Jewelry Video w/ ECU & Rotation

T

theiliad

Member
Hi all,

I'm just about to start planning for a shoot for a Jewelry store in a week or so. I would to shoot ECUs of the pieces rotation on some sort of turn table. I've seen this effect is several product videos and think it would really help the quality of the video. I've have a look around B&H and found the following turntable solution.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...C_360_PhotoCapture_360_Product_Turntable.html


This product is aimed more at the photography market and is quite expensive. I'm wording if there is a more specific video turntable solution that people might be aware of?

Thanks in advance

Declan
 
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sounds tacky, but what about a modified record player... just add some drag to it so it goes slower.
 
Dedan:

That's not really what you want anyway, that product is designed to rotate objects for stills for shooting QTVR films and 360 degree web apps.

I wish I had a definitive answer for you but I don't. I have found two or three solutions over the years for shooting tabletop with rotation as follows...

1. In Hollywood, Alan Gordon Enterprises rents a traditional tabletop turntable called the Revpod. http://www.alangordon.com/r_camaccessories1.htm it's at the bottom of the page. They only had one and when it dies, it's done, it is no longer made any more. I researched it a few years ago because we were interested in buying one. It is pretty heavy duty, has a wired remote, does forward and reverse and has a variable speed function and an internal clutch so it smoothly ramps up and down in speed. If you ever see "The Rise of the Silver Surfer" DVD, on the featurettes, the titles with the chrome Silver Surfer bust I shot with this turntable, worked out very well.

2. I was researching this a few years ago and I came across some industrial turntables that are used to rotate brass and iron fittings as they are cut. They were totally industrial, ultra heavy duty machinery, but they did have wired remotes, could take a really heavy weight load and I beleive that they ran in the $600.00 to $800.00. I wish I had it bookmarked but this was years ago and two or three computers ago and I don't have it anymore. I will research and see if I can find them. They were not made for photographic use but with high weight capacity and low speed, high torque motors, they looked they would actually work pretty well for what we need them for.

3. The last one I discovered when I was at an artist's home. He had bought two of these, they were plastic and really cheaply made but would suffice for your jewelry shoot. They were battery powered and pretty junky but I think he bought them for like $30.00 off of some website. He even offered to give me one, but stupidly, I declined. We shot a time lapse of a sculpture on it and it worked well. Once again, I have no brand name or website but it is out there somewhere. I think I recalled it was for artists who needed to study a small model in 3D as it rotated so they could sculpt it.

Not a lot of help but at least some clues.

Dan
 
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This one looks promising but is fixed rate at 4 rpms. For video work, you really need the ability to rotate the product at differing rates and you need a wired remote.

Close but not quite http://www.kaidan.com/Detail.bok?no=4 I just had a thought. What if you paired this with the $14.00 Harbor Freight Router Speed Control? Hmm...that might function quite nicely as a variable speed control and you would be under $150.00. This bears investigation.

Dan
 
Both Dan and Evil Mariachi have great ideas. Unless you can find a really cheap rotisserie motor, the DIY version will be in the $100 range.

The bottom line option (manual) is the $7 wood lazy susan from Ikea. I've used this for run and gun and it's worked well. Hand powered but does the trick in a pinch.
 
Wow:

I got this e-mail back from precision turntables. Even at a pro level, I can't think of a reason anyone would spend $12k on a tabletop turntable.

"The cost for that would be $12,000 plus shipping.

Let me know if you want a formal quote.

Kristi Manclow
www.PrecisionTurntables.com"
 
Hi all,

Thanks for all the replies. Ive tried to use a record playing the past but found it to be unreliable. Adding drag to slow it down didn't create a consistant speed so was unusable, also I don't that it was very good for the player.

Puredrifting: Thanks for going to so much effort on looking into this. I am definately going to to look into the Pixi, i think it may just do the trick alright.

I'll let you know how it goes

Declan
 
Dedan:

If you try the Pixi, try it with the Harbor Freight router speed control, http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=43060 they are cheap and in theory, it should give you smooth variable speeds. Let us know if it works. If it does, I will get one as well, I still shoot quite a bit of tabletop and having rotation works really well for certain hero items that you are trying to highlight.

This is one of those ideas I had the SHOULD work but until you try it, you don't know for sure.

Dan
 
He had bought two of these, they were plastic and really cheaply made but would suffice for your jewelry shoot. They were battery powered and pretty junky but I think he bought them for like $30.00 off of some website.
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Can it be these ones: You cant go wrong with a $20 purchase ;)
http://www.sportcraftcars.com/display_turntables.htm
Declan, I found 4 rpm turntables work nice with jewellery filming. It is very challenging & tricky lightingwise, good luck... What are you gonna be using for ECU? Achromatic diopters???
 
Ever wtach How It's made on Discovery?
Cheezy turntables kind of remind me of their weird/stale product establishing shots.
It's like they use professionals for the meat and potatoes of the show (minus that awful music that makes ya turn the channel) exept for these beauty establishing shots. Thse look like they have a new intern do each one with a light kit having every gel in use.
lol
that said... maybe skip the overdone turn table thing.
 
VGurcu said:
Can it be these ones: You cant go wrong with a $20 purchase ;)
http://www.sportcraftcars.com/display_turntables.htm
Declan, I found 4 rpm turntables work nice with jewellery filming. It is very challenging & tricky lightingwise, good luck... What are you gonna be using for ECU? Achromatic diopters???
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link, good find. Yes, I used something like this for a Disney tabletop I shot, it worked okay. Not as flexible as the "real" turntable I rent from Alan Gordon but this is cheap and might work. Think I will pick a couple up.

With the HPX170, since it has variable frame rates, you could probably play with frame rate as well as turntable rotation speed with some interesting results. Or shoot everything at 60 fps, then take it all into AE and Twixtor an go nuts with speed ramps, that could be fun too.

Dan
 
With the HPX170, since it has variable frame rates, you could probably play with frame rate as well as turntable rotation speed with some interesting results. Or shoot everything at 60 fps, then take it all into AE and Twixtor an go nuts with speed ramps, that could be fun too.
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Interesting idea, but has few drawbacks: AE & Twixtor would increase post expertise/time/ hence the budget...
Also, when you shoot gems & jewelery there are tens on faceted faces reflect some light back into lens (flashes), it is unavoidable. I am curious to see how those flashes would look in faster frame rates...(probably more emphasized due to slower motion)
That s why I'd suggest to make few tests to see which turntable speed suits best (1, 2, 4 rpm) for a clean shoot (rather than relying on post tricks)...
 
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