Just bought a Hague Track, Dolly and Jib

[Duncan Craig]

I popped down to Nottingham, to look around the showroom with a view to buying the kit, wasn't sure what the build quality would be like. And although they only have little old Hi8 sized camcorders on the demo kit, we dropped my Z1 on for a proper test.

Firstly, I've got the tripod dolly, which runs very smooth.

I've been renting a focus fold up suitcase dolly made by Egripment (sp) and considering it's around ten times the price. It's crap. Any bumps at all send a judder through the solid based dolly, and because the track joins run exactly square with each other the joins always show on camera.

The hague tripod dolliy runs on plastic pipe, which seems very strong actually. And because you can stagger each side of the track separately the bumps don't show so badly. In fact the pipe runs smoother than the specially moulded plastic track on the system I was hiring. The wheels on the dolly are a good size and the self levelling system is good, it basically allows one side of the dolly to twist, so all four pairs of wheels stay on the track (again unlike the other one).

I also bought the Multi-Jib, and it's a beauty. Really well engineered and very strong. It's modular of course and there are three possible jib lengths with the kit. I'll use the short and normal modes most I expect. It's really smooth doing the pan and jib, with 6 bearings. It has a 75/100mm bowl fitting on the jib to fit to your tripod and a 100mm at the top of the arm, I got a 75mm step down ring with it too to fit on my vinten protouch 5 (not a great tripod, but it seems up to it) I don't have any weights yet but Argos sell a set for £15, I've been testing the setup with a rucksack hanging of the jib with dumbells in it. There's a sliding counterbalance weight to fine tune the jib too.

There are nice metal Hauge plates with serial numbers on the kit, they seem very proud. So I'm a happy chappy, £950 quid lighter but I've got some cool kit. I've got a few shoot days coming up, but tests at home seem really good.

Cheers all, Duncan.
darkhorsegraphics.co.uk
duncancraig.f2s.com

[Mark Utley]

Right on! Could you post some pictures/links so I could see some of the equipment? I'm thinking of building a jib with some friends.

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

I agree with the quality of the Hague tripod dolly - I bought one about three years ago and it lives on the camera car just in case. I've used Digibetas down to Z1s on it with no problems whasoever.
I've been meaning to look at the Jib arm - that could be the next acquisition...


Robin

[Robin Davies-Rollinson]

We've just bought the Multi-jib and I can vouch for everything that Duncan has said about it. It really is so well made - and a dream to operate.
We'll be using the Z1 and FX1 on it, but it's quite capable of carrying heavier cameras as well.

Robin

[Jamie Glover]

I have a Multi-jib from b-hague..

http://www.b-hague.co.uk/Camcorder_Jib_Boom.htm

I have use a lots of cheapish jibs in the last year and this jib wins hands down, I use a XL-H1 and VariZoom P/T head and it handles it no problem, god its so smooth up to 15" on the VariZoom P/T head ..

As Robin said is extremely well made and a dream to use..

[Cal Johnson]

I've been wanting to get a jib for a while now, and was looking at the Kessler system. One thing that immediately stands out to me about the Hague, is that while it uses two bars like the Kessler for stability, the Kessler has the two bars on either side, while the Hague stacks them, which to me would seem the better choice as it offers stiffness in the direction you're really going to need it the most.
I'm wondering how the multi-dolly performs at full extension, does it bounce around at all? How do the extensions attach and how solid is the arm when built?
I'd love to see some footage.

[Duncan Craig]

I've upgraded the jib kit last week.

The jib is now on a Vinten Pro10 tripod base, with the new head on the jib. I used to use a Vinten Pro5, and I upgraded for two reasons.

When the jib was on the Pro5 the legs were always on the verge of slipping apart at the spreader locks. Also the head has no counter balance.

Firstly, I tried the Pro6 didn't quite handle my Z1 as it's setup with a large Mattebox system which raising the COG too far for the head. The legs on the Pro6 and 10 are the same, and are very strong. They use the PoziLoc system.

What I mean is that, I can now raise the tripod legs up too. Without worrying if the legs can take the weight of the full jib, the counterbalance weights, the head and the camera.

