry camera system. It pulls nearly 75 watts of power. I tried to power it with my Anton Bauer charger and it did not have enough juice. I could have used Anton Bauer high current batteries, but I did not have them with me.

The camera did come with an a/c power supply, but I could not hike a generator with me into the mountains.

Rule sent me out with six car-like lead acid batteries. These bricks weighted in over ten pounds each and they had four pin XLR connectors on them. They were designed to power older film cameras. Each battery had two sides of power, so once one side died, I move over to the other side. I got about 30-40 minutes on each side. The biggest problem was the fact they had no gauge on them. I had no idea if the camera would die during a RAM to CineMag data transfer. When the battery died, you lose the buffer in the camera. If the buffer did not make it to the CineMag storage in time, you lost the take forever! Happened 5 times over the weekend and I cursed so loud the fifth time it occurred, birds few out of the trees above me to get away.

That leads me to storage. CineMags are the solid state devices that snap onto contacts on the top of the Phantom. These mags are filled with high speed transfer memory and I had two 256GB and one 128GB CineMag.

Let me explain how this camera records something in high speed. First of all, I have the camera set up to buffer the footage and take the clip post trigger. This means that when the Phantom is recording 1050 FPS at 1080p, I have a looping buffer of 4.1 seconds utilizing the internal RAM memory. This has nothing to do with the CineMag. The RAM is internal and built into the camera.

For example, I hit record filling the buffer, a mountain biker rips past me and just as he leaves the frame, I have my AC, Nick, push the remote trigger button. The recording loop stops and you get 4.1 seconds of time prior to the trigger. Get it? The data lives on the internal RAM memory. You do not want to lose power now or the RAM will be lost! Gotta get that footy over to the Mag.

Next, I look inside the viewfinder and set in and out points in the clip. I take only what I want because the 4.1 second is like 3 minutes of video at the 1050 frame rate. Finally, I save the clip to the CineMag. This happens so fast that it only takes seconds. The transfer rate of this memory and CineMag is crazy. Now the clip is on both the RAM and the CineMag. Once you set the camera back to record, the RAM clears out and you repeat the process for the next high speed event.

I need to mention here that one of the 256GB CineMags was not loading at times when snapped into place on the Phantom. I got a "Mag ERROR". I figured out the issue, dirty contacts. I used a cloth to wipe the large array of tiny metal pins and metal contacts on the mag and got the thing to scan and load.

All high speed cameras need cooling systems because the sensor heats up. The Phantom HD GOLD has an exhaust fan in the back that speeds up when the temperature rises. The camera also has a sick looking copper heat sink on both sides of the camera. Be careful with these, they can bend easily like the fine fins on the back of an air conditioner.

Since the camera and sensor heats up, you must black balance before every shot (or very often) to keep the black levels correct. They tend to get grainy and move towards purple when left alone. It is easy and fast to preform a black balance. Just cap the lens and execute it. The white balance seemed to hold well over time and even with battery changes.

The sensor in the Phantom is big. Not sure the dimensions, if you find them post a comment at bottom of page. A lot of amazing stuff has been shot with the Phantom sensor. Shark Week on Discovery Channel, Air Shark, BBC Planet Earth and LIFE, to name a few. Even Hollywood films are using this technology.

Looking for buttons? There are only two of them on the entire camera. Plus a knob that you can also push in to execute a command. You can adjust frame rates, ISO, resolution, trigger points, black/white balance, in and out clip points and a few other necessary procedures. You can defiantly control a lot using the simple four page menu inside the viewfinder, but to really get the camera dialed in, you hook it up to a PC laptop via gigabit ethernet. But like I said before, when in the field, you do not need to tether a computer to this high speed camera.

The workflow of this camera is tricky and I cannot really explain it in great detail on this blog because I do not totally understand it. But, I will tell you what I do know and how I am getting the footage into Final Cut Pro. Phantom does not offer free software like RED does for viewing RAW clips or accessing camera controls. Rule was unable to give me the Phantom programs for me to install on my own laptop, so they gave me a rental Mac Book Pro running Windows XP.

The CineMags hold files with the .cine extension. They are RAW Phantom files. I have never dealt with these files and do not plan on to at this point for my project. I have no way of editing them and cannot get the software easily. So I found a work around that will work with my mountain biking film and for the content in this video blog.

