What gear should dinoDV design and build for you?

D

dinoDV

New member
Hello DVX users,

I'm a CAD/CAM/CNC machinist looking to start a new line of high-quality and affordable DV accessories. I thought there's no better people to ask than the filmmakers themselves. Research, design, and prototyping/re-visioning will probably take up to four months from now. I plan on using 5052/6061 High-grade aluminum and HDPE high-density engineering plastic for the main construction materials. Any suggestions would be really appreciated. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

What 5 items (I'll start with 5 products, and gradually design more) from the list below should every indie filmmaker have? How much should you pay for each of those 5 items? You can also PM me if you wish, and let me know what your pet peeves with other online stores are, as I'll be opening an online store in the coming months called 'dinoDV.com'

1. Matte box
2. Ladder dolly
3. Crane
4. Shoulder harness
5. DV dolly
6. Glide Track
7. Tripod
8. Mini Tripod
9. Underwater Camera Housing
10. Shotgun Mic Holder
11. External Mic Balance & Headphones
12. LED video lighting
13. Zeppelin Mic Housing
14. Battery Bag
15. Glide-Cam / Steady-Cam
16. DV Car-mount
17. Rugged Handle for low-angle shots
18. Hard Case for DV Cam
19. LANC Controller
20. Lighting clamps, misc. clamps
21. LCD Monitor
22. Mono-pod
23. High-wire rig for overhead shooting
24. DV cam Fig Rig (steering wheel)
25. Any other items you may think of...

Thanks,

Mike
'dinoDV'
 
dinoDV said:
Hello DVX users,

I'm a CAD/CAM/CNC machinist looking to start a new line of high-quality and affordable DV accessories. I thought there's no better people to ask than the filmmakers themselves. Research, design, and prototyping/re-visioning will probably take up to four months from now. I plan on using 5052/6061 High-grade aluminum and HDPE high-density engineering plastic for the main construction materials. Any suggestions would be really appreciated. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

What 5 items (I'll start with 5 products, and gradually design more) from the list below should every indie filmmaker have? How much should you pay for each of those 5 items? You can also PM me if you wish, and let me know what your pet peeves with other online stores are, as I'll be opening an online store in the coming months called 'dinoDV.com'

1. Matte box
2. Ladder dolly
3. Crane
4. Shoulder harness
5. DV dolly
6. Glide Track
7. Tripod
8. Mini Tripod
9. Underwater Camera Housing
10. Shotgun Mic Holder
11. External Mic Balance & Headphones
12. LED video lighting
13. Zeppelin Mic Housing
14. Battery Bag
15. Glide-Cam / Steady-Cam
16. DV Car-mount
17. Rugged Handle for low-angle shots
18. Hard Case for DV Cam
19. LANC Controller
20. Lighting clamps, misc. clamps
21. LCD Monitor
22. Mono-pod
23. High-wire rig for overhead shooting
24. DV cam Fig Rig (steering wheel)
25. Any other items you may think of...

Thanks,

Mike
'dinoDV'
Click to expand...
Im thinking these pop out at me PERSONALLY:
1. Matte Box
2. Dolly
3. Crane
4. Steadycam with vest and all
 
Just a thought... you might want to check with DVXUser admins and make sure that you aren't getting free advertising in direct competition with (or soliciting bad feedback about) DVXUser sponsors, who pay for their advertising and keep these forums running.
 
C2V said:
Just a thought... you might want to check with DVXUser admins and make sure that you aren't getting free advertising in direct competition with (or soliciting bad feedback about) DVXUser sponsors, who pay for their advertising and keep these forums running.
Click to expand...

Thanks C2V,

I took a look at the forum disclaimer and didn't see any caveats pertaining to competitive behavior, or more specifically, conflict of advertising interests.

I have no products whatsoever to advertise, my pencil hasn't even hit the drawing board! lol I'm mainly just interested in creating quality film-making equipment for you guys. I've noticed that many people actually use this forum to warn others about bogus sellers and badly built equipment. I cannot stop users from speaking their mind about equipment, nor will I talk badly about other products.

