Thanks for the review mate. Just got mine, will post some footage soon.

Those of you who have purchased the PT head, do you think it would support a camera up to 15lbs as they claim? We use JVC GY-HM700's which weigh just over 8 lbs. with the battery attached. For the price, this would be great.

How do you avoid getting the cables to the camera getting all twisted up and pulling out?

Really? No one can tell me if they think the head will support a 9 lbs. camera?

Curious if there are any updates from users of any of the Proaim motorized pan tilt heads? They upgraded their top of the line model and it is now called the "Gold Proaim". I see they still sell the old top of the line model as the "Sr." and of course still sell the lighter weight "Jr.".

I am seriously considering getting the Jr. for my Sony V1U. I have $2000+ taste but a very low budget and the $475 price is great. If it works as advertised but is just not as durable as a name brand I would probably be ok because it would be used in a very limited fashion with my Kessler crane. I have had good luck with the Indian steadicam arm / vest and am hoping the same would be true here. Hope somebody has current input!

Hi, i'm new to this forum. This is actually my first post i believe.

I just received my pro aim pan and tilt crane two days ago.

I'll write up a review on it and make a youtube review aswell for people who are interested.

If anyone has any urgent questions ask here and i'll be happy to respond.

interested to hear any reviews

Hi all,

I ordered the ProAim Gold head and a Kessler Ultra 12/8 last night. Will get a review and some footage up when it arrives!

I would love to read your reviews guys, along with any sample videos. I'm mostly interested in the POWER of the motors, as in, will they actually work with a 10lbs. camera.

Power I am not really concerned with. I am more concerned that the start/stop will be jerky. We shall see.

im interested in to see the start and stop jerkiness also..

They said my Kessler Crane won't ship until Friday! Wahhh!

Power I am not really concerned with. I am more concerned that the start/stop will be jerky. We shall see.

Mike,

Which Pan/Tilt did you order?

Bill

The CineCity Gold:

PROAIM™ GOLD PAN TILT HEAD + 24V Joystick Control Box (http://www.thecinecity.com/eshop/product.php?productid=322)

I didn't want to buy the Junior because it was too limiting. The price difference between the Sr and the Gold was ~$100, and I would just hate to spend the next five years wishing that I'd bought the $900 one rather than the $800 one. Also, I would like to at least occasionally rent the thing out to friends with broadcast cameras, or put a HDCam on it if the occasion arises.

I chose the same model for basically the same reasons plus I think the larger weight capacity will make for a smoother pan/tilt with my cameras.

Bill,

When is yours scheduled to arrive? Mine left India via FedEx two days ago, should be here Monday morning before 10:30a. The Kessler comes Wednesday. I can hardly sit still.

Mike,

They said it will ship tomorrow I will get a tracking number on Monday. They also said it would take 3-4 days in shipment. So I am hoping for Thursday-Friday delivery. I already have a Kessler 8/12, I ordered the V3 plate and once that is installed I will get the 18' upgrade.

Mine arrived today, earlier than expected. (Predicted arrival date according to FedEx was Monday.) I ordered it around midnight Sunday night USA time, it shipped late Tuesday night USA time, and arrived mid-day today.

Overall quality is close to what you would expect for something 25% of standard prices. The problem where the motors creep is present in mine, I will have to crack it open to see if I can fix it as described elsewhere.

Start/stop is relatively smooth - obviously haven't had the camera on it yet to tell for sure. I think once I fix the creeping problem, it'll be better.

It's really sturdy. The frame looks like it would hold the 50lb SVHS camera I used in the 90's. Wouldn't know if the motors would handle that or not, but as far as frame goes, I have no concerns.

Power supply looks like something out of Frankenstine's bride - I will be replacing it before even using it on a shoot. I don't understand how they can charge $1k for it and send a crappy $10 power supply instead of a nice $20 power supply.