Also I got the matching ProTouch Dolly. Which is very strong too. It's actually a little too big for getting through doors when opened out. But it will make moving the setup around location much easier.

So anyway, the jib is quite steady even when fully extended. It does wobble if you whack it around. But if you kept a hold on it whilst doing smooth camera moves it would look fine.
The jib arm comes with 3 sections. Each section has a top and bottom bar of course. Most of the time I operate with two sections on.

I'm now going to attempt to describe the jib.
You really have to see it to understand, it's ingenious.

So from the front:
The camera on the Pro10 head.

The head sits in a 75-100mm stepper ring. (Bought from hague)

The 100mm bowl is always fixed on the front of the jib.
The there are two lengths of jib in the front section, (top and bottom). This is made of square section tube. On the camera end of this section of bar, (which always stays at the camera end), it is jointed using strong ball bearings units.

These front sections of jib joins the next two sections of jib.
The sections of jib slide together, and lock with a bolt. Quite strong. This back section has three sets of holes spaced apart, where the tripod column can be connected. These holes allow you to build the rig with the optimal centre of balance. If you imagine a jib 100 units long you wouldn't try to balance it 20 units from one end, you would do it at around 30-35. These holes allow you to choose where to balance.
The back section is again jointed with ball bearing units,
it ends with a flat box section bar with a vertical hole in.

A bar with a large locking nut fits upright into this hole, which lets you put counterbalance weights onto the end. I used to have cheap concrete filled weights (York) but I have just replaced them with cast iron weights (York again) The 10kg ones fit fine on the jib.

The tripod column is two upright metal bars, which fit on either side of the jib arms. There are two sets of holes through the column, with more ball bearing units. Bolts run through these bearings acting as support to the jib arm.
There's a third bolt through the middle of the arms in the column, which act as the elevate/depress tension/lock.

The base of the column, has another large bearing in it to run the pan smoothly, There's a iffy little pan lock on the column too. The locks on this jib are fairly useless. But who ever needs to lock down a jib very hard?

There's a third section of jib, which fits between the two end section. It's a straight section of bar with no holes or bearings so it has to go in the middle. However the jib can be operated on one section only, by using two supplied tiny sections of arm, which have bearing on too. These substitute the front section. Clever.


Anyway, I also have the Hague Tripod Tracking Dolly.
It's OK, the track is quite lumpy on the joins, but no more than an Egripment Focus Dolly which is ten times the price.
Really this needs screw together metal pipe to run on I think.

I use the jib on nearly everything.
Here are a few links to clients folders with quicktimes on our FTP site. They are all UK broadcast commercials, shown mostly in the Yorkshire region.

Depending on when you are reading this some may not work, as I erase them when the jobs have been broadcast.
All shot on lowish budgets with Z1 and MultiJib, Tripod Dolly. Half days mostly.

http://www.darkhorsegraphics.co.uk/DPP
http://www.darkhorsegraphics.co.uk/NWF
http://www.darkhorsegraphics.co.uk/AGA
http://www.darkhorsegraphics.co.uk/Pennells
http://www.darkhorsegraphics.co.uk/Armstrong


Not everything we do is so crap though I promise.
Here's our latest proper National Advert (Jimmy Jim/DigiBeta/2 days/15 crew)

http://www.darkhorsegraphics.co.uk/evolution

Regards, Duncan.

[Duncan Craig]

I'm seriously looking at the VariZoom head now,
does anyone have any comments on it?

I used to think it was a lot of money for what you're getting.
But now it actually seems the best value for any head out there.

TIA Duncan.

[Jasper Blunk]

Could someone from the US buy any of their equipment? It looks like it is all in Pounds.

[Brian Findlay]

Originally Posted by Duncan Craig

I'm seriously looking at the VariZoom head now,
does anyone have any comments on it?

I used to think it was a lot of money for what you're getting.
But now it actually seems the best value for any head out there.

TIA Duncan.

