Personally, I'm loving the small table dolly that was on offer a few weeks ago in Catchit. Smooth, small and easy to throw in the bag. I'm working on some ideas for using rails to create a quick portable flat surface but nothing has really been light and portable yet. Kevin
If I HAD to chose it'd be dolly/slider, it's the most versatile for most of the shots you'd be filming (talking scenes, etc). Steadicams are great but require a scene that involves a lot of movement. That doesn't happen ALL the time. I think jibs offer the most dynamic range of movements but they are very large and don't always fit in interior spaces so are limited in that regard. They also don't really work narratively other than establishing shots and by that I mean they add a lot of production value when used but are very rarely "necessary" to tell a story. My opinion comes from actually using all these devices.
+1 on the table dolly, That was a great deal
It depends on what you are shooting. For me...
1) Slider (For Video) 2) Glidecam/SteadyCam type of stabilizer 3) Motorized Slider (Bigger) with Software. (For TL) 4) Jib
I'm still not sure which Slider to buy. Do you think that there should be 2 sliders to buy? One for video and another for TimeLapse?
My $16 rig offers me the smoothest movement I could ever wish for.
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