New changes
 

I added more flags to my homemade matte box. Hinges and rear flags to close in the back. Check out the new 6 pictures at the bottom of the page. It is really coming along now.

http://www.realnola.com/dvprojects/

Good looking work.

A suggestion for camera protection. Find a stubby gas cylinder, the kind they use for holding up van doors and hoods and set it alongside the back of the camera mount on the crane side so if the crane drops, the cylinder lets the whole thing down softly. Even a gas shock for a small car might be useful.

I think you can purchase carbon fibre sheet that could be used for your shades. Same for some of the bits and pieces.

http://www.macqc.com/raceplates/ is a supplier of this.

Tubing can be purchased from http://www.macqc.com/mqc1.html

Just a thought.

Agree
 

the new design is using a hydroaulic ram on the front that will extend the full height but not allow the camera to reach below 12 inches from the ground, it will softly cushion a sudden fall but allow free operation:) Yep that is a good idea and is being incorporated into the new design which you can check out at

http://www.realnola.com/dvprojects/

Scroll down to the bottom.. I didn't add a lot of fine details like the ram but I am also going to most likely have a braking system setup so I can lock the boom in place at any point, helps when needing to adjust something like the lighting. I saw this problem on a set the other day where these guys had to hold the crane in place or at least it looked that way. I think the brake will be a nice addition to the new crane.

Thanks for the feedback!