REVIEW #2 - CAMDOLLY
For the last two days we have been testing the new "Camdolly" product from a company called Perfektum d.o.o.(www.camdolly.com). The product was very interesting for us, as soon as we found it enables us the features as "curved/flexible dolly track" and "doorway dolly" + a lot of additional cool cinematic features. As soon as we saw some promo footage, which was incredibly still and smooth, we decided to purchase one.
1ST IMPRESSION
Quite heavy, if you’re used to carrying only the tripod or a slider track. The whole system weights around 60kg, so if you are not in a good shape, the system takes care for your fitness program. The assembled dolly itself, without the tracks weights around 20kg so it is not that bad, if you carry it around just as a doorway dolly. An addition to that are the tracks, which weigh 22kg each, and there are two of them. Still the system looks quite compact and easy to handle.
THE SETUP
Next thing was the setup of the camdolly. With just a couple changes of screws in a less than a minute, the camdolly was fully set for use as a tracking dolly. A bit longer is the preparation of the tracks, which took us about 2-3min. You have to straighten each track separately and line it with the other one. Within less than 5min we had the whole system prepared and ready to roll, which is an amazing timing for that kind of a system.
THE KEY FEATURES
As we said before, the system really offers you a lot of cool features and we tested them and listed them below.
- A TRACK/FLEXIBLE DOLLY - Uses the CamDolly tracks, which are quickly set and offer you very flexible andquick work. Still we would prefer a real rail track for straight moves, which include shots taken with more than 28mm lenses.
- A DOORWAY DOLLY - The most flexible CamDolly feature for every kind of work. You can quickly set the camera angle everywhere you want, if you want to make camera movement it has to be on a smooth floor (concrete look-a-like floors included)
- TABLETOP DOLLY - Very cool and smooth dolly for taking some tabletop close-up movements. You can easily set the perfect curve by adjusting the wheel angle.
- DOLLY SlIDER - A feature which simulates a short dolly slider move. It is a good extra movement, but we prefer the good old glide track for that kind of camera moves. It takes twice as much time to set the CamDolly slider. But as far as this is one more CamDolly movement offer, that is just an extra value, especially if you don’t own a dolly slider, it will suit perfect for you.
- LOADING CAPABILITY - CamDolly can load up to 200kg of equipment. It is easy to set a crane on it and the footage still looks incredibly smooth and still.
- ON DOLLY SEAT - There is a dolly seat included, which offer a D.O.P. to sit on the dolly while operating (panning and tilting) the camera.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
Overall the system performed above our expectations. The final results are outstanding and all the clients are more than satisfied with the cine-look-a-like shots we can make. This system has the best relation between quality and price. After all with costing below 3000$ it is still one of the cheapest on-sit-dollies on market with a lot more to offer. We strongly recommend this product for every kind of low and mid budged video-productions!
For more information and purchase, check the CamDolly official website www.camdolly.com
Article by | Mark Pirc
© Setup Production
