First test of our brushless stabilizer Portahead and BMCC

Hello,

we did a first shooting test recently with our new brushless stabilizer Porta Head 2 and the BMCC:



This time we used it with the Voigtländer 25 mm and without a remote focus but we think there should be enough weight capacity to use a lightweight focus motor and a rod system like the redrock micromount.
http://www.newi.de/broadcast-video-audi ... mount.html
http://www.newi.de/broadcast-video-audi ... aerfe.html

The 2 kg in the name are not meant as definite weight limit and we saw tests of people using the Epic with the same 5208 motors and higher voltages. With that higher voltage the motors are getting quite hot, though. That's why we prefer using multiple motors in parallel configuration for higher weights.

We also build larger systems with 2 motors parallel and a stronger motor for yaw for cameras up to 5 kg, called the Porta Head 5.

At the moment our systems are in beta test but they will be available in one or two months. We'll also provide more demo footage soon. We plan to add joysticks to the handles for precise control of pan and tilt in single operator mode. Then there will be a switch to choose between the joysticks or the wireless receiver, if a second operator controls the head with a rc remote.

Best regards
Andreas Kielb

http://www.portahead.de

Hey Andreas, looks quite interesting/promising!

So whats your estimate on the final pricing?!

Looking good Andreas, 2 or 3 axis?

Thanks,

the heads are 3 axis. The estimated price for the Porta Head 2 is 3.000 Euro plus 19% VAT including all adjustment settings, stand and remote control.

www.portahead.de

Thanks,

the heads are 3 axis. The estimated price for the Porta Head 2 is 3.000 Euro plus 19% VAT including all adjustment settings, stand and remote control.

http://www.portahead.de

Looks good.. I was hoping gimbals from Germany would come soon.. the porta head 2 is unfortunately not usable with the BMCC with lenses like the sigma 18-35 1.4 which weighs about 820g .. hopefully you might find out that the porta head 2 is capable of 4kg
and the porta head 5 is 7000€ and waaay out of my price range.. will there be an opportunity to rent those for filmmakers living in germany?

Keep up the good work Hopefully the price drops soon for the porta head 5

waiting for demo footage

seems promising!

In the meantime I made a short video with footage from recent tests and projects with the Porta Head 2 and 5 prototypes. The scenes from 0.23 - 2.56 min. were recorded with a Blackmagic Cinema Camera at 2.5k with EF mount. The heaviest lens tested was the EF 24-105mm f/4L. More footage will come soon.

I can clearly see it is a prototype stage there.

I can clearly see it is a prototype stage there.

Probably you mean the remaining vibrations in the car-to-car scenes? They are not stabilized in post like other vendors did with driving shots. I don't want to say it's wrong to stabilize them and it's absolutely common to post-stabilize those shots for commercials. We just wanted to show the actual results of the gimbal itself and we continously improve our settings to eventually get a setup in the end which makes post stabilization completely obsolete.

I'm not sure if Mövi was post stabilized but gave really nice feeling at the first look.

Have not looked ever since.

What i have in my head is one Red Bull video that was shot from helicopter and car really long way
and it was stable as a rock or concrete floor.

Ok they had military grade stabilizer there but visually i have this in my mind as benchmark.

I know it is doable but i do not know how much time and money will it take.

But this is just what i'm after.

Last week we used our new Porta Head 5 system for the first time with the cablecam and the brushless gimbal brought another improvement into the stabilization together with the kenyon gyro we used before. I edited some footage and making-of-material from the shooting with the cablecam. The camera used was a Canon 5D Mark 3 in RAW modus. Focal length mainly used was 50 mm, some shots used 35 mm and up to 85 mm.

Best regards,
Andreas Kielb

http://www.portahead.de