Inexpensive Hi hat

[Garrett Low]

I'm looking for an inexpensive hi hat to fashion a 75mm head to a slider. I'd welcome any suggestions or even any ideas for a DIY rig. I've considered finding an old tripod and stripping the top off or cutting the legs down and fixing it to a plate. Any suggestions or examples are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

[Chris Soucy]

Er, Garrett,

You wanna run that by me one more time, particularly the "fashion" bit, no Wikipedia hits give me much of a clue how one "fashions" anything to anything.

Try just telling me what, exactly, you're trying to do, because nothing in your post made any sense (to me) whatsoever.

What sort of head? Make? (real important), Ball base? Removable? Flat Base? What?

What's it to be attached to, size, attachment points/ threaded holes, what? (pictures are real good, BTW)

Confused.


CS

[Garrett Low]

Sorry Chris, a bit of communication gap. Basically I want to attach a fluid head with a 75mm ball base to a basic camera slider. Fashion is a pretty common way here to say that you want to stick something onto another or to connect them.

The make or model of the head could be a Sachtler, Miller, Vinten or similar. The size of the footprint of the hi hat is not an issue as I can always make a flat board to connect it onto the slider. Something like these would be ideal.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/370672-REG/Miller_465_465_Hi_Hat.html
or this would work

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/229592-REG/Birns_Sawyer_203005_Hi_Hat_DV_with_75mm.html
I'm just trying to see if anyone has any suggestions on how to get something to do the same for less. It will be going onto a DIY slider that I'm in the process of building now. So far my total cost for parts is just over the $120 point and I've got about another $40 worth of parts with the exception of the hi hat. So this is somewhat of a "see how cheap can I make something of quality" exercise.

Thanks for your help and sorry for the confusion.

[Garrett Low]

Digital Juice makes what looks to be a pretty cheap alternative. Wondering if anyone has any experience with their Slider Dolly Hi Hat Kit.

[Chris Soucy]

Gotcha, now I geddit!

You "COULD" get 'round the high hat thing by buying a dedicated flat bottomed head that accepts a 3/8" bolt (or a 1/4" with/ without adapter) and using it exclusively for the slider, must be tons of them out there S/H, real cheap, game over.

Depends whether you want to try quality pans/ tilts whilst sliding though (is that even possible? I'm not a slider guy so don't know).

Fashioning a Hi Hat from scrap sounds like a bit of a mugs game to be frank, why not just go flat bottomed and be done with it?

Regards,


CS

[Frank Glencairn]

Originally Posted by Garrett Low

Digital Juice makes what looks to be a pretty cheap alternative. Wondering if anyone has any experience with their Slider Dolly Hi Hat Kit.

Got the DJ Slyder, which is one of the best (and most underrated) sliders in the - under 1000 bucks - segment IMHO
My Vinten 20 head and the 30 lbs rig riding on it via a Kessler Crane high head, but Panther also makes a nice one that is 120 Euros, if I remember that correctly.

http://www.kesslercrane.com/product-p/100151.htm

Frank

[Garrett Low]

Thanks Chris and Frank,

Unfortunately I do need to have the ability to level the head. I was thinking of just machining out a hole in a plate of aluminum and using it flat but I'd like to have the ability to do some moves with the slider tilted. Also want to have the ability to make some smooth movements so I may be using a quality head on it (Sachtler or Vinten).

So far it looks like the DJ hi hat is coming out as the winner. I believe the Kessler one is the same but I need the 100mm to 75mm adapter to us it with my current fluid head so the cost is the same since Kessler charges $10 more for the adapter.

Thanks again,