other choices to “Digital Juice Orbit Dolly”

[Todd Terry]

Interesting…

Strangely (or maybe not) enough, that looks almost exactly like the Axis Dolly which has been around for quite a while. Pretty much exactly.

These types of dollys, which are all more-or-less based on the original and great (but overpriced) Skater from P+S Technik all rely on having one thing available… a perfectly smooth floor. That’s easy enough when doing tabletop product shots, and easy enough to do in studio… but when you leave the soundstage and go on location it’s a different story completely. We don’t have this unit exactly but something somewhat similar, and I do a lot of dolly shots in a lot of different location environments. I’d say maybe maybe one time out of 20 am I on a location where the floor surface would be good enough to use that. And that’s a generous guess. We’ll see all kinds of flooring in the places we shoot…. wood, stone, tile, concrete, whatever. They almost never have a smooth perfect polished floor like a studio does (maybe in the occasional dance studio, or in a car dealership showroom that happens to have a smooth terrazzo floor). Even those that look like they might work end up not really working in practicality. In almost every instance I end up having to lay track (incidentally, with this dolly’s dual wheels it might ride on track when needed… but they don’t show that so I can’t be sure).

I’d say it’d be fine in studio, but on location its application would be somewhat limited.

I do wish all these guys who have cropped up making various dollys would incorporate legitimate attachments for the tripod legs. It wouldn’t be that hard at all. Sticking the legs into oversized “cups” and then having to lash the tripod down with bungee cords seems a bit wonky to me… not to mention kinda cheap and tacky looking.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Gerardo Flores]

Hi Todd, Thank you for your comment.

🙂 it is funny how the Axis Dolly looks similar as this orbit dolly … but 3 times more expensive.
if you have a look on the youtube link of the video some people even think that the Orbit Dolly is overpriced … I know this things are not cheap but must be some other choices.

The Axis Dolly you mentioned looks very good but you say that even though it is not enough for some
irregular floors or difficult environment locations; can you please mentions some of those that you
use in those difficult locations, for total beginner like me is difficult to find those names and brands…
and Todd how much it does cost some of those professional dolly???

have a nice weekend

Gerardo

learning after effects