tips to buy the best JIB – price, quality –

[Todd Terry]

I live and die by the Porta-Jib Traveller by Losmandy.

At about $2500 it’s certainly not the cheapest, since there are lots of pretty darn cheap jibs out there… but it’s big benefits are easy set-up, compact size, built like a tank yet is not heavy, and the fact that it’s one of the very few jibs that you can easily and instantly change the length on… the sections just telescope in and out… no adding or subtracting sections.

Here’s a little animated gif of ours from our website… shown holding up a 23-pound camera and a 10-pound head…

We have had ours for well over ten years and it has been on countless countless shoots… and other than replacing one lever once (which simply wore out) it has always worked great and never needed any attention.

https://porta-jib.com/traveller.htm

T2

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

[Jason Jenkins]

I, too, have a Porta-Jib Traveller, but alas… no animated gif. Keep in mind that the $2,500 can easily escalate (depending on how many animated gifs you want). I ended up getting the purpose-made tripod for $500 and just got the floor dolly for another $1,200. And if you get the hard cases for all that, you can add another grand. It’s all high quality stuff and it looks cool too. Although, I must say that my little Panasonic GH2 does look a bit ridiculous on the end of the Porta-Jib.

Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!

[Malcolm Matusky]

I just purchased a cobracrane fotocrane; for very light cameras! I’m using it with a DSLR, the fotocrane only has a 4′ extention from the tripod head, but for interior work it is enough for me. The tilt mechanism uses the fluid head on your tripod, rather smooth, collapses to a small size for travel, decent build quality, great price!

They make longer ones, and dual arm models for heavy cameras, all use a tripod and fluid head to tilt the camera, if they are as nice as my small model they are a good buy.

Malcolm
http://www.malcolmproductions.com