GregWilliams2175
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For Sale: 8 ft Camera Crane With STAND $200
- Thread starter GregWilliams2175
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sunporchmedia
Well-known member
Pluses and minuses of this jib...
Pluses:
1. Lightweight, easy to set up and easy to to transport.
2. Adds production value
3. Very inexpensive
Minuses:
1. Limited weight range
2. Can't pan during a move...this is the biggest limitation of this design, which is shared with many lowend jibs like the ProAm, etc. The workaround is to mount a head on the front "basket" end and operate from there, but that wil add the weight of the head and possibly throw you over the limits of the jib, plus you may have to drill out the 1/4 inch hole to 5/8 to accomodate the larger screw that most heads use for their mounting.
Pluses:
1. Lightweight, easy to set up and easy to to transport.
2. Adds production value
3. Very inexpensive
Minuses:
1. Limited weight range
2. Can't pan during a move...this is the biggest limitation of this design, which is shared with many lowend jibs like the ProAm, etc. The workaround is to mount a head on the front "basket" end and operate from there, but that wil add the weight of the head and possibly throw you over the limits of the jib, plus you may have to drill out the 1/4 inch hole to 5/8 to accomodate the larger screw that most heads use for their mounting.
sunporchmedia
Well-known member
$200 is a great price for a jib, as long as your camera is light enough and your expectations realistic, and especially if you are handy and willing to make some improvements to the JibOne's rather crude design.
This jib is designed for lightweight cameras, the DVX100 is about as heavy as you can comfortably fly. HVX is pushing it. The JibOne bracket puts the camera up above the arm, but this makes any camera, especially one with any weight to it, dangerously top-heavy, not to mention hard to tilt smoothly. If you have a camera that is small, or that has a top-threaded 1/4 hole like the HVX, the fix is to invert the bracket so that you can lower the camera's center of gravity and/or undersling it (be sure to use a safety cord!)
A jib that can't pan is extremely limited in what you can do, no matter what the price. You "must" have a pan/tilt head on it (operated from the front), which will require drilling out the hole to 3/8" (be prepared to buy a metal drill bit or take it to a machine shop). In fact, it will be better to drill a new hole closer to the center of the "L" bend of the bracket, to balance the head better.
If you have a light camera a light head will work but if you have something substantial like an HVX you will need a pretty good sized head and that means a lot of weight (and a lot of counterweight). The jib claims a 12 pound load, and the stand should hold about 70 lbs. You could easily get close to the load limit of this jib mounting a head on it.
I am curious what you see as some of the other ways to get panning done, with a reasonable degree of smoothness and professional results.
I am not dissing this jib. I bought one of Greg's and I'm very happy with it. But it does a disservice to people considering jibs in this price/performance class to let them expect too much of it, or brush off its very real limitations. I've spent hours modding mine in order to make it work safely and effectively with my HVX200.
This jib is designed for lightweight cameras, the DVX100 is about as heavy as you can comfortably fly. HVX is pushing it. The JibOne bracket puts the camera up above the arm, but this makes any camera, especially one with any weight to it, dangerously top-heavy, not to mention hard to tilt smoothly. If you have a camera that is small, or that has a top-threaded 1/4 hole like the HVX, the fix is to invert the bracket so that you can lower the camera's center of gravity and/or undersling it (be sure to use a safety cord!)
A jib that can't pan is extremely limited in what you can do, no matter what the price. You "must" have a pan/tilt head on it (operated from the front), which will require drilling out the hole to 3/8" (be prepared to buy a metal drill bit or take it to a machine shop). In fact, it will be better to drill a new hole closer to the center of the "L" bend of the bracket, to balance the head better.
If you have a light camera a light head will work but if you have something substantial like an HVX you will need a pretty good sized head and that means a lot of weight (and a lot of counterweight). The jib claims a 12 pound load, and the stand should hold about 70 lbs. You could easily get close to the load limit of this jib mounting a head on it.
I am curious what you see as some of the other ways to get panning done, with a reasonable degree of smoothness and professional results.
I am not dissing this jib. I bought one of Greg's and I'm very happy with it. But it does a disservice to people considering jibs in this price/performance class to let them expect too much of it, or brush off its very real limitations. I've spent hours modding mine in order to make it work safely and effectively with my HVX200.
GregWilliams2175
Active member
Sunporchmedia,
I am curious to see your modifications. How about some photos?