I had heard that Varizoom, the head sold by Kessler, and another brand I can't think of at the moment, were all made by the same guy.. they all look very similar. The varizoom head was way more expensive that the one form Kessler, the only two differences (that I can spot) are that the verizoom has a 45 degree elbow bend and the Kessler has a 90.. and the Verizoom comes with a $150 pelican case. So at twice the price, which one do you think I bought. Names are nice as long as they don't cost you too much.. but I wouldn't pay 100% more for them.

Good luck on your decision either way..

Brian

[Duncan Craig]

Hey Brian,

I bought the Varizoom head a long time ago.
It was a lot of money but it's really good.

I've taken hundreds of photos of the whole setup, check out some of my older posts.

Cheers, Duncan.

[Andy Wilkinson]

I posted on another thread a few weeks ago that we had just acquired one of these and promised to let you all know how we find it. Well, the day draws near (this weekend) when it will be used in action as we have been asked to video an important service in Ely Cathedral. In the end we decided for this "first go" to keep things as simple as possible and just go for the Jib configured in a short length (approx. 1/3 of it's max.) That way, we'll then not need the complication of using remote LANC control/motorised head/LCD screen etc. etc.

We set-up the Jib in some spare time in advance and are really please we did as we had to sort out a couple of things.

Initially, we had problems getting the 100mm to 75mm downconversion ring adapter fitting right at the camera mounting end. My mates larger Libec head (TH50) fits in here but we don't like the design of this conversion ring much and we would have preferred something that maybe had a lip on it and seated more securely rather than just relying on the chamferred bowl sides to "wedge it in". The supplied ring seems something of an afterthought and not as cleverly designed and engineered as the rest of the Jib ...that said they did not charge us for it!

Whilst we're on design, we're still wondering if the wheels on the Dolly are large enough - maybe one day we'll try and fit much larger ones. My mate was keen to do this straight away but I persuaded him that we should spend some time using it then make the mods we want.

So we got it all assembled in the Cathedral and then we tried a few practice shots....very nice!!!! Handles beautifully, very stable, and VERY smooth and certainly looks very impressive! Much admired by all the people who came up and studied it as we got it ready with Warren's V1 on the end! The Libec head on it is a bit stiffer than we would like but that's for another thread I suspect.

Link here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...971#post784971

During this dry run another minor irritation occurred in that we were getting squeaking noises from one of the Jibs pivot points near the camera head when we moved the Jib angle (now that would n't sound too good in the middle of some crucial videoing!!!) Anyway, 5 minutes later with slightly slackened off bolts and lubricating these points with funiture polish (i.e. silicon) borrowed from the Cathedral Shop lady and that was all cured! Glad we did not have to do all that in a rush on the big day - it only goes to show preparation is always key!

So now we're ready! (as we can be.) My mate will use the Jib and will be on one side of the Ely's famous Octagon and I'll be on the other side with (just a normal!) Tripod (for PD150) and Manfrotto Fig Rig (for Sony HC1.) This I'll use for walking around the Cathedral to get crowd shots at some point as we have been specifically asked to do this by John Inge (the outgoing Bishop of Huntingdon and the future Bishop of Worcester.....who knows what else...this is about as near as I ever get to name dropping!...and I'm not even remotely religious!) Anyway, he's been a very popular guy at Ely and they are expecting a very big crowd!!!

I'll post again after the big event. Meanwhile, here are 2 quick pictures of the beast in it's new habitat!

[Andy Wilkinson]

Well I've now had time to view the footage in Vegas 7 last night and the stuff from the B Hague K12 Jib is generally really good - my mate got shots that would have been impossible before as he could get above the congregations heads etc.

Once I've edited in the shots from all 3 cameras we used we should have a very nice result!

He did comment that as the day went on it seemed like he needed to "add or subtract a sixpence" to keep the jib in position (i.e. it's so finely balanced....maybe this was a result of us lubricating the pivots with silcone!)

He's also still convinced that the wheels supplied are too small.

But other than that we are both really pleased with this new kit and the capabilities it now gives us!

Next time out we will probably try it at max length for some non-time pressured architectural shots and with all the extras on (LANC, remote powered head, LCD monitor etc.)

Funny but I was watching the BBC's Antiques Roadshow last night and the Jib shots were so blindingly obvious now I know how these things are done!