Pico Dolly

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I'm sure many of you already know about this particular Velbon fluid head. It's been a hit for a while now, and I thought it was finally time for me to test one out. As much as possible I love shooting with smaller cameras, and this fluid head was a great surprise. Works great as a spare head on the Konova slider instead of using the static Ball Head (and cheaper too).

If you're just starting out with a GH2, Olympus Pen, or Sony NEX-5n camera you'll get some truly fluid movements with this sub $30 dollar fluid head. It's no wonder this fluid head gets rave reviews over at Amazon and B&HPhoto websites. Best bang for the buck no doubt. Here's a few things to keep in mind about the Velbon. It's plastic, all plastic (except for a bit of metal on the pan bar). Although it doesn't feel fragile to break in under your camera, it's not designed to be thrown underneath all your other heavy equipment or to be tossed around.

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Size Comparison (Left) Manfrotto 701HDV (Right) Velbon Fluid Head

Don't get the bundled tripods as i've heard nothing but horror stories. You'd be better off buying another one like the 190XDB from Manfrotto (found here). Don't overload the thing. I used a Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 100mm Macro F/2.8 which worked well, but the head does not have a 'balance' feature so it wanted to tilt forward with the heavy lens. It's too bad the build quality comes in short, because the performance is truly amazing for such a cheap head. Often you'll find the head on sale as low as $26 dollars, and for a spare head on your DSLR video slider, track dolly, or even one for your Monopod it's a deal. You can find them on sale at B&H (click here)

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find-price-button Velbon PH-368 Video Fluid Head

or at Amazon (click here) available at both B&H and Amazon (click here)

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find-price-button Velbon Fluid Video Tripod head - via Amazon

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Disclaimer:: The Pico Flex Dolly was not designed to work in this manner. Use in this manner at your own risk.

The Pico Flex Dolly has already been motorized with lasers, so what else can we expect? Here's something quite odd. This is just something I happened upon and although it's not perfect, maybe it will spark some creative ideas for you DIY'ers out there. After removing the sets of wheels, and keeping the two bearings on the axles, there's enough gap to ride on a set of rails. If you need to track a straight line on some 'unforgiving surface', a set of rails will give smooth performance. For a quieter experience, cheap plastic rods would work better. I'm not sure what rail width would be optimal use for something like this and again, this is not what the Pico Flex Dolly was designed for.

Oh and for a solution while keeping the standard skate wheels on the little table dolly, there will be a specially designed roll out mat available soon. Still in the works...

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Hopefully people are pretty familiar with the Pico Flex Table Dolly and I don't need to give these little tools an introduction. There were two pre-orders open a few weeks ago which were wiped out very quickly once the item was featured on PetaPixel, Engadget, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, LifeHacker, and practically every other top gadget blog out there (thanks for noticing guys!). It's taken a while to get a few of these back in inventory, since Photography and Cinema is a small outfit.

Without hesitation, here's another opportunity. Small inventories move pretty quickly so consider it while it's available (International not available - just yet, sorry guys). Updates for International will be found at PhotographyAndCinema.com. Or follow me on Twitter when I make that announcement https://twitter.com/#!/cheesycam.

[Update] No longer available via Amazon. You can find more information of where these units will be available at https://PhotographyandCinema.com or at this time the package is available via eBay (click here).

Pico Dolly eBay
find-price-button Pico Flex Dolly

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YouTube member dim3m has got the right idea on using the Pico Flex Table Dolly. And on that note, keep watch on this blog. Orders should begin opening up again in anytime now..... [Thanks dim3m]

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Since the inception of the SpiderTrax dolly, there have been quite a few iterations from a number of different companies. Those units on the market were either still pretty large, or built with poor quality. This time around, I wanted to focus on flexibility and portability. I tried to achieve the highest quality possible, in the smallest footprint, and still make it the most affordable for the community. So today i'm showing you guys the Pico Flex Table dolly. It's still based on the 4 wheel two axle design which I showed a few years ago on the SpiderTrax. The reason for this is because it is much more time consuming to properly align any three wheel design (in case you were considering one). There's no need to look into any other table dolly system as this one still performs as good, and traveling with it is even easier. You'll also be quite happy with the initial price.

Although you can spin your dolly around like a madman, when used slowly they can create some interesting footage. Here's a two year old video I shot when experimenting with my first dolly. Just slight rotation moving slowly on a table.

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It's as small as you can go, while still being able to mount a regular sized Fluid head and support a normal sized Canon DSLR. The main purpose of this product is to just have fun and get creative shots. There are three threaded mounting points to attach friction arms which allow for the lowest possible angle in a camera, as well as adding a number of accessories. Of course if you want to sling a DSLR upside down (as shown in the video), you can counterbalance the weight with another accessory (notice the LED light in the video used with the upside down DSLR).


Pico Dolly w/ Zacuto EVF as Monitor. Also 240 LED Video Light.

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The Pico is complete fun for iPhones, GoPro cameras, Small Point and shoot HD Video cameras (like my HX9V), and Micro Four Thirds. Perfect for that new Sony NEX-5n, NEX-7, or even Olympus EP-3. You can purchase the Pico alone, which is a great price. There's a bundle with a friction arm which brings the price up slightly. The Pico Flex Skater Table Dolly and Accessories are available now. (click here for Pico Flex Skater Dolly)

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find-price-button Order Pico Flex Table Dolly - PhotographyandCinema.com

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