I take the HDSDI out of the back of the Phantom and feed it into an AJA KiPRO portable recording device. The KiPRO takes the 1080i HDSDI signal from the camera and transcodes it realtime to Apple ProRes 422 HQ. The KiPro has a built in hard drive where the files are stored. The biggest problem with doing this is the fact the camera only plays out a clip or MAG at a time! So I have to sit next to the camera and KiPro and manually play out each clip. Keep in mind I filled all three CineMags! This took forever and to make matters worse, I ran out of time and did this grueling work at 4am. I was hallucinating from lack of sleep and accidentally deleted part of my video blog on my SR11 camera at 5am. Story for another time...

I know I'm not editing with the master RAW .cine files, but the footage still looks amazing and the Apple ProRes 422 HQ codec is high bit rate. For the time being, the .cine files will sit on a hard drive at Rule for my future children to try to sort out and edit them!

In the video blog at the top of this page, I tried my best to show you how this camera works. I shot the demo in such a way that it would answer my own questions had I stumbled upon the video before I met Phantom. If you have further questions, please post them at the bottom of this page and I will try to answer them.

Also, be sure to download the high speed waterfall footage in 720p XDCAM HD 1080i for smooth playback. I am also including an Apple ProRes 422 HQ file straight off the camera. The picture of the green leaves above is a grab from the 1080p 1050 FPS footage I shot with the Phantom. This was the very first thing I ever shot using this camera system. Not very exciting, but great color and DOF. Plus, I cant post the best stuff til the film is done!

Here are a few behind the scenes videos shot on a blackberry on the slope style course at Highland Mountain Bike Park during the filming for “Missing Link”. Big thank you to my AC, Nick Keating, for using his BlackBerry to record these. Wish we could have used his 5dmk2 more, but we were both focused on carrying car batteries!

And here are a few screen grabs from the mountain biking footage shot at Attitash Mountain and Highland Bike Park. The film should be done next summer!

Big thanks to the guys at Rule Boston Camera, Mike Sutton, John Rule, Dave Kudrowitz, for giving me this chance to test out amazing gear. Also thank you Nick Keating (taking behind the scenes pictures and video) and Dave Hand for your help on location this weekend.

I had some fun with the Fastec Imaging HiSpec2 color hi speed camera shooting a “fake” lacrosse commercial. The commercial was a copy of the Paul Rabil 111 MPH spot that my buddy Dave sent me on YouTube. It looked as if the real commercial, shot by Maverik Films New York, was captured using a Phantom camera. You can watch more of their work by clicking here.

Dave’s son, Dylan, plays lacrosse in New Hampshire. We traveled to a local lacrosse field and set up to shoot the commercial. I brought the HiSpec2 color camera, a set of Vinten sticks and the Sony VAIO laptop computer running the hispeed capture software. I had a Nikon 16mm f2.8, 55mm f1.2, and 200mm f3.5 lens.

We shot for just two hours! No lights, just the sun. We had to wait a few minutes for clouds to clear and have consistent sunshine. Dave brought some water so that we could wet down Dylan’s hair and lacrosse strings to get the “hi-speed sweat effect”.

When we finished on the lacrosse field, we shot in the locker room for the first two shots on the spot. I used the Canon 5dmk2 shooting at 30fps with a Canon 85mm f1.2 lens for just these shots. We were in and out of the locker room in about ten minutes! For locker room lighting, we used a clip-on light with a bare 60 watt light bulb (you can see it on the lockers in the background). The key source was a florescent worklight with 1/2 CTO gel gaff taped to the lamp. No KinoFlos on this shoot. This “commercial” had a zero budget thanks to my friends at Fastec for letting me play around with the camera system.

If you are wondering about pricing, this camera can be rented for about $500/day and you can buy one for around $20k. A Phantom may shoot better pictures, but the rental on one is $2,500/day or you could buy one for $150k! Do not quote me no these prices, you can ask Fastec directly by clicking here.

I really wanted to shoot this spot to prove that a very expensive hi-speed Phantom is not necessary for doing this sort of work, as long as 720p HD is enough. When shooting this sort of stuff for the web or even broadcast television, the Fastec Imaging low-budget HiSpec cameras may be the perfect solution.

