Question withdrawn, I've made up my own mind on the matter.

Here's my jib arm
 

Still working on it - this is a prototype. Final one will be built out of aluminium and made to be dis-assembled.

Here is it anyway. In this photograph is it mounted on a Velbon D7000 video tripod but it needs separate legs because I don't want to bend the screw fitting on the tripod - there's a lot of weight there. Behind me in the picture is a 7.5kg gym weight.

Crane lifts to about 8 feet but the aluminium version will extend further.


Russ

Here is My Crane I built
 

I built this crane a few months ago and if you look at it it is ajustable in length it goes from the shortest of 8 foot to 21 foot in length I have photos on my web site as I can not upload attachments yet.

I used it full lenth to video a Canival parade and it it in its 12 foot legth to video a tire balancing video. and used it in it's shortest lenth to video a band in a recording studio.

http://cdvideo.ca/wordpress/?page_id=84

copy and past will get you directly to the photo pages

DaNc
cdvideo.ca

Ah. From the DVTEC stand at IOV! Hello!

I'll post pics as soon as I can post attachments

DIY boom one
 

Here's a link to a photo gallery of a DIY boom constructed from various bike and snowmobile parts. The beam is just a light rail for a DJ lighting system. Worked great for getting no bounce.

http://www.njfreelance.com/boom2

Nick, that has got to be the most ingenius remote control system I have ever seen! Looks more like you "steer" the camera. And especially dig the use of the hand brakes. Any links to your final shots? Would love to see some of the work you shot!

Awesome looking rig, Dan.
Looks hi-tech, not homemade! Does it also pick up Ham Radio? Looks like an antenna! Just kiddin' of course. Does it take a while to assemble? Looks almost like you made it telescoping- is it?

Jim

My Jib Crane
 

Yes it is telescopic I can use it from a short 7 foot to a 21 foot jib . I know it looks like an antene but it keeps it from bowing at the longest length.

It is does not take to long to assemble as it is self contained and when you know what length you want you extend it and lock the sections with pins and select what cables to use and add the spreaders if you need them on the longer lengths.

I am in the middle of building a hydraulic turet. it is about 50% done I just need to fabricate the control end. It will make the head feel more a tripoded camera where you have a better feel of what the camera is doing (A fluid head), not like a joy stick control where it moves but your only feed back is what you see in the monitor. No feel of the movement.


DaNc

Crane and dolly Blue print
 

can some body help me please i'm looking for a blue print to build a solid dolly and crane like u guys. Can some one help me out?

I purchased a Kessler Crane and still use that some times but I wanted a longer crane so I built my from my own design, that I thought out, after looking at other cranes. No actual Blue prints or plans.

DaNc

My Crane
 

Hi,

I have been building a crane for a while, and what started out as a pretty quick way of getting my camera high up has turned into a pretty major project. The crane now has a full pan tilt head with a programable computer controlled fan cooled progressive joystick controlled controller. I also have a fairly unique cable and bungee cantilever system to keep the head level, which replaces the solid bar often seen on home made cranes.

Let me know what you think,
Pete. any questions, email me: pete<dot>hoare<at>gmail<dot>com

www.whogivesatoss.com/crane1.jpg - The crane in the sky

http://www.whogivesatoss.com/crane2.jpg - the single plug bulgin connection that carries voltage and signal to the motors and it will also carry the remote lanc control when I have installed it.

http://www.whogivesatoss.com/crane3.jpg - The crane looking up at a second story window. The second cantilever is wonky at the moment, I need some turn buckles to adjust the angle, but it still works anyway.

http://www.whogivesatoss.com/crane4.jpg - The head, this pic shows the motors, drive belts, and my paintjob :-)

http://www.whogivesatoss.com/crane5.jpg - This is the head controller. It still needs two rocker switches that will disable and reverse the motor direction. It also needs a 2.5mm jack socket to plug the LANC controller into.