I am curious to see your modifications. How about some photos?
sunporchmedia
Well-known member
Sure, but most of my hours were spent screwing and unscrewing (and wearing out a drill bit!), and trips to Home Depot and Guitar Center for supplies, so the mods themselves are not as dramatic as it might sound.
In a nutshell,
-I bought a Proline DJ speaker stand at Guitar Center and drilled the metal top cap to accept the 1/4" bolt to hold the jib's pivot bracket. This creates a stand that is about identical to the one JibOne supplies.
-I replaced the 11/64" nuts that hold the straps that splice the pole together with thumbscrews.
-The hole on the pivot bracket to lock the tilt lever didn't line up properly to work without binding, so I fixed that by reversing the tilt lever (hard to explain, sorry.)
-The camera when mounted to the "basket" bracket is very top-heavy and front-heavy so, after some trial and error, I reversed the bracket to an "underslung" mode and mounted the HVX from the 1/4" hole on the top handle of the camera. This is still front-heavy but at least the camera is not at risk to violently smack forward if you let go of the tilt handle. I am in the process of drilling a hole much closer to the center of the bracket so that the camera will naturally balance near level.
I've not yet figured the best way to mount the camera to the jib with a head...probably will drill that new hole to 3/8" and mount my 3191 head upside down, and mounting the camera to the release plate from the 1/4" handle hole. I may have to find a lighter weight head to keep in the weight range.
-Next, it's another trip back to Home Depot for an L bracket to mount my LCD monitor to the jib's pivot bracket.
-Finally, I plan to find a long bolt and a couple of wooden dowels to replace the tilt handle with a "t-handle" that will allow me to operate the tilt either right or left-handed. I may also replace the tilt lever itself with a longer one to make it easier to operate and to give finer control.
If I had a machine shop I could do some of this more elegantly but I am limited to hand tools so I'm improvising a bit.
I'll post pics and a complete description in the DIY section when I'm done.
In a nutshell,
-I bought a Proline DJ speaker stand at Guitar Center and drilled the metal top cap to accept the 1/4" bolt to hold the jib's pivot bracket. This creates a stand that is about identical to the one JibOne supplies.
-I replaced the 11/64" nuts that hold the straps that splice the pole together with thumbscrews.
-The hole on the pivot bracket to lock the tilt lever didn't line up properly to work without binding, so I fixed that by reversing the tilt lever (hard to explain, sorry.)
-The camera when mounted to the "basket" bracket is very top-heavy and front-heavy so, after some trial and error, I reversed the bracket to an "underslung" mode and mounted the HVX from the 1/4" hole on the top handle of the camera. This is still front-heavy but at least the camera is not at risk to violently smack forward if you let go of the tilt handle. I am in the process of drilling a hole much closer to the center of the bracket so that the camera will naturally balance near level.
I've not yet figured the best way to mount the camera to the jib with a head...probably will drill that new hole to 3/8" and mount my 3191 head upside down, and mounting the camera to the release plate from the 1/4" handle hole. I may have to find a lighter weight head to keep in the weight range.
-Next, it's another trip back to Home Depot for an L bracket to mount my LCD monitor to the jib's pivot bracket.
-Finally, I plan to find a long bolt and a couple of wooden dowels to replace the tilt handle with a "t-handle" that will allow me to operate the tilt either right or left-handed. I may also replace the tilt lever itself with a longer one to make it easier to operate and to give finer control.
If I had a machine shop I could do some of this more elegantly but I am limited to hand tools so I'm improvising a bit.
I'll post pics and a complete description in the DIY section when I'm done.
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sunporchmedia
Well-known member
Yup, weight may be an issue, I haven't weighed all the components yet. The lazy suzan could work but it then relys on the jib for tilt and the bearing for pan, which makes compound pan/tilt moves a bit tricky. Also have to figure out how to mount the bearing. You'd also need to find a place to mount a pan handle. At some point the time/money invested might be better spent on a cheap and lightweight Libec or Manfrotto head. Or love the jib for what it _can_ do and live without panning.
(end of hijack...)
(end of hijack...)
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GregWilliams2175
Active member
Price drop $175
GregWilliams2175
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bump
Andrew J. Allsbury
Well-known member
real interested....e-mail'd and pm'd - please contact Andrew@creativewaveidaho.com
GregWilliams2175
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Bump
GregWilliams2175
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