Advice on remote pan and tilt head for jib/crane

[Diego Ramirez Budowski]

Hello All:

I did a few different searches on this topic, but couldn't find what i was looking for, so I apologize in advance if this is covered in another thread, and would appreciate anyone who could point me in the right direction.

Last year I purchased a used ez jib with an older version of their remote pan and tilt head. I really enjoy the way the jib performs (although to be fair I've never owned another one) but the head, in my humble opinion, leaves much to be desired. I'm wondering if you can provide recommendations for remote pan and tilt heads that are silky smooth.

I've looked at the varizoom cinema pro jr (I work with smaller cameras, almost exclusively ) and not only is it expensive, but i'm not sure it'll give me everything I want(never used one outside of NAB). What price range would i need to be in to be able to get silky smoothness? Or rather is this going to be enough for what i want? If its like high end lenses, where one must spend tens of thousands to get slight improvements then i'm not sure i can justify that to my existing client base. I've seen some heads at NAB that are in the high 5 digit/low 6 digit price point but if thats the kind of dollar it takes to get the performance then I wouldn't do any upgrade at all.

Any recommendations on products of any price range would be welcome, especially to know whats out there, but i don't see us spending more than 10k on this anytime soon. I'm thinking 3-7k would be the sweet spot.

any opinions on Varizoom, Cam mate, Jony Jib or Jimmy jib heads welcome. As well as any other manufacturer out there worth considering.

Thanks in advance for your recomendations

 

[DC Chavez]

I have the Kessler Revolution head and for what I use it for, its amazing. Holds an Epic just fine. Paired with the Oracle controller you can pan and tilt, pre-record moves, and even use it as a time lapse head.

Take a look at the new Cinedrive- http://www.kesslercrane.com/product-p/cinedrive_3axis.htm

 

[Justin McAleece]

Another vote foe the Kessler Revolution Head. It is pretty bomb-prop and quite useful. It's also nice that it's just controlled through a single ethernet cable.

 

[Bérenger Brillante]

I have a cinema Pro Jr, and before that a cinema pro.

They are fantastic remote heads, and motion control head. Simple to use, simple to mount. I' have switched from Sr to Jr right after upgrading from Red One to Epic.
I'm so happy with this head.

It just works, no hassle, the motors are really good and answer to every moves perfeectly, they don't lag, I mean cheap head sometime have trouble to tilt.
Obvioulsy these are not cheap, and obviously they don't do that.

One thing good too, it looks like a big head, though it's light. My clients feels confident with it and that's exaclty what I want. Beside that it works flawlessly.

 

[Abiodun Shote]

Hi Berenger,
Just curious, which of the Cinema Pro Jr heads are you using?

 

[Bérenger Brillante]

The junior is the model with the extended joystick panel.
I don't recall which K it is.
Probably k2.

The extended joystick actually performs better than the motion control panel, for remote only use.

 

[Diego Ramirez Budowski]

Thanks all for your replies. That Kessler looks rugged. And yeah the varizoom is kinda what im leaning towards atm. Any opinions on other jib manufactures like cammate, jimmy jib or jony jib