I will post my version of the Paul Rabil 111 MPH Maverik Lacrosse commercial at the bottom of this page. The following video below is the actual commercial shot (with a big budget for sure) by Maverik using a hi speed camera system. Watch this video first, so you can see what inspired Dave and I to get out and shoot our own version with Dylan.

I am not the only one out shooting spoofs on this great commercial spot. Watch the video below for an attempt to imitate the look and feel of the real commercial. I loved the sweat stains!

At some point, these high speed cameras will become more available for almost anyone who wants to shoot at fast frame rates. The above YouTube video was inspired by the very well shot and attention stirring professional lacrosse advertisement. I am looking forward to see what people do with these cameras when the price drops.

Now, here is my version of the Paul Rabil Maverik commercial. Dave, Dylan and I shot this entire thing in a couple hours and I edited it using Final Cut Pro. I used the Eureka “Vapor Across” transition for the white flashes. I made a few changes to the shots and enhanced the sound a bit to match the white flashes. The last few fast action shots at the end of my version were shot at 718 FPS, but I speed them up in post 2,000 percent to get them back to normal real-time speed!

Be sure to download the video in the links at the bottom of this page to view the commercial spot on your computer screen at full resolution 720p HD. The video will play much smoother off your hard drive. These Fastec Imaging cameras are silky smooth when it comes to slow motion playback.

This video is also available on Vimeo. Click Here to view it.

I have been testing out a HiSPEC2 camera from Fastec Imaging that shoots crazy fast frame rates at 720p 16:9. The camera is a small cube with a Nikon mount. It is powered by a 12 volt battery using an inverter and I must have a PC laptop tethered to it at all times to make it work. The PC controls all aspects of the camera, white balance, frame rate, and pulling down the large uncompressed .avi files from the camera’s internal memory.

If you are interested in renting these cameras, please visit Fastec Imaging. I do not have any information on pricing or availability.

I shot a quick test video and a video blog showing you how the camera works with the Sony VAIO laptop. You can watch it here.

I am using this camera to shoot a downhill mountain biking film. I took a few hours after an epic day on the hill to shoot a small brook in New Hampshire. I have always enjoyed shooting moving water at 60 frame per second using the Sony EX1. Now, with the Fastec Imaging camera, I can shoot many more frames and really get a close look at how the water in the river is acting.

I found that you get the “screen-door-effect” artifacting (in the blacks) when shooting in low light. I used mostly the Nikon 55mm f1.2, the fastest Nikon lens I own to capture these images. You need a lot of light when shooting high frames rates.

Keep in mind that this is a small brook. The resulting images make this place look like a raging torrent… maybe even class VI rapids! More high speed footage to come in future blogs.

This video is also available on Vimeo. Click Here to view it.

I have been given the opportunity to test out Kessler Crane products for review on my website. I am very excited about some of the new stuff Eric Kessler is designing in Indiana. The gear is well built, easy to use, and fills a void in both price range and tools for creating awesome camera movement. Please go to the Kessler Crane website for availability, pricing and kits. Some of this stuff is sold separately.

The Kessler Shuttle Pod is going to be released in the next few days. I had a prototype unit to play with and test over the summer. I am very impressed with the dolly system.

The Shuttle Pod is a “skateboard-like” dolly carriage that runs down the truss from the Kessler Crane. If you own the crane already, you have track. If you do not, Kessler will offer a scaled down bare-bones version of the track just for use with the Shuttle Pod. The system is much like a friction-free PVC skateboard dolly, but I found it to be much more versatile. But the best part is the fact you can hook up ElektraDRIVE motors to the Shuttle Pod and do some amazing things with the Oracle controller.

In the video at the bottom of this page, I explain what the Shuttle Pod is and how to set it up. I also go into great detail showing you how to set up the belt driven motor system. It is very simple to do and requires NO TOOLS in the field. I also show off some awesome video we shot using the system and a Canon 5dmk2 in Indiana.

Eric and I set up a sliding motion move in the Oracle controller and played it back multiple times. By resetting the carriage to the exact same start point on the truss, we were able to get perfectly repeatable complex dolly moves over and over. We were able to create a moving scene where I pop in and out of concrete pipes kinda like a “whack-a-mole”. We also used the Shuttle Pod to drag the camera up into a tree and later, capture some epic motion controlled astro-timelapses.

