Black Bear Studio Systems

[Tom Chase]

Has anyone used any of their dollys? (http://www.blackbearstudiosystems.com)

I was looking at the Koala. Would love some feedback from anyone who has used any of their products.

Tom

 

[Tom Greenberg]

I bought a Black Bear dolly for the college 3 years ago. At the time it was the only product they made. It is basically the D200 model, but without a few of the bells and whistles. It is ok quality, but frankly has not held up as well as I had hoped. Part of that is attributable to student use. They are not easy on equipment and tend to "stress-test" things more than more experienced users. The Black Bear has the advantage of being lightweight, because it is made primarily from aluminum. But this is also it's weakness, because the aluminum components aren't as strong as steel. Overall, I would give it about a B- grade at this point. In hindsight, I probably should have spent the extra $$ and gotten a Matthews doorway dolly (at least for student use)…those are indestructible.

Hope that helps…YMMV...

 

[Tom Chase]

Yeah I get it for the students they are rough. But I'm thinking for me under a controlled situation it may work well. Just the next jump up kinda hurts in terms of price. So before they beat it to hell - how was it?

 

[Benjamin Rowland]

I'm interested in the Koala dolly as well.