Happy Holidays List,

I am looking for suggestions in putting together a cost effective jib package for a Sony EX3 (or EX1 if that makes it possible).
Criteria to be met:
1) Total budget $15K (firm) including arm, arm support, motorized head, lens/camera control and wheeled dolly.
2) Solid and silky smooth - no wiggly/shaky footage due to wimpy (bowing) boom or rough jib arm support.
3) Smooth pan and tilt head
4) Ability to raise camera lens up to 20 ft above floor, but can live with at least 12 ft high.
5) Camera Controller able to toggle Record on/off , zoom In/out w/ speed control and of course control focus
6) Must have dolly w/ four wheel soft tires.


All help is most welcome and thanks in advance.

Jacques
^^^^^^^^^^^^

Jacques Mersereau
University of Michigan
Digital Media Commons
The Duderstadt Center Video Studio
2281 Bonisteel Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
< jacmer@umich.edu>
734 647 6336

Try contacting John Huffman at Jonyjib.com He offers a great product (I have one from him) and his customer service after the sale is unmatched! And I'm not even getting paid to say this :)

Jimmy jib triangle. Giant or giant plus. Other jibs will feel like toys in comparison.

I am leaning towards a Jimmy Jib Triangle.
I actually had a response from Technojib, saying that they
could possibly do a techno "shotgun jib" for my budget.

Knowing a little about what things cost, I can only imagine that
their kit would NOT include some pricey item vital to the whole system
for the $15K total budget.

The Techno shotgun jib looks more like a cool version of the Joney Jib,
that is, it floats the camera and allows the camera op to pull
some nice moves with his hands on the camera itself.
That is good for some stuff, but because it isn't that long of a jib arm
it doesn't look like it can do those big audience sweeps from stage to
the audience or go high over head for a straight down shot.

So far Jimmy looks like the one. Another company got me a price on the
Panther's Pixie, but it looks smaller than the Techno Shotgun - aka, not big enough.

Okay, we have ordered a Jimmy Jib Triangle Super (18' arm 25' height) with the following stuff:

Triangle Super Jib w/ Remote head Kit Model 4C - Triax 110V Canon FQRB
1/2-13 Heavy Duty Tripod
Three Wheel Dolly
Fujinon Focus Iris Gears
1 Fujinon 12 Pin Zoom Adapter Cable
Track Tires
Dolly Frame
Six sections of 4' Dolly Track
Track End Rail
Ballast Bag
Film Focus Clamp
Marshall V-MD171 17" HDSDI monitor

Also for the EX3 a REDROCK MICRO Rails system/Matte box w/ lens ring (fuji) that I hope will fit the JJ focus system.

Right about $17K'ish for all.

I thought I would update this thread to provide some additional tidbits from experience.
First and foremost, The Stanton Jimmy Jib Triangle Super is a GREAT JIB.
It is VERY smooth, solid, stable and can get fantastic results. Students get the hang of it very fast.
We are using a Sony EX3 and with a couple of tricks I am able to focus, zoom, start/stop rec., iris, pan and tilt.

Things to know.
1) To make the JJ ZOOM CONTROL work, an adapter from Libec is required to convert Sony to Fuji.

2) For the FOCUS MOTOR to work, I didn't bother with purchasing an external geared ring for the Sony.
The JJ gear when pushed tight up against the Sony's rubber focus ring moves it fine,
BUT the clamp JJ provides for the focus and iris motors to attach to the rod support system is made for the larger 19mm rods- NOT 15mm. The rails system I purchased from RedRockMicro is 15mm.
I am using a spacer, but would like the right clamp for 15mm and cannot find one.

3) IRIS GEAR seems to work fine, but if you turn off the EX3 BEWARE! The EX3 moves its iris during boot up and the gears will chatter and grind against each other - NOT GOOD.

I had a bit of a time getting it all put together, but the directions are pretty good, but not great.
A few symbols on certain pieces would have made it very easy.

All in all, I LOVE IT!!!