For more information on the Shuttle Pod and to order the system when it is released, please click on my affiliate banner below:

This video is also available on Vimeo. Click Here to view it.

I am having a lot of fun up in New Hampshire testing out a high speed camera. The camera is not very easy to shoot with, no viewfinder, very shallow depth of field and requires a lot of light. Plus, you must have a laptop connected to it at all times! But I love a good challenge so I am going to shoot a few things for my website.

My friend, Matt, at Fastec Imaging, is letting me play with one of the high speed cube cameras that were used on the Discovery television show “Time Warp“. I am not here to sell these cameras, just to share my first impressions shooting in the world of high frame rates. Also, everything looks so damn awesome in super slow motion!

I will be using the camera to shoot a short downhill mountain biking film this weekend. I will be working with a few talented riders knifing berms, dusting the track, ripping down rocky terrain and jumping full suspension mountain bikes. I have shot MTB films before, but never like this with hi speed capture. I am so stoked to have the opportunity to use this Fastec Imaging camera this weekend shooting a sport I love.

It will be tricky dragging a laptop computer up the hill and trying to figure out how to power all this stuff in the field, but that is what this test day was for! Thanks to Eric Kessler at Kessler Crane for the carbon fiber sticks and the battery system.

My buddy Dave, lives in New Hampshire and he is a big fan of lacrosse. He played in college and now his son Dylan is into the sport. I figured that capturing a single high speed lacrosse move from a few different angles would make for a nice test. I needed to see how shallow the DOF would be in different lighting conditions. I also wanted to make sure that my power system for the camera (using a battery and inverter) would provide enough juice for a full day on the mountain. Then, later in post, I needed to understand how to edit the content.

Dave and I started late in the afternoon talking about the four shots in the “lacrosse shot” sequence. We were running low on daylight! The shots we decided on were: a wide shot of Dave, tight shot of Dave, shot looking into the goal (over Dave’s shoulder) and a shot from behind the net (ball fired at camera). It took only one or two takes to get the first three shots. The final shot was tricky because it required a skill shot with great accuracy for Dave to hit a certain spot in the net. I setup on sticks behind the goal and made sure the lacrosse ball could not actually hit the cameras. I also made the crazy attempt to “rip” focus to follow the ball from the stick strings to the net strings. Very difficult to pull off in .25 seconds, but we got it after about 15 shots!

The Fastec Imaging camera did not have a model number, I will find out what it is later. I really don’t care, it looks like it was pieced together from spare parts! I only care what the little silver box can do. Also, I do not know the price of this system. Remember, I am just playing with this thing! Check out the Fastec Imaging website for more information.

I used all Nikon old lenses. The same lenses I used on the RED ONE and with my EX! and Letus Ultimate. They worked very well and the focal length matched up too.

Surprisingly, I really like this camera and the workflow. It was missing some important things, however. I must use the laptop for my viewfinder, I knew that going in. But the camera and the software (made by a third party) worked perfectly. Nothing crashed the entire test day. I was able to watch the 718 FPS footy before rendering to an uncompressed .AVI file in real time. The render time was less than thirty second when I chose to keep a shot. When editing, I just dragged the AVI files into Final Cut Pro and rendered them on the timeline as ProRes 422. Not a big deal.

Why 718 frames per second? Because that is the fastest frame rate this camera can shoot in 720p. It does shoot higher than 718 FPS, but the resolution drops off. I do not plan to test that out this weekend.

Check out this 720p downloadable .AVI file of the WD 40 fireball. Don’t try this at home!
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

A bit more info on the camera:

This camera body is all controlled by the laptop. White balance, Frame rate, record trigger, and shutter. The camera has built in RAM memory for the many frame capture. I do not know the buffer size, only that it runs about 13 seconds in a loop. You pull this 13 second “high speed event” data off the solid state internal memory to render it down to an AVI in the computer. Only PCs, no support for mac that I know of.

It does not shoot 2k or 3k or even 1080p. But 720p is enough for me. Remember, I work in broadcast tv. We deal with 720p content all the time. If the price is right to purchase a high speed camera at the 720p level, I think it would sell well. I wish I had the option to shoot up to 2000 FPS for special occasions tho. And maybe make the thing with a viewfinder!?

