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June 28th, 2003, 07:17 PM
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#1 |
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Major Player
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 331
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Thoughts on Bogen portable video dolly?
Hi all,
Was looking at ideas for a tripod purchase today and came upon a nice little portable video dolly for the Bogen 475/501 tripod. Anyone have experience with one of these dollies? I know they are probably not as good as full blown dolly, but really, how good are they? On a flat surface, can you dolly pretty smooth? |
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June 28th, 2003, 07:43 PM
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#2 |
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Trustee
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Luis Obispo CA
Posts: 1,195
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Nick,
to be honest...these things are better for moving the camera around than they are for pulling good dolly shots. It's key to have a marly floor or other super smooth surface to work on, and if you can, add some weight to the dolly and tripod. The problem is the casters, they aren't much better than shopping cart wheels (I think they are shopping cart wheels) so they tend to wiggle back and forth at anything other than a super slow speed. With practice you can do ok, although you may find yourself shooting more than a few takes to get it right. Barry |
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June 28th, 2003, 08:02 PM
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#3 |
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Major Player
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 331
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Barry,
Thanks, I wasn't planning to buy one--but I just had to ask. I didn't see any comments about this dolly in this community, so I figured it was another cheap tool on the market. Thanks. |
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June 30th, 2003, 08:01 AM
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#4 |
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Major Player
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: New York
Posts: 329
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I'll rent you my Auto-Dolly...
I agree with the above, don't waste your money, unless you are using it to move around a studio or warehouse. Its a pain in the arse... I wasted my cash on it. Now, it supports my tripod and camera when I'm in studio. Whoop-T-Do-Da. Hope this helps. Cheers! Derrick |
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June 30th, 2003, 08:32 AM
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#5 |
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Retired DV Info Net Almunus
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Austin, TX USA
Posts: 2,882
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June 30th, 2003, 11:31 AM
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#6 |
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Retired DV Info Net Almunus
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,943
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As others have mentioned, the Bogen auto-dolly is a handy thing to have for safely moving a loaded rig across a level floor. It is possible, in a pinch, to get small horizontal motion shots with it. But it is certainly not a motion dolly. Buy it only with inter-shot gear repositioning in mind.
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Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com |
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June 30th, 2003, 11:36 AM
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#7 |
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Air China Pilot
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Vancouver, B.C.
Posts: 2,389
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other dollies?
I'm interested to hear of opinions on any other dollies such as the Flex Track.
In the American Cinematographer current issue there is an ad for another portable dolly system (I forget what the name was) which was basically a skateboard in PVC unit but I assume more professionally made (one would hope).
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-- Visit http://www.KeithLoh.com | stuff about living in Vancouver | My Flickr photo gallery |
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June 30th, 2003, 01:41 PM
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#8 |
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Major Player
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: US & THEM
Posts: 827
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i use a manfrotto 114, which has the 5 in wheels
with a piece of 1/4 in thick hardboard about 6 ft long 4 ft wide (car roof rack portable) i get some amazing truck and dolly shots by running the dolly over the shiny side of the hardboard - the ground underneath has to be reasonably flat eg grass , carpet, tiled floor etc my shots are very slow crawls ( and 6 ft is about enough to get the job done 'n dusted) i stole this idea from someone who even had his hardboard painted up with his company's logo (hows that for marketing on the job!! - product placement etc) also manfrotto used to sell a cradle which fixed to the tripod for a video deck (back in the days when cam and deck were seperates) i use this handy device to carry an aluminium case full of my gear for extra downweight on the dolly
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John Jay Beware ***PLUGGER-BYTES*** |
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