All the power is run on 3-pin XLRs - same as audio. I thought industry standard was that power was only ever on 4 or 5-pin XLRs, so as to avoid confusion. I sometimes get grips that are pretty green, and while it's hard to imagine how they could get stuff so wrong that 24V could be going into the XLRs on the camera - I just don't like the idea of a 3-pin XLR on the end of a power supply.

The box came with a declard value of $37 and marked as a "gift". I don't mind when I buy something worthless off some ebay seller and they express some creativity in their customs declaration, but I feel like spending $1k should buy some legitimacy.

More as it comes.

Mike,

Does the manual give the pinning of the 3 pin xlr? I did a search on power supplies and found some 15-24 volt switching power supplies, This might be good for better control since the unit will take less than 24 volts.

Industry standards mean nothing in other countries. Whenever I buy anthing from overseas I consider it a "kit" to be built to my liking.

Not only do they include the pinout for the XLR, they include a spare XLR with pigtails for you to wire in another power supply.

I'm thinking one of these two power supplies, what are you considering?

E-Tech eStore : Switching Mode Regulated Power Supply PSSMV6U :: 15-24V (http://www.e-techsiliconvalley.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7_2817_401_402&products_id=2354)

E-Tech eStore : Universal SP-11 AC/DC POWER SUPPLY ::15/16/17/18/19/20/21/22/24V (http://www.e-techsiliconvalley.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7_2817_401_409&products_id=17525)

I do have a mil spec 24volt supply for a radio however that is diffently over kill for this unit. :)

Is the manual printed or PDF? If it is PDF would you email it to me?

Hi Mike.. thanks for the info... please keep it coming, im interested to hear more on what you think.. i was wondering, what is the creeping problem with the motors ? Is that where they keep moving slowly when they should be totally stopped ?

Also have you had a chance to test with your camera yet ? im really interested to know how smooth the movement is..jerkiness is the thing im most concerned about.. Would love to see some clips if you get a chance also..

Well Randy, I guess Mike is off playing with his new toy! :)

FedEx says mine arives on Friday! Hope so!

cool.. look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Gentlemen, I just don't have much to say. I have a jib head and no jib on which to hang it. I can't tell start/stop jerkiness because even if I mounted a camera to it, I'm holding the head in my hands and wouldn't be able to tell smoothness.

Jib should arrive tomorrow. Maybe video soon!

no worries.. what is the creeping problem you mentioned ?

When you have a potentiometer (think of a volume dial, or the throttle in your car), it is relatively easy, engineering wise, to make all the way down on the dial "0", and all the way up on the dial "10". There is no calibration that needs to happen. Anytime you turn the volume all the way down, you hear nothing, and anytime you turn it to 10 it's at 100% power.

For the jib, if you had a left and right lever, and an up and down lever, you would have two of these devices, and they'd be pretty maintenance free. But with a jib, you're operating the arm with one hand, and operating the head with the other - so you need a X/Y device to control the head, because you only have one free hand. Move the lever up and down, the head tilts up and down - move the same joystick left and right, the head moves left and right. Let the joystick go and it snaps back to center and everything stops. Problem is, it's harder to get a dead zone in the middle of two axis than one. If either one is off a little, the camera will drift one direction.

They include a "Dead stop" knob that will turn down the ramping of motion - so you can turn it down so you don't get creeping ... but your start/stop motion is not as smooth now. (If they included two knobs - an X trim and a Y trim - you could properly trim it - but that would cost something like an extra $0.25.) A previous poster cracked his open and trimmed it inside. I opened mine and cannot find trim knobs (it's not like they're labled), and I'm hesitant to f-it up too much before I even get this $1k piece of equipment on the jib.

cool.. so you are saying that when the joystick snaps back to "center" position its not 100% accurate and it drifts slightly ? Does it always drift the same way or does it snap back and create a slightly random response ? And do you know if you can make it totally stable when you have two hands available to center it better ? (i understand what you are saying about holding the jib in one hand and the joystick in the other being difficult)

I am actually planning to use the head in a different way to what you are doing with the jib.. I am going to mount it underneath a bracket to hang it off something else so all my movement will be coming from the pan and tilt, rather than just pan..

