Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Camera Slider and Crane/Jib All In One

My Facebook friend Giulio Sciorio tagged me in a post this afternoon. To my surprise, the video below is what I found.



I think the people at Floatcam really have an interesting take on the camera/jib combination. Kessler Crane has products which offer similar functionality, but they are quite a bit bulkier and not always easy to set up on the fly.

I haven't been able to find much information about the Floatcam Dollycrane but I am willing to wager some guesses based on the above video. The rails are probably made of aluminum and look very similar to the Igus DIY sliders. The rubber wheels look a lot like the Pegasus Cable Wheels sold by Cinevate and the counter balance system reminds me of the one on the Cinevate Atlas 10, except the Atlas 10 counter balance only worked for vertical operation
(I think). The mount for the slider is pretty unique in design, but seems to function like most tripod/camera slider mounts. There's also a clip in the video that leads me to believe there will be a hand crank or motor option for this production and if not, one should be pretty easy to fashion DIY style.

I can't find an exact price for this, but Giulio heard rumors of $4500 on Cinema 5D. I'm not sure what that price will include, but it could be a really good option for someone who hasn't already invested in a slider or jib.

Thanks for sharing the video Giulio.

If anyone has any more information on this product, please drop me an email, or leave something in the comments below.