Hi Guys, Has anyone one used the Glidecam Camcrane 200? Any feedback would be much appreciated. Also, if there is any other similar products that anyone could recommend. Are these types of equipment difficult to operate.? Long learning curve? Do you need a monitor to get any type of effective shot? Thanks,
Neil

I have the unit and its really not bad for the price you pay. Couple of things you should know before buying. Make sure you have a strong tripod and I mean strong. Also you will need a monitor, I picked up the Ikan and it seems to do the trick for me.You are going to want to pick up a motorized head for the camera and depending on the size of the camera you are using it could get a little pricey. I use mine with the HV30 and Sony Z7 and it works great.

Thanks, Did you purchase it at Vistek? If not, where?

Ya I bought the unit trough Vistek, I picked up a small motorized head through Markertek, its nothing fancy but it works for what I need it for. The biggest thing for me was the Tripod, I picked up an old Hercules and it works great. If you do decide to get a motorized head make sure you get long enough cable from the head to your remote.

Great. Thanks again.

Kessler Crane® - Quality Professional Camera Cranes, Camera Jib & Camera Support Products - Home (http://www.kesslercrane.com/)
Allows you to control the camera tilt itself from the base of the crane.

watch this
http://www.kesslercrane.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=99

Kessler Crane® - Quality Professional Camera Cranes, Camera Jib & Camera Support Products - Home (http://www.kesslercrane.com/)
Allows you to control the camera...

Pretty impressive stuff. Pricing is quite reasonable too.

Neat thing about Kessler Crane is that they have
Tooless version which makes field assembly easy
The head has a built in controllable tilt function which means you can avoid motorized head.
The downside is that although they have a dolly for it and it's inexpensive it's proprietary (you have to get their tripod). If you don't need the dolly, the jib/crane is probably the best bang for the buck in terms of size/flexibility.

I looked at the other cranes mentioned in this thread before I made my purchase and nothing came close IMHO.

Thanks Craig. I just went down to our video specialty store here in Toronto (Vistek) and they had a Comely Productions DVC2 DV Crane II. Looked great, really inexpensive but apparently solidly built. Anyone hear anything about it?

Here's their site
Camera Cranes, Jib Arms and Boom Cranes - CamCrane.com (http://www.camcrane.com/)
B&H also sells them. Only supports a max of 10lbs though. While an EX1 would make that, it's cutting it close.
http://www.camcrane.com/usa-can/en/pdf/dv_craneii2_flyer_2008_v2.pdf
I like the fact that it has a tilt control.
Max height seems to be a hair under 8ft.
Kessler can hold up to 25lbs and you can add accessories to extend it to 12ft.
Kessler has a very good reputation (and if you follow the ads in the upper right you'll see they're a DVInfo sponsor).
Camely crane does look interesting though but I'd be concerned about the weight/height limitation but one might find the "one bar" vs "two bar" support easier to deal with.

Hi Guys, Has anyone one used the Glidecam Camcrane 200? Any feedback would be much appreciated. Also, if there is any other similar products that anyone could recommend. Are these types of equipment difficult to operate.? Long learning curve? Do you need a monitor to get any type of effective shot? Thanks,
Neil

I have the Camcrane, I actually got mine used along with a really nice crane tripod at Amazon marketplace for a good deal. You need to purchase some barbell weights to make it work well.

It's a good basic crane, light, smooth. If you want tilt and pan you should get one of the cheap electrical remote units to control that aspect of it and of course some way to monitor the output. I'm using a Sony 820 DVD player that has surprisingly good resolution even with the composite video input.