I have also got plans to modify mine when i get it with a small microprocessor called arduino.. you may have heard of them ? if the head is just voltage controlled via the joystick pots as it seems like it is.. than you can actually program arduino to ignore the small fluctuations in the pot around zero so the joystick not being totally centered wouldnt create drift.. it would however create a small bit of lag when you intentionally moved the stick (i guess like the ramping point you mentioned) but you could tweak it in detail and get it fairly good i think.. with an arduino you could also restrict tilt movement altogether which may help your scenario..

My goal is to get the arduino running with a USB joystick also rather than an old analog one because the analog sticks are hard to find with buttons on the stick (which is what i want) but in your case if you just wanted a stick for x/y you could buy an arcade style controller and it could do this for you without need to hack the joystick that comes with the head..

My plan is to make the USB joystick control pan with left/right and tilt with forward/back and zoom via the buttons on the stick.. this is why i want buttons near the trigger finger and thumb because i feel it would be easy to hold the joystick in one hand and move the head in all directions and also zoom with your index and thumb..

ive already got the LANC interafcing with the arduino for zooming and i have programmed in some cool behaviours.. one of those is zoom easing, so when you begin to zoom or take your finger off the button to stop it tapers off the speed rather than a harsh abrupt stop.. it looks really great..

You basically just crank down "dead stop" until you get 0 movement at dead center - then it's fixed. Shouldn't be a problem - but you're loosing a bit of accuracy with each degree of turn. Would be technically better to have the trim for each axis, but the overall dead stop isn't terrible. I just expected better for $1k.

Mine is enjoying Paris without me. :(

Mine took a jaunt in Paris also.

Kessler came today, all in one piece. Drywalling today, so I can't work on it (I am a many of many talents, yesterday was stucco, last week was windows, I will thank god when I get this house back in one piece again), but I will try and set it up tonight. Maybe.

Did you get the tool less kit? If not you should, it just flies together. However never take both knobs out of the alumunium pieces at the same time. If you do and you drop on down one of the rails it is a pain to get out.

I did get the tool-less kit.

I also got the kessler tripod - wowza. it looks like a modern version of one of the tripods that used to hold up the 100lb cameras from the 40s. I don't understand how people can put 100lb of weight on a manfrotto 501 - I'd never be able to use the thing in public for fear it'd come tumbling down.

I used a 501 for a long time, now I have a 3047 (older one) on that tripod. Thinking of getting the Kessler head when I get the 18' upgrade. Just installed the V3 plate on my 8/12HD in preparation for the upgrade.

I think I will install the CineCity Pan/Tilt on a tripod for testing first, then mount it to the Kessler tips. I have two one for the 51/2 and the other for the 8/12 lenths.

Oh! The extended wieght bar is a must have! I use it even when using the 51/2' lenth. Makes your shots so much easier to do.

It has arrived! Unpacking now. :)

OMG, the suspense is killing me! I need to order one today for an upcoming shoot, would you order yours again if you had the chance? Seems like a good deal for the price, even with the so-so workmanship. Thoughts?

Very interested in this thread as I have the full-blown 12' Kessler crane but borrowed a friend's Bescor remote head for a shoot and as you might imagine...it sucked!

I will second the extended weight bar as a very nice thing....get some foam bicycle handlebar grips to put on it to make it really comfy!

I will be checking in to see the report on the CineCity head. Curious if anyone has tried the PT-20 which seems to be the next level up budget-wise?