Heres a video of the crane afew weeks ago.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rbn_EgOq1jc

The head is unpainted and it only has one cantilever thingy. The reason I added a second was because the corner of the head kept twanging on the cable so I added the second one to transfer the cable to the top to avoid this.

A great investment
 

Terry, I'm in Louisville also and you can go to my site and see everything about my jib, how it's used and different set-ups involved. Call if you have any questions.

www.kyvideoservices.com

here's mine
 

it needed some reinforcing from the original design but it seems to work pretty well. I'm going to double the length but it would only take the weight of the A1 not head, LEX and lens.

Here is mine
 

Its a Pro Jib 9.0 with a Bescor pan-tilt (good enough for what I do), I use the bag to hold a 2 liter bottle so I can "fine" trim the balance. It stands on a JBL speaker stand (roughly 24lbs of weight plus the crane is about 16lbs and the cam and head are about 5lbs or so). I have pics of how it is attached to stand on a different thread.

I like the low profile of this crane. I will probably upgrade the head to one of those Servo City ones in the near future. one of the things I really like about this crane is that it easily breaks down into 3 x 3' sections, so I can use it as a 6' er as well. I am trying to get a hold of another section so I can go to 12'

If you're into Cricket , you might see shots from it on Stanford 20/20 tournament this February.

I posted this thread months ago promising I would post a photo of my crane when it was finished...well as it turns out, my engineer pushed the job aside to work on a rat rod he is building. Understandable since the purpose for the crane was to film a video for a historical site I work with from time to time but never got my grant. As it turns out, it is a good thing we didn't completely finish it. I have been looking at other designs lately and think for my purposes a different design would be more beneficial for my time spent in its construction. My original design was almost exactly like the Kessler 12" crane. The problem with their crane is that there is you can't pan or tilt the camera...it just simply sits in position however you have it fastened. What I am looking into now, is a design that will allow me to achieve these pan/tilt shots. However, what I keep finding are these crazy expensive electronic pan/tilt heads that we would not be able to build. are simple mechanical pan/tilt heads?

Terry.

Look into the Servo city unit that is about to be released. it looks very promising and cost around $500 us (theoretically)

Gerry, Thank you, i'll look into it.

and sorry for the typos lol, I have to stop trying to construct ideas when I am half asleep :)

The Kessler crane does tilt manually via the lever. you would only need a device to pan the camera

Allen - Yeah, haha I know I even built the thing. My brain must have not been working or something.

Alright I found someone (Cody) who has actually built one of these electronic pan/tilt heads from a couple R/C servo motors. Its awesome! but its real loud like an R/C car. Would that be a major issue?

http://www.homebuiltstabilizers.com/...s/codysjib.wmv

I want one for christmas santa

It depends if you have a mic on the camera.

Also, if you were to be using it in a church, at a wedding, at a commercial shoot, or ANY event, you need to think about the following.

(1)Do you want a distraction for your clients?
(2)Do you want clients to think there is something terribly wrong with your equipment?
(3)Do you want an audience to have a nuisance, such as a loud noise coming from a big crane which scares them half to death because they think the whole thing will come crashing down on their head?

If you are going to be shooting video of nature, by yourself, maybe a "loud like an R/C car" motor on your crane WOULD be a great idea.

It depends on whatchya use it for.

I'm interested in building a motor-driven pan/tilt system, but I just wish there was a quieter solution than servo motors. Anyone have ideas?

Here is a link to a video that was shot with the telescopic crane at it second length. All of the shots were done on the crane as it proved to be a lot more flexible than using a tripod, and it was shot in a tight space . If you look at the photos on the slide show you will see I was outside the room operating the jib.

http://www.cdvideo.ca/wordpress/?page_id=116

Dan - so you built this crane?

looks very complex..

Yes I did and it is not really that compex the hardest part was making the yoke for the tubing, so that it can slide into each other past the folcum, and using collars for the stabilizer cables. It all fits together in a 6 foot length. I am building a different head to get away from joystick controller to more of a tripod feel.

