Best dolly to work with and most affordable, what options are there

We have a dual purpose dolly we sell through our other company;

http://www.greenlightmfg.com/DSLR_Camera_Dolly_p/030_dlly.htm

Its one of the awards for the current DVX Fest. It works on both table top as well as the rails. And the rails are standard run of the mill conduit you can pick up at any home improvement store. Its a neat zero bind system as only one set of wheels centers the dolly. So if the conduit has any sort of bend it does not bind. All machined aluminum (why its through our other company). For table top you swap out the splayed wheels for another set of upright wheels wheels. One bolt on each and your ready to straight or curved movements on any flat surface.

Steve
 
Another option is the Australian based Wally Dolly. I've been using one for years, it's popular with the news magazine set as it fits in one bag that you can throw into a tripod tube and can be setup in about 2.5 minutes....they were a pain in the butt to get as you had to order one from Australia, but now there's a US dealer. www.wallydolly.com

I often combine it with a Long Valley SevenJib and a 5D MkII and now a C300...very handy combo.

May suit you, may not?
 
The original question is kinda like:"how long is a piece if rope." Certainly so many lovely dollies out there of high quality and portability. But the problem is not knowing what type of shots and situation the shooter will mostly use the dolly. Lets face it to have a pd1 and accessories ssitting around is a terrible waste. This is a tool that is probably best rented or if purchased should be working not sitting waiting for work.
I have used many dollies for a variety of jobs and if you do enough work requiring a dolly then the high quality Micro dolly, or Wally would be worth te investment. But if its a now and then situation rent or if it is a simple move buy a less expensive option. I travel most if the time and have a set of four carriages from GlideShot in my bag. They take up no space with the bag of bolts. When I want a quick dolly shot I go to the nearest big box hardware buy a square of half inch plywood and two PVC pipes. A half hour later I have a ten foot track and flat dolly. Cost about $25 bucks and I donate or recycle it when I leave. Not the slick pretty setup but it works often.
My two cents
 
Doorway dolly plus skate wheels is really the way to go, then when you decide to rent a fisher or a chapman, you can still continue to use your skate wheels. The porta-glides are pretty great and don't have any issues with flat spotting.

This is not a cheap setup, but its pretty much the standard if you're not going with a fisher or a pee wee.
 
I also travel and fly a lot. Knowing I have 12ft of track that I can setup with the Wally Dolly in about 2.5 minutes with me all of the time is great. So many times a producer has turned around and suddenly there's a dolly shot going on behind them that wasn't there a few minutes before....the look on their face is priceless. :)

i work in News Magazine though, so if you're a features guy and have a crew and time and you can go heavy then even better.
 
I have always been partial to the doorway dolly. It is available from several manufacturers including Norm's and Matthews. For my personal one I have a center turret with a seat and risers. I often mou t a Porta-Jib to the risers. Not a Fisher, for sure, but not nearly as heavy and a costly.
 
Paul Hudson said:
I have always been partial to the doorway dolly. It is available from several manufacturers including Norm's and Matthews. For my personal one I have a center turret with a seat and risers. I often mou t a Porta-Jib to the risers. Not a Fisher, for sure, but not nearly as heavy and a costly.
Click to expand...

That is the way to go I think also. I used a Porta-Jib with its 3 point dolly on the rubber track and the hard track on a couple of shoots this year, and I have to say I love the jib arm. As for the dolly part... not so much. I had a very, very hard time getting smooth dolly shots with it. It seems to me there is a lot to say for things like MASS and CENTER OF GRAVITY. The Porta-Jiba dolly (at least the 3 point version), IMHO, is too top heavy and wobbly. I have done a lot of thinking about setting up a dolly and jib set up and I think that a doorway dolly is the most versatile way to go for the dolly part. I really want four wheels and a strong base that I can add weight to and give it proper mass and a low center of gravity (or at least counter a higher center of gravity that a jib arm set up would cause). Like the OP said, there are a lot of dolly systems out there for $900.00 plus, and yeah a lot of them are probably not worth that much. When it comes to a dolly, to me, thinking very basic and simple, 4 relatively big wheels on a sturdy base, is the sensible way to go, and for the cost, a doorway dolly seems to be hard to beat. The thing also is that Matthews doorway dollies rent for $50.00/Day in the Detroit area (Fisher 10s and 11s rent for $250.00/Day).