Fastec Imaging may have a refined version of this camera coming out in the future. I am going to try to blog about it if it becomes available. I don’t know about you, but I am sick of waiting for the RED SCARLET.

This video is also available on Vimeo. Click Here to view it.

I have been testing Kessler products in Northern Indiana and now in the mountains of New Hampshire.

For the first time, I have been using the V3 Kessler Crane. I joke around with Eric Kessler and say, “you guys make cranes too?”. Their first product was the crane and this established the company, but I became very attached to a recent product they created, the “CineSlider”.

The engineering on the Kessler products is excellent and you get plenty of gear for your money. A real jib with a motor head we use in broadcast television can set you back more than $30,000! You can get similar results using the Kessler Crane at only a fraction of that price.

I set up the 12 foot crane without any instruction. It is a heavy piece of equipment for one person to move around, but I made multiple trips to capture an epic sunset. It was very worth it and I am already planning another much longer hike up to a few waterfalls to shoot all day with the crane and Canon 5dmk2.

I used a Redrock Micro matte box with a Redrock circular polarising filter and a Tiffen .9 ND filter. The lens I used was the Canon “L” series 16-35mm f2.8. The lens was wide open and the focal length was about 20mm. I had to push past the vignetting of the matte box.

The Canon 5dmk2 was set to record 30 frames per second at 1080p and I had the ISO at 100. I did not have an external monitor so I had to look towards the end of the crane to see the tiny LCD on the camera. Not an ideal solution, but it worked as I was running out of time.

I needed more counter balance weights than I expected. When you have a camera 12 feet swinging in the air, even a DSLR with a matte box needs at least 50 pounds to give you fingertip control. I had to improvise by using a few five pound sandbags!

I also did not use the metal wire lines that further stabilize the crane. I found the crane to have a slight bow under all the weight, but it was still very easy to control. Today, when I test the system further, I will use the stabilizing metal guy wires.

I shot a quick video blog about the crane, the canon 5dmk2 and the location. I was happy that yesterday was the longest day of the year because I did not get all the gear ready until about 8:30pm. Golden hour seemed longer than an hour on Summer Solstice!

Today, I will be testing out the Kessler “Revolution” motorized panning and tilting head at a beach on a lake in New Hampshire. The head will allow me to do pans and tilts while flying the camera on the jib. You can even use the Revolution head to shoot motorized timelapses with the super slow movement of the 500:1 motors!

You can also watch this video on VIMEO by clicking here.

Please post any questions below. For more information on Kessler Products, support this blog and click the banner below:

UPDATE 6/25/10: Second Flight with Kessler Crane with Revolution Head and using Guy Support Wires…

First of all sorry for this quick update, I am very tired and finally back home. The mis-spelled stuff and bad grammar can be fixed later! Typing very fast…I need a shower bad and must be up in a few hours to shoot with a Sony F800 on a reality show in Boston (5:30am call time).

Over the past few days, I spent some time with friends in New Hampshire testing out the Oracle controller and Revolution motorized pan and tilt head. We mounted the head to the end of the Kessler Crane. Dave, Ellen and Dylan were interested in the system and offered to help me set it up. It is much easier setting up the crane with help. Later in this blog update, I will show you some footage and pictures of me while I set up the K Pod and 12 Foot crane by myself.

The Revolution head can be mounted upside down or right side up. I choose right side up for this test using the Canon 5dmk2 and a 16-35mm f2.8 lens. I did not modify the end of the crane to accept the motor head upside down. I also used the guy wires for the first time and set them up without any instructions. The wires add much more stability to the long crane arm and with the weight of the Rev head and camera, they are very important. Thanks to Dave and Dylan for their help.

The video above is a sample of some of the shots we got using the crane with a motorized head. I simply moved the arm up while I pushed the joy stick down on the Oracle controller. It was tricky, but after some practice, I was able to get into a groove and keep Dave in the shot. I did not have a portable LCD screen, so I strained my eyes to see the LCD on the 5dmk2! The camera was recording sound and I left this motor noise in so that you understand that when using the head, you must gather sound separately and not off the camera’s built in mic.

