Camera Cranes

[David Jones]

What type of budget?

[Steve Wargo]

http://www.ezfx.com

We’ve had ours for 6 years and it rent it out daily. No problems.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona

It’s a dry heat!

[Doug Hodgson]

That jib arm at ezfx looks pretty good. They have some nice testimonial video up there as well. It seems well constructed and at a reasonable price. Thanks for the info again Steve… as you’ve given me some good advice in the past!

PS. Hey Dave (CSIF), drop me a line. I read an old post saying that you made some track out of pvc pipe.

[Mitch Gross]

I have a Porta-Jib that I prefer to the EZ/FX jib. Personal taste thing, but I find it to be smoother and more versatile.

Mitch

[Frank Otto]

If you have the budget, the Porta-Jib is (IMHO) the best small jib on the market. All machined and very smooth to operate.

Having said that, we own a EZ-FX jib. It’s less expensive, but moves well. My only fault with it is the nylon bushings instead of bearings on the vertical travel points – and it does require tightening of the bolts on the vertical travel points occasionally. Set up is faster than the Porta-Jib, but not by much.

But for the price it may well be the best bet out there, especially for medium weight cameras (we use a Panasonic 575 w/DVCPRO 50 back – 18 lbs).

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Mitch Gross]

I should also point out that a friend of mine has an EZ/FX jib and has a devil of a time transporting it. It apparently only had some soft bags available and he couldn’t find a hardcase to fit it. Frank, what do you use?

For my Porta-Jib, I could have purchased a hard case from the manufacturer, but instead found that I could fit the whole unit in the largest Storm Case (designed to hold a couple of rifles) and have room on the end for 60 ibs. of counterweights. The whole thing weighs about 175 ibs., but when flying I leave the weights behind and pick up something locally. And the case does have wheels on one end so it rolls easily, plus it will store standing up with no added support (I call it the monolith).

Mitch

[Frank Otto]

Mitch:

Our jib never leaves the property…although that property is about 300 acres worth of the Las Vegas Strip ( Flamingo, Paris, Ballys, Caesars Palace, Harrah’s).

It hangs nicely on a hotel Bell Cart and rides with an Arri light kit, the weights, c-stands, AC, tripods and heads, 14″ monitor and WFM and misc grip stuff.We just roll (and it rolls very well) from site to site via the several miles of concrete connecting the resorts.

Your “monolith” sounds like the case we had made for our rig at Pacific Telephone – 3’x3’x6′ – stand it on end and wheel the E.N.G (brand name) crash cart fully loaded into it and ship. We called our “the Coffin” which made for interesting comments picking up at air freight.

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Mitch Gross]

My monolith case is about 20″x8″x50″. Pretty thin & fairly mobile on the built-in wheels. I used to have a video village built into a case that sounds similar to your beast, about 4’x2’x2′. Roll ‘er onto set and pull off the top and I was ready for business, but I was always being banned from going anywhere near location because it was deemed too large for practical spaces in NYC, so it became client monitor.

Mitch

[Mitch Gross]

A couple people have asked me about my “monolith” Storm Case. It is the iM3300 model, shown here:

https://www.cases4less.com/detail_storm_3300.html

It (just barely) fits my Porta-Jib with 60 ibs. of counterweights. It could probably fit some other small jibs like a Cinekinetic, Trovatto (does he still make ’em?), or Seven Jib. I don’t think it would fit an EZ/FX jib, but perhaps it breaks down more than I know. You might be able to pack one in some tripod tubes, but that can get expensive if you need a few and the gear needs to be padded inside or it won’t last very long.

Mitch

[Steve Wargo]

The mini EZFX jib will fit in a case but the normal arm is 4′ long and a little bit.

Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona

It’s a dry heat!