Looking to buy budget crane. Need some recomendations.

Demistate

Demistate

Veteran
I was looking into buying the Cobra Crane 1 for my setup, However my concern is the weight. My 503 head is only rated for (I think) 17lb, and the crane looks like with camera, it could be more than the head's recomended weight.


I plan on going to HVX-200 as well, and it weighs .1 more lb than cobracrane 1 is designed to hold up. Should I be going for Cobra Crane 2?
 
I have a cobra crane 1+ and I load the heck out of it on my tripod. I think my tripod is rated for 25 pounds though.. the cobra crane does not weigh that much/ But you have to put about 10 pounds of weight on one end to counter balance the camera on the other. So it could easily reach 30 pounds...

I bought the crane +1 on Ebay for 78.00... No one bid on it.. Lucky me..... Then I bought a Bogen Manfrotto tripod for 150.00.. Just for the crane....

So maybe check around Ebay for a few deals.. If you are in no hurry to get it. watch everyday and you should be able to pick one up cheaply enough. I see them sell used for 125.00 on average... There are new ones listed all the time. Just ignore those ones unless money is no object...

I hope this helps you...
 
My honest thoughts:
I have the cobra crane I with the 3' extention, and I have loved it. It has worked well, and I have loaded the heck out of it with my DVX, accessories, and weights. My only concern is that with the head I use sometimes the crane can become unparallel to the ground, since the crane is positioned to one side of the head. I think the benifit of the II model is that the weight is distributed through two sides rather then one.
With that said-

Sales Pitch (Kind of)-
I'm going to be selling my crane with the extention to upgrade to the crane II. If you are still interested, the crane is in great shape, and I'm sure we could work something out. (Great sales pitch huh? :) )
 
I just recently bought a kessler crane and it works very smoothly. It was the best jib I could find for the amount of money i had to spend. Call Eric over there he will answer any question you might have. I bought the 8 foot but he told me if I needed the extension later you can purchase it seperate. Check out the footage they have on their site. It works just like it says.
 
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