The next day, I drove down the Kancamagus highway (RT 112) and shot with the Kessler Crane on the Swift River. The weather was unstable and I wanted to get the system set up as soon as possible to get a sweet booming shot of the river. Dave and Ellen showed up as I was striking the gear and helped me out as an electrical storm hit. Thanks to Ellen for snapping these pictures.

I had to drag all the gear through the cold water. I carried 75 pounds in bar bell weights to counter balance the crane. You could use rocks or sand in a duffel bag, but the weight swings around and can mess up the crane shot. It was a lot of work, especially for one person, but it is possible. I found that once set up, you must get what you can from that single location and then strike most of the crane to move it to the next location. I was trying very hard not to drop anything in the water, I did not have any space nuts and bolts! I also was fighting the weather and got nervous as I operated the 12 foot lightning rod in the storm.

It gets tricky, but the video blog below illustrates how important it is to take the time to get a great shot. Shooting with a crane is much more dynamic than just using a tripod, dolly or a slider! I decided not to mount the Revolution head and Oracle controller because of the wet weather. Plus, I just got these things and I did not want to deep six them in the river…. at least not yet!

Time for me to go to bed!

I have been testing the Kessler Shuttle Pod in Indiana. Eric Kessler, Chris Beller and myself have put the brand new system through its paces. My first few blogs about it included how easy it is to setup, how smooth and sturdy the system worked out with a telephoto lens and motion recording and playback using the Oracle controller.

This video blog will show you how you can use the Shuttle Pod to preform long, motorized real time dolly moves. By using the differently geared ElektraDRIVE motors, it is possible to run the camera down the track with precision and variable speeds. Also, this system is able to operate at forty five degrees off horizontal. We propped the track up against a tree and dragged the Canon 5d mark 2 up into the branches. The motor system very powerful and the belt system is efficient and strong.

We used the Manfrotto (Bogen) Magic Arm to attach the DSLR to the carriage and we got creative when trying to counter balance the weight of the camera. Glad be brought a cooler full of beer!

I really enjoyed working with Eric and Chris to field test this product. It is nice to see the owner of Kessler Crane out dragging dolly track through the woods and knocking ants out of a decaying tree branch! By doing all this, they are able to take what is learned in the wild and make minor changes in the shop to create the best possible product. I am happy to help out with this process.

The Kessler Shuttle Pod is planned to be released in early to mid-July 2010. I am not sure about pricing yet.

You can also watch this video on VIMEO by clicking here.

More to come! My final video blog from Indiana will be out soon. The last demo of the Shuttle Pod will show off it’s super smooth and very slow movement for capturing epic dolly action in timelapses.

Please post any questions below. For more information on Kessler Products, support this blog and click the banner below:

I have returned from my Indiana trip and I am very tired! I have been experimenting with Kessler motorized gear and Canon 5d mark 2 DSLR cameras. Eric Kessler, the man behind the products, has been working with me to field test these innovative production tools. In addition to shooting time lapses with motion, Eric and I experimented with motion capture on the Oracle. This feature is sweet, easy to use and I am going to explain why it is important. I have just scratched the surface! I hope you come up with even more creative applications and show me up!

The ability to record and playback motor movement is very exciting. I have to admit, I did not think this inexpensive system was going to be frame accurate, but I was wrong. The Oracle records exactly and perfectly the joystick action and allow the user to playback that motorized memory over and over. You must keep the shots exact and consistent. Do not move or bump the track and camera. The most important thing is that you must start the dolly carriage in the exact same spot before you playback the move. By doing this, you get exact replica motion playback with slow-downs, stops, fast speeds and more as you dolly the camera down the track.

Eric and I wanted a long dolly move, going right, stopping and then going left. Using the Shuttle Pod mounted on two tripods, we were able to get the travel we needed for the dynamic motion capture shot. We recorded the move and played it back six times while the 5dmk2 was recording video. The first pass was an empty scene, then the next five passes included me… popping up and jumping from concrete tubes on the edge of a soy bean field in the middle of nowhere Indiana.

Later, in post, all you need to do is line up and layer the clips (or plates) in the time line and dissolve between them!