I'll make sure that when I'm ready to advertise, I'll use my own website and my existing Google Adsense account to advertise finished products that exist. I'll also contact the admins for permission to use this forum.

I hope this is satisfactory.

Cheers!
 
Personally I would be looking at these items... I have a jib, dolly, led lights, fig rig and gluidecam which I found more useful.

1. Matte box (with sliding focus/zoom)
9. Underwater Camera Housing
15. Glide-Cam / Steady-Cam (VEST AND ARM)
16. DV Car-mount
20. Lighting clamps, misc. clamps
21. LCD Monitor
 
Last edited:
1. Matte box (How about something a little compact - like the Vocas unit - that costs about 500 bucks?)

9. Underwater Camera Housing (How about a hard housing with a wired remote for around 500 bucks?)

14. Battery Bag (How about a battery belt that doesn't use fancy electronics that sh!t the bed after a year (Hello, Anton Bauer), that could be used to power the camera and anything else attached?)

18. Hard Case for DV Cam (How about a line of durable hard cases that don't cost an arm and a leg?)

24. DV cam Fig Rig (steering wheel) (Maybe a wheel, maybe a rectangle with an LED level?)

25. Any other items you may think of... (Come to think of it, an LED level would be nice.)

.
 
Thanks guys, great suggestions. Keep them coming.

I already have a few drawings made up. The price point should be roughly half of what you mentioned above.

I'd love to hear a bit more specifics about matte boxes, dollies, and underwater housings.

Mike
 
dinoDV said:
Thanks guys, great suggestions. Keep them coming.

I already have a few drawings made up. The price point should be roughly half of what you mentioned above.

I'd love to hear a bit more specifics about matte boxes, dollies, and underwater housings.

Mike
Click to expand...


The Redrock Micro mattebox is great, but it'd be nice if there was something more minimal that you didn't need a separate case for that still allowed for use of glass filters. The Vocas MB-350 matte box is a great example of a smaller matte box but it's way too expensive. Having the internal eyebrows is very helpful when you're not working with an AC and have a lot of setups to shoot.

http://www.libraprobroadcast.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=vocas-mb350

An underwater housing only really needs to be an acrylic box with handles on it and maybe some weights for buoyancy control and possibly a scheme for controlling heat in the housing (to prevent condensation). Most, if not all underwater stuff would be shot wide angle so focus or focal length isn't all that much of an issue. As long as there's a way to turn the camera record on and off and adjust exposure controls (possibly with a wired remote control), that'd be fine for like 90% of what anyone would need to shoot underwater in my opinion.

Having one housing that you could use for multiple camera models would be great too.

Regarding dollies, the various portable dollies out there are adequate in my opinion. What there is a distinct shortage of is dolly track. I use a homemade doorway dolly and track, but it'd be great to be able to buy 8' sections of joinable straight track possibly using aluminum pipe for less than what this costs:

http://www.cinemagadgets.com/straight-track-p-388.html

Many people use speedrail (aluminum pipe) as dolly track, so why not build real track using speedrail and make the sections joinable? It'd be cheaper to ship also.

.
 
Thanks for the great suggestions Chris.

I've followed your suggestion and designed one housing that will accommodate multiple camera types, while only having to purchase one set of accessories. I've named this housing design "Exoshell," because it seems to describe the function fairly well.

I've also started with design ideas for an underwater housing; "Aquashell," that will use the removable top plate of the Exoshell, and just slide inside of the underwater housing. I still have lots of design work before I start prototyping, but I thought I'd let you know I'm still on it.

Thanks,
Mike
 
my vote for what to build would be a rail system similar to RR and Zacuto (eyespy type of rig) that doesnt cost and arm and a leg. i dont think it has to be quite as pretty as those but it cant look like it was made in a basement. for the prices they are charging it seems like there is room for someone to come in well below them with a good solid product and still make money.

especially the people using DSLR's are looking for this alternative to crazy expensive guys like RR and Z.

david
www.davidprobst.com
 
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