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.

Having trouble playing this video? Try viewing it on Vimeo by clicking here.

I have been working with my new favorite camera system, the Vision Research Phantom HD GOLD. The camera shoots amazingly crisp high speed footage and I am using it to capture mountain bike riders around New England. Nick and I are working on a film that we hope to release sometime next year that will feature a lot of footage shot at over 1000 frames per second in full HD. We are using some sick film lenses like the Angenieux Optimo 17-80mm t2.2 zoom and a full set of Zeiss super speed primes.

The second tease we are releasing features Giant rider Alex Couture. I spend an afternoon with him at a local riding spot near North Conway New Hampshire. I captured a small bit of trail with Alex using the Phantom during golden hour. The music is by “The Whitest Boy Alive” and the track is called “Fireworks”.

This quick Phantom session is just a small portion if the super slow motion we plan to include in the up coming bike film, the “Missing Link“. The film is currently in production.

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.

Foolish I know, this blog war. It is a real waste of talent and resources. But it is fun and entertaining too.

I have been on the road with a bunch of Kessler gear and I have shot a ton of cool stuff in the Pacific Northwest. Exciting content like the Pacific coastline, the California Redwoods, a gorge covered in lush ferns, a short subject on a guy named Harvey who works with wood and I even spend the day shooting a Banana slug with a macro lens.

I will eventually edit those videos and post them to my site. But this trip has been half driving and half film making, so the edit time got put off. This was my vacation so I had to have a little fun too!

But, all my spare time has been spent defending myself from Philip Bloom. You know, the guy who put poison in my beverage during that Eric Kessler fishing trip in Key West Florida!?

So this is my move, my left hook back at Sir Philip. I decided to continue with the boating theme for this battle.

I spend the last few days with Paul and Marnie Reynolds, their kids… hey Garret… in Oregon white water rafting the McKenzie and Deschutes Rivers. These guys own a rafting outfitter company called Wild Water Adventures. If you are ever in Oregon and want to have a good time, look these guys up. They are fun to be in a raft with and have plenty of skill to keep you alive! At least anyone NOT with the name Philip Bloom.

Enjoy the video! I’m looking forward to Philip’s next move. He does not have a sense of humor, but I think he might find this entertaining. See you next Tuesday Philip, or at your Boston meetup, whichever comes first.

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

Just a little side note, the audio in my interview was done inside the Canon 5dmk2 using the 1/8 inch microphone jack on the side of the DSLR. I did not use a separate sound recorder like the Zoom H4 and then link the video with audio in post.

People think the audio circuitry is useless in the 5dmk2, but I am not thinking it is so bad anymore.

I really like the Sony wireless system UWP-V1. Click on the BH video banner on the upper right of this page and search for the gear. It works very well with the 5Dmk2.

Paul and I used Fuji point/shoot and GoPro Hero HD cameras for the underwater footy.

Tomorrow and Tuesday I will be renting a Trek Session 88 Downhill Mt. Bike. Yes, I am at Whistler mountain in British Columbia Canada. I am meeting up with the guys at Faultline TV, a small BC based production company that shoots MTB films. Looking forward to riding the same trails that I have watched to pros pin in many bike movies.

Don’t expect me to be shooting any movies myself up here, I came to ride!

I have known an English fellow, Philip Bloom, for about two years. Lovely human being, but something is fishy. I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is, but I think Philip has declared war. You can read his blog here.

I am currently in beautiful northern California in a small town called Ft Bragg. The hotel I am staying at is cheap, but right on the Pacific Ocean. Fog, is in fact, rolling in right now as I type.

I am free to do whatever I want for the next 9 days up here. I am on vacation. I have my two Canon 5Dmk2 DSLRs with all my Canon “L” series glass. I have a Vinten Vision 3 tripod on carbon fiber legs. I also have my Kessler CineSlider.

I managed to pack an ElektraDRIVE motor and Oracle controller so that I can use the CineSlider to preform slow dolly moves and motion control action in timelapses.

JetBlue charged me $25 for the second bag and $75 for the third! Thinking about using UPS to ship the gear back to Massachusetts! Will be cheaper!

Tomorrow, I will be walking with the forest giants. The Red Woods. I have always wanted to see them and a National Geographic magazine a few months ago stoked me up to get out and do it! I can’t wrap my head around the fact the only 5% of the original old growth Red Wood forest remains today.

And, I managed to pack my downhill mountain bike helmet, pads and armor to shred A-Line on Whistler Mountain in Vancouver BC. For those of you who don’t know, Whistler is a mecca for downhillers and a dream ride for me.