First impressions of the Cine City PROAIM Gold Pan Tilt Head

Packaging adequate, the package arrived undamaged
CineCity provided a FedEx tracking number
Arrived a day earlier than the delivery date

Pros
1) It is well built
2) Unit is quiet and smooth, almost silent at slow speed, somewhat noisy at fast speed but ok
3) Joystick is proportional
4) Dead spot adjustment
5) Speed adjustment
6) You can do a dead stop by abruptly letting the joystick return to neutral or you can ease it back for a smoother stop
7) Case securely holds everything
8) No creeping on my unit

Cons
1) Base plate does not rotate
2) Unit rotates faster in one direction than the other, with both Pan and Tilt
3) Universal adapter rather than proper AC cord, (it’s a none polarized cord I ordered one)
4) Gears had some chips left in them from machining (cleaned up quickly)
5) No detailed breakdown (exploded view) of the unit in the manual

Wish List
1) Base plate rotated
2) That you did not need universal adapter
3) Separate speed control for Pan - Tilt
4) Switch to reverse controls for inverted use
5) Programmable moves

Comments
Overall, I am happy with the purchase I would buy this again if I had it to do over again.

sounds good, about what i would expect.. would be interested to see some sample footage if you get a chance also..

At a 1/3 of the price of other units I think it is a good deal. Someone asked about the PT-20 I have used one my thoughts are that the PT-20 was easier to control I think because of the better joystick. It was stubbier and easier to put my thumb on top of it. It was not mine so I do not know how the PT-20 was set-up to compare it to the Proaim head.

The plan was to build the jib and mount the new head on it today, however Mother Nature has had other ideas and it is raining. Oh, thunderstorm warnings have just gone up. :( So maybe tomorrow I get to shoot some footage.

I modified a cheese plate and temporarily mounted it on a spare tripod to practice with, I already I like the look of the pans and tilts and may just include this set-up in my kit.

Kessler 8/12 owners, the bolt patterns match, I was able to bolt the pan/tilt head to the tip without having to drill new holes!

Can't wait till the weather clears. Area flooding, thunderstorms and high wind warnings, yeah lets fly the jib! Oh and can you get the 20x up with a 1/4 silk? (large grin)

I did a shoot with Katie Couric on the beach in Coronado with a 20x 1/4 silk. I've never been so worried.
8) No creeping on my unit
So, even with dead stop cranked all the way off (to "super sensitive") mode, NO movement on your head?
2) Unit rotates faster in one direction than the other, with both Pan and Tilt
This is a symptom of the creeping problem - i.e. a miscalibrated joystick. I think.

I went back and tried it with everything cranked up, there was some creep. :( However the speed and dead spot have to be full up to get it.

You said you cracked the case. Are the pots adjustable? Or should we look for a better joystick?

I hang rags all the time no big deal, till the wind picks up. :)

I did crack the case, I couldn't figure out how to easily adjust the pots. I might farm that out, I might just give up. I need to put the thing on the crane first though. What'd you use to mount it to the head - 1/4" bolts? I haven't even had it up there yet, though it did look like the pattern matched.

They provide the bolts they awere in the universal adapter box in mine, however before I found them, yes I used 1/4" bolts. Ging to ry to flt it Saturday, however the high is suppoed to be 31° so it won't be a long test. :)

I ordered mine last week. It speed Friday, do i'm hoping to have it soon.

Okay, so to follow up on my previous dyslexic post...I ordered my Proaim Gold on 2/26. As of today (3/1 in India) it's still sitting in New Dehli. So, I'm guessing that it's going to be a few more days till I'll be getting mine.

I'm guessing you will get it tomorrow Lou, did you get a FedEx tracking number?

Oddly enough, it arrived TODAY while we were on a shoot using our jib! I was checking the tracking number, but it just kept telling me the package was in New Dehli. Then POOF, it was here. We're going to hang it tomorrow and see what it's all about.

Good by universal adapter!

6' 2 COND. UNIVERSAL POWER CORD, NON-POLARIZED | AllElectronics.com (http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/LCAC-390/6-2-COND.-UNIVERSAL-POWER-CORD-NON-POLARIZED//1.html)

If you have a non-polarized cord from another power source give it a try if not you can use the above.