Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

 

Cinevate Morpheus is a Stabilizer Solution for GoPro, iPhone and Pocket Cameras

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Cinevate is launching a Kickstarter campaign to bring its new Morpheus stabilizer to life. The Cinevate Morpheus is a all-in-one stabilizer solution for Steadicam-like handheld operation of GoPro, iPhone and pocket cameras while recording video. It serves as multipurpose device for static shooting, as well as an auto-leveling jib head and a slider or dolly. [Read more…]

Faux Slider Shots with just a Tripod

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5fGmCBnD-D0&w=640&h=360]

Here’s a great little trick for getting some motion in your video shots even if you don’t have a slider or a jib. I’ve used a tripod tilted up on two legs quite a bit for cheating dolly-in and dolly-out shots, but the Fenchel & Janisch folks take it a step further with movements along other axes for some cool jib-esque shots. The suggestion of shooting a higher frame rate to smooth out any imperfections in the camera movement when conformed to a lower frame rate is good as well.

[via PetaPixel]

Kessler CineDrive Released

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Kessler CineDrive

Kessler has announced pre-sale dates for its new CineDrive motion control system.  CineDrive features multi-axis control over camera movements and allows you to fully configure key frames, bezier curves and precision positioning for your time lapses, stop-motion or live action shoots.

The basic kit will be less than $6000 and will include a Kessler CineDrive Brain, two motor bricks plus hardware to configure as a pan/tilt head and a slider motor.  An iOS app for the CineDrive system is in the works for the release (or soon thereafter) and an Android app will be available in the future.

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/41043399 w=640&h=360]

Pre-sale orders will begin at 1 PM ET on Wednesday, August 29. The sale will be limited to 25 orders at a first-come first-served basis to US customers only and with a one CineDrive system per customer limit. A second batch of CineDrive systems should be available in 1-3 months.

More details available on the Kessler CineDrive website.

Varavon Slidecam Lite800 and Lite600

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Varavon Slidecam Lite

The newest addition to Varavon’s Slidecam lineup are the aptly-named Lite800 and Lite600.  I stopped by the Varavon booth at NAB 2012 to get a closer look at these new sliders.  The sliders are very smooth and a great selection of mounting options.  I’m hoping to get more time with them soon for a more in-depth look.  In the mean time, check out the overview video below.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo6j8o1aN30&w=640&h=360]

Varavon sliders are available at B&H Photo.

indiSLIDER at NAB 2012

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indiSLIDER

The indiSLIDER is a camera slider that I’ve been intrigued with after seeing its ridiculously low prices online a few months back.  I had my doubts about how smooth such a cheap product would actually perform.  Those doubts were alleviated after handling a few samples on the NAB 2012 show floor.

While it’s still not a high-end product from the likes of Kessler and such, it performs amazingly well for the price.  Check out the video below for a little overview  of the indiSLIDER system.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs7Mp7Pv0v0&w=640&h=360]

The indiSLIDER starts at just $99 for the barebones 24″ model and goes up to $215 for the 4-foot model with legs.  More robust “pro” models start at $399.