But back to the pressing issue. Sir Philip Bloom. Phil tweeted out that he had posted a video “Revenge” blog to his site. I was wondering what I had done to deserve it? I’m the one who drank the poisoned beverage on the Kessler Fishing Trip! The beer was tampered with by Philip himself!

To make a long story short, here is a short video of me watching the first few minutes of Philip’s retaliation. War has been declared and this is just the beginning.

I personally think Mr. Bloom is upset that I own a “dot com” and he is stuck with the inferior “dot net”.

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

I have been in beautiful, sunny Key West for two very short days. I am joining forces with Philip Bloom, Jon and Christina from Canonfilmmakers.com and Eric Kessler on a Kessler Crane sponsored meet up and equipment demonstration. We are also shooting short films from the colorful streets and people who call this small island home. Jon and Christina will be shooting behind the scenes short videos for Eric and Phil to be posted later.

Yesterday, Eric invited us all to fish five miles off the mainland in a chartered fishing boat called “Sea-Clusion”. We were greeted on the docks by Captain Chuck and first mate, Steven. They got all the bait and gear ready for us and we headed out into the deep blue sea to fish for Dolphin (not Flipper, but Mahi Mahi), a not-so-edible species of Tuna and the elusive Sailfish.

Eric was really excited to go and he wanted to land a Dolphin fish. I was stoked to shoot a video blog on the small boat in the 5 foot rollers and warm tropical air. Plus the thought of drinking Corona and hanging out with Philip Bloom only sweetened the deal.

But things went horribly wrong. We caught fish, that was not the problem. And nobody fell overboard. The issue was not entirely clear, at least the cause of the issue.

I got very sick. I was spending most of the second half of the fishing trip “hanging the food rope” over the side of the vessel. Captain Chuck said that the food bits or “chum” was good and attracted the fish. I was not so sure.

How I got sick was called into question. When I was editing the video blog footage today, I found inconclusive evidence that my Corona was tampered with by Mr. Philip Bloom. I cannot be sure, but I ran with the story anyway.

I assume that Phil was trying to get back at me for a video blog I posted a few years ago from his first ever “official meet up”. You can refresh your memory of that night by clicking here.

As for the video blog posted below, you decide for yourself. I almost never get sea sick. I have slept on a boat for three nights with very little issue. I worked on a large ship excavating a pirate ship off the coast of Cape Cod for Nat Geo with zero problems. How can this isolated incident be explained?

Sure, I had a concussion (from a nasty downhill Mt Biking crash) a few days ago that required an ER visit for XRAYs and a neck support. I cannot imagine how this could be related to the sea sickness and my hands and legs going numb on the boat in the rough seas. All joking aside, head injuries are not to be underestimated and I need to keep an eye on the recovery for sure. Just glad to be off that boat.

You can also view this video blog on Vimeo. Click here to see it!

If you are interested in a charter boat in Key West, check out Captain Chuck and ride “Sea-Clusion”. He is cool and has no problem if you puke off his stern. Click here for his webpage.

You can read Philip Bloom’s blog entry from the meet up yesterday at the Reach Resort by clicking here.

This video blog was sponsored by Kessler Crane:

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 used two Canon 5dmk2 cameras with “L” Series glass to shoot a music video a few weeks ago. The band is called “Sleep Alive” and they are out of Worcester, Massachusetts.

We shot in two locations. The first was a small bar/restaurant in the city of Worcester and the second location was an old movie theater in Millbury.

I shot this video alone. No crew. I used available light in the restaurant and used Kino Flows and Arris in the old theater. I had a dolly and short jib. I also used a Glidecam 4000 Pro for the tracking shots. I shot with the Canon 5dmk2s in 1080p 24fps.

All the footage shot with the band was at ISO 6400. There was very little light inside the theater. Amazing how good it still looks!

The band played the song about 8 times and each time I shot differently. I locked off the second 5dmk2 on the drummer or wide to get the most for our time in the location. I shot this entire music video in 5 hours.

Torey Champagne edited the video on Final Cut Pro and used Adobe After Effects.

UPDATE: 6/21/10 BEHIND THE SCENES AND MAKING OF “LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION”

Torey is the lead vocal in “Sleep Alive”. He is also one heck of an editor. Torey edited the music video and shot and edited the “making of…” video. Did I mention he directed the music video too? And again he sings in the band. Great guy to work with, that’s for sure.

Check out his website at, http://www.toreychampagne.com

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!

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