16' DIY Polecam for professional use

[Warren Kawamoto]

I'm almost there! I've been working on this garage project for several months now. I'm doing the final tweaking; the pans and tilts are still not quite as smooth as I would like them. There is also an apparent see sawing on moves which I want to eliminate.

If you are in the San Francisco Bay area and need footage shot with this, please contact me! I currently have a Canon 5Dmii on it, and I'm working on the remote focusing mechanism right now. I can swap head cables and fit a small video camera (CX-550) and control it with lanc for zoom, focus, start/stop.

Here's a short video of it:

YouTube (Short URL)

[Chris Barcellos]

Hi Warren

Nice Pro looking rig! What kind of money are talking about for the build so far?

[Donald McPherson]

Have you thought about using "DSLR Controller" an android app. for focusing?

[Warren Kawamoto]

Thanks, Chris. I haven't tallied up the total cost, but off the top of my head, the carbon fiber poles were $1800, Servocity head $399, aluminum plates and tubes $50, wiring $70, weights $38, various nuts, bolts, washers, and clips $30, etc. I'm "borrowing" the controller and joystick from my Jimmy Jib. If I can get my rig to perform the way I want, I'll add 2 more extensions, making it a 24' unit.

Donald, thanks for the heads up about the android focus app, I didn't know about it! The focusing unit is actually done, but not connected yet. I'm waiting for a flexible lens focus gear to arrive in the mail. The focus servo is also borrowed from Jimmy Jib since it can be controlled from the control box. All I need to do is attach a short rod to the baseplate, hook up the servo, then I'm good to go.

An authentic starter Polecam kit costs around $10k. I just saw an Indian knockoff (I think it was Cine city Pro aim) for about $2300 but Pro aim is known to build theirs with poor quality.

[Bruce Dempsey]

neat hardly need a dji phantom now
how did you manage those truck shots? was the whole rig rolling?

[Jim Michael]

Looks like a great tool for real estate features.

[Warren Kawamoto]

Originally Posted by Bruce Dempsey

how did you manage those truck shots? was the whole rig rolling?

There were no truck shots at all, the tripod was absolutely stationary. The last indoor shot looked like a truck shot because the boom was swinging to the right while the head was panning to the left at the same speed. My target was the door, I tried to keep it centered, giving the illusion that the camera was moving forward when in fact it was traveling in an arc.