I have seen some doorway dollies for sell from vendors on eBay. I was wondering if anyone had any experience, or an opinion on something like this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Doorway-Dolly-in-TIs-Video-Im-Flexin-for-Professional-Film-Video-Production-/130817164887?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e754f8657

I do have to say that, if I had my "Druthers", I would like to have one of the dollies discussed in the thread below. It is a Color Tran MiniCrab. A very cool dolly. Unfortunately, it is a discontinued product, and it seems has achieved a bit of cult status. It used a proprietary gas system to operate the camera riser and I don't know how much maintaining something like that on machines 40 years old would take. It does seem like a very cool dolly though.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?297756-What-kind-of-dolly-is-this
 
Paul Hudson said:
I have always been partial to the doorway dolly. It is available from several manufacturers including Norm's and Matthews. For my personal one I have a center turret with a seat and risers. I often mou t a Porta-Jib to the risers. Not a Fisher, for sure, but not nearly as heavy and a costly.
Click to expand...

I'm partial to them too, sometimes simple is better.
 
robmneilson said:
I have seen some doorway dollies for sell from vendors on eBay. I was wondering if anyone had any experience, or an opinion on something like this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Doorway-Dol...887?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e754f8657
Click to expand...

That's a nice dolly, I do love how they advertise that it was used in a video for TI, as if that adds some value to it.[/QUOTE]


It seems OK and the price is excellent. To run on track you will need something like this:
http://www.willyswidgets.com/products/camera-dolly-32-wheel-channel-dolly-complete/
 
For me, it comes down to the following things:

1. Affordability
2. Speed
3. Transportability

If it's super expensive, I won't make my investment back as quick. Since I work a lot of very small budget shoots, I can't afford to invest a ton of money into a system that isn't going to make it back. One expensive purchase could see my business suffer greatly. Speed is also extremely important. Since I rarely even have one assistant, I can't use a really complicated, heavy, time consuming dolly. And having it fold down and fit into my Honda element is an absolute requirement.

That's why I think the Long Valley Super Track Dolly is an amazingly affordable option.

http://www.longvalleyequip.com/dolly.php

Does anyone have this dolly? I'd like some opinions on it. I've looked at the flexible track dollies, but none of them seem to have the ability to have a ride along operator. Which seems to be the entire point of a dolly. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to operate and push the dolly and get a useable shot.
 
Totally agree with Jon Furtado.
i'm also looking for a dolly sytem. I've been searching for 2 days now and could not make a decision. Plus, i live in france and it's very hard to find good prices considering shipping fees plus import duties...
I'm in the $400/500 range.
 
I have the long valley dolly. It works great. I bought the connectors for PVC. It sets up pretty well. I am looking into getting real track but the issue with that is, as you know, portability. I'm thinking of tying it onto a roof rack. I find the PVC a little bumpy in circumstances, a pain in the neck and time consuming to set up.

If you get the "kit" and build it yourself, which I did, you can save on shipping to Europe
 
Why not? Maye you're right. I'll check on their website if they ship to Europe.
The only concern I have is connection between tracks, especially cheap pvc. Has anyone notice bumps or is it totally smooth with pvc pipes connections ?
 
I have the connections from long valley. They work fine. It's a matter of cutting the pvc square and then not beating it up in transport. The only way to keep the PVC still that I use is to bag the ends with sandbags. At least that's all I've come up with. Also, you can't level them outside. So if you're doing a move anywhere except in a flat room, they don't really work right.

I can't find any used Matthews tracks but that's what I'd like to use. The dolly is 24.5 inches on center so it's not a problem on real track.
 
hscully said:
I have the connections from long valley. They work fine. It's a matter of cutting the pvc square and then not beating it up in transport. The only way to keep the PVC still that I use is to bag the ends with sandbags. At least that's all I've come up with. Also, you can't level them outside. So if you're doing a move anywhere except in a flat room, they don't really work right.

I can't find any used Matthews tracks but that's what I'd like to use. The dolly is 24.5 inches on center so it's not a problem on real track.
Click to expand...


I believe I saw some wooden struts somewhere to brace the PVC. But if you start using metal track. That's a whole other price range/hassle.
 
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