I wanted to demonstrate how smooth these ElektraDRIVE motors are as the 5dmk2 slides down the track. I set up a CineSlider and mounted a 65mm f2.8 macro lens to the camera. I placed tiny items on my kitchen table and slowly hovered the DSLR over them. I used a Bogen Magic arm to mount the 5dmk2 upside down to scrape the subject matter. This type macro work is not forgiving. Anyone who has used a macro lens before knows that even the smallest vibration is amplified ten fold. But, it worked much better than expected and the results are in the video below.

You can also watch this video on VIMEO by clicking here.

More to come! I will be working on editing the timelapse video blog in the next few days. Eric and I shot day and night timelapses using the Shuttle Pod, Oracle and ElektraDRIVE motors while we fought the dark and deprived ourselves of sleep. Stay tuned!

Please post any questions below. For more information on Kessler Products, support this blog and click the banner below:

I am in the beautiful state of Indiana visiting my friend Eric Kessler. We are testing out a new dolly system that Kessler Crane has created to span longer runs and utilize existing Kessler equipment.

The System is called “Shuttle Pod” and it is a dolly that wheels down the metal frame used by the Kessler Crane. The crane track can be mounted to tripods or simple placed on the ground.

The Shuttle Pod supports the camera and is similar to a skateboard dolly, but much better. It is build well, has many points for connecting a head or arm and can hold larger cameras. It is also able to travel larger distances.

Think of the Shuttle Pod as a larger version of the CineSlider. If you have not read my blog talking about this sick slider, click here. Both the Shuttle Pod and CineSlider can be fitted with ElektraDRIVE motors for timelapse or motorized dolly moves.

Eric and I will be shooting at Potato Creek State Park in North Liberty, Indiana for the next few days. Yesterday, we dealt with rainy weather at the park but we managed to take the Shuttle Pod out on the first real-world tests.

We started at a single location, the side of the road on a bridge that overlooked a creek.

Eric and I decided to just place the track on a concrete wall of the small bridge. I first tested the track without the motor system and found it to feel very similar to a skateboard dolly. No friction, the carriage just slides smoothly up and down the metal track. The track pieces slide together and bolt finger tight without the need for tools.

I decided to go “worse-case-scenario” and test the stability of the system with a 70-200mm f2.8 lens. I added a 2x extender to the lens to double the telephoto power. As you well know, trying to keep a 400mm lens steady on a 5dmk2 camera (or any camera) is very tricky. Even with the best tripod. Every little imperfection in a camera move is amplified at this focal length. And, shake or vibration will show up instantly.

It was easy to use the Shuttle Pod with a wide lens and I did many great dolly moves with fingertip control without a motor. However, I had no luck creating a perfectly smooth move by hand with the telephoto lens.

I asked Eric to show me how to mount the ElektraDRIVE motor, motor bracket system, belt, and belt clamps. It took us about a minute to change a full manual dolly to a motorized system in the field with no tools.

I wanted to see if the motor would be smoother than my touch when sending the carriage down the track with the super tight lens. The Oracle controller moved the Shuttle Pod around just like it moved the carriage around on the CineSlider. Very impressive. I was pleasantly surprised how gentle the motor was and the video blog at the bottom of this page will show you our results.

So far, I am happy to say that the system works well. It is very smooth and not too difficult to set up. This system was not designed to replace the CineSlider or a Pocket Dolly for east of use and portability, but it holds its own for longer track work. Plus the fact that all the motorized parts are modular and work on many Kessler systems is a huge plus. If you already own a Kessler Crane, you can use the support truss as dolly track!

This is Park Ranger Willy. He is a good guy but had trouble opening a door at “Jacob’s Lost Cabin“. Inside the secret shack was the heart of Potato Creek and the answer to all of life’s questions. I was slightly disappointed that I never got to see what was in there.

Special thanks to Potato Creek State Park for helping us find the perfect shooting locations. I am looking forward to spending the night in the park shooting astro-timelapses tonight!

You can also watch this video on VIMEO by clicking here.

In other news, I have a nifty new IKELITE 5dmk2 DSLR underwater housing to play with at the lake. I am told it belongs to Philip Bloom. SWEET.

I will also be in Florida working with Eric Kessler on June 28th though the first few days in July. I am stoked for this trip and it will be a good time. There is more information on the Key West meet-up here.