DaNc

Well the crane looks great Dan, wonderful job. By complex I ment in comparison to something I would build haha. I built something similar to the Kessler 12" but its not finished yet. My fabricator has found interest in other projects and has stopped its construction. Its funny because all it needs is the support cables and the tripod.

Cheers!
Terry.

These pictures aren't really the greatest, but they get the point across. I built this with the help of a friend who works in a machine shop. Please don't hesitate to ask questions (or ask for clearer pictures/different angles). This site has been incredibly helpful to me and I'd love to be able to help someone looking to build his or her own crane.

Some notes: the base height is about 8 feet. I use a telescoping PA speaker tripod, so I can extend the crane to a height of about 12-13 feet. Can you spot the old bike part I used?

http://oak.fig.haverford.edu/~ssingh/crane/AUT_0034.JPG
http://oak.fig.haverford.edu/~ssingh/crane/AUT_0036.JPG
http://oak.fig.haverford.edu/~ssingh/crane/AUT_0037.JPG

Sorry i don't have pictures but, I have a Tecnocrane© and a Tecnodolly© on my greenscreen

21 foot Jib on a golf cart
 

We were able to get mobile with the jib by strapping to the golf cart!

I love that the golf cart has 'rims'.

Pics of my Pro Am 12' jib I've modified for a PT 20 remote head with cable supports for extra weight, remote head mount than can be over or under slung, it can all be mounted on my tripod w/ skates for rolling around for quick placement (after it's built and balanced), Varizoom Pro for zoom/focus.

golf cart with rims
 

We're working on a "low rider" version of the golf cart :)

My Crane
 

On those pictures is my DIY crane in 2.5m length from middle point. I have one extra 1 meter length aluminum square tube 7x7cm and this is max length. It can be break down in two large keyboard bags. On pictures is Canon A1+Brevis+rails+Sigma 24-70. Counterweight is 18kg plus LCD and large 12V7.2AH accu. It can be put on tripod in about 10-15 minutes. We are using it for documentaries and music videos. We have to change tripod for better one, something like new kessler one. Tripod that we use is old wooden cinema camera tripod.

Mobile Arm
 

I do a lot of car shows and airshows that require overhead and creative shots of parked cars and airplanes. I mounted a 12' EZ-FX jib with a Varizoom MC100 remote pan/tilt head to a modified boat trailer. It tows behind any vehicle (I remove the camera and pan/tilt head for highway travel, of course) and everything on board is powered by an onboard car battery and inverter. I added leveling jacks to the corners, but I rarely have to use them.

It's really nice to be able to get some good shots, then drive to a new location in a field full of cars and set up for another crane shot in about 1 minute.

That's a nice setup, Buck! I bought an EZ FX as well, but with the manual camera arm. So far, it's working out very nicely. Just like everyone says, using these tools requires practice!

Just added my pan/tilt...
 

Finally. Made from various metal brackets bolted together on the floor of the local hardware store, we were able to go up to the counter with a mostly complete head at the counter (to many odd looks). It's cable controlled and works really well for <$50 :)

Here are some pics of my new Kessler 8' crane with the K-Pod tripod & Hercules head. I have my Sachtler FSB-6 head mounted on a ball joint extension at the end of the crane. My Sony V1U is mounted on that. A Manhattan 8.9" HD monitor attached also.

I have pics of it configured both to run from the rear and the front of the crane. When running from the rear I have extension cables run for the LANC control, monitor, and headphone.

Funny I started this thread 2 years ago and am just now getting a picture up..

Ok so the attached picture is of my jib. It is still in rough form and is not yet on the tripod. I have to fabricate a system that allows the arm to move on a bering. The arm is completely fabricated from designs taken from various jibs. There is to be a weight bar attached to the back. The bering system revolves around a wheel bering I found at a junk yard. The tripod is a simple transit tripod I found on ebay.