Crane Operation (DSLR)

H

Heartfelt

Well-known member
I have some experience with a cobracrane and an HMC40. I am about to venture into DSLR video land. The issue that focus "is" and issue where as with the 40, it was all auto in my work.


My question is "what is your workflow like with DSLR and a crane"?

Are you using remote pendants?
Are you using auto focus?
Do you set focus on the ground and then do your crane work?

Thanks
Rob
 
Last edited:
ok, ill throw in my 2 cents.

ive own a 12' crane with a motorized head & joystick for a little over a month now. my available cameras are EX1, HMC150, 5DmkII & T2i. lenses from fisheye to very wide everything in the middle and high telephoto.

the EX1 will live on the crane the most because focus is pretty well taken care of in general use. got a remote for zooming/start/stop. obviously is you plan to zoom in on an EX1 and place your subject off center than this wont work. ill get a lot of mileage out of my rig with remote head but it wont be near as much about shallow DOF. if i had the luxury of an assistant to pull focus that would be nice but i dont plan on it so ill just be happy with more general "in focus" stuff.

the thing is that i have great looking wide angle glass for my 5D that ill use but ill be stopped down enough to cover the infocus range and accept and call it a day.

about the only way i see using shallow dof on the crane is if its a predetermined distance of focus let say 85mm @f4.0 and ill use the crane to approach the subject to eventually be in focus and yes, id set up the focus first manually then back out the crane so i can move in to the predetermined focus spot. i dont see using this much though because im looking for higher quantity of crane coverage of shooting fluid and changing situations and that wont be with reall shallow DOF.

if you havent used DSLR's yet i highly recommend that you keep your HMC40 around especially for crane use. if you dont have one yet you need to get a remote for start/stop/record. get a long extension so you can put it at control position. an LCD monitor at control position as well if you plan to enjoy working with the crane.

david
 
5d.jpg

7d on a Jimmy Jib Giant.

Used a BM HDMI-SDI converter (battery powered) to feed the sdi monitor at the operator end.


Had to bring it down to ground to start or stop it.

It was a pain in the ass, but we had the crane for the Varicam 2700 as the A cam, and when the A cam went over to the steadycam op, I said, WTF, lets try it.

Counter balancing was "fun".
 
David,
Thanks for the info. Most of my crane work will be about showing off a facility and therefore, a deep field of focus will be wanted. With your thoughts, I will plan to stick to that unless something very special comes up. It also points well to autofocus as being crucial and with the GH2, I should be ok, there.

Matt,
Sweet rig, wow. I've known it is being done but didn't have a good procedural understanding. Out of curiosity, what were you shooting in the warehouse type facility? You pic looks representative of my field.


Thank you both. I'm sure it is strange to have a guy posting about DSLR equipment that confesses to no experience. This is the nature of my job. I suggest something can be done, I tell them I think I can do it, resources are purchased and viola, we enter a new genre of marketing. It makes the job fun and interesting and proves that being teachable is the greatest strength to have.

Thanks again. This helps as I spec out my package for purchase.
Rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top