dolly

LOKI is an Ultra-Portable Camera Rig That Can Take On Many Forms

Camera rigs can be large and difficult to carry around when on the move; once you add on additional components, the problem intensifies. Now, Scratch Ideas from the UK has introduced ‘LOKI’ on Kickstarter with a $38,910 fundraising goal. An ultra-portable and modular piece of equipment, LOKI can transform between a shoulder rig, a camera cage, an underslung rig, and a dolly with a few twists and clicks.

Edelkrone PocketSkater2 is a Mini Camera Dolly You Can Fit In Your Pocket

Camera dollies can add beautiful and fluid movement to your videos, but they tend to be both bulky and difficult to travel with for extended periods. Edelkrone is here to try and fix that problem with the PocketSkater2, a product they are calling “the world’s most flexible fully featured camera skater that can fit in your pocket.” With an extensive collection of mini-dollies already available, what does the PocketSkater2 bring to the party?

How to Build a Camera Dolly Out of LEGO Pieces

Photographer Pascal Kulcsar of Mainz, Germany wanted to add some movements to his time-lapse videos, so he built himself a fancy dolly using LEGO pieces. The tiny vehicle has 6 wheels and is powered by a motor that can run for 8 hours of constant movement with regular AA batteries.

Tutorial: How to Quickly and Easily Create the Dolly/Hitchcock Zoom in Your Time-Lapses

As timelapses become more and more ubiquitous throughout the photography and filmmaking community, people are continuously looking for unique ways to stand out and separate their work from that of others. One such trick that many use in their creation is a little effect often referred to as dolly zoom or vertigo effect.

The premise behind it is that as you capture each frame of your time-lapse, you slightly and consistently move the camera’s location, so that when the video is pieced together, you’re left with what looks like a dolly shot captured over an extended period of time. And here to help show just how to do just that is Eric Stemen, in the above video.

BTS: How National Geographic Captured a Cheetah Running at Full Speed

Back in June, a National Geographic crew was given the task of filming and photographing a cheetah running at full speed. While there are plenty of videos and photos out there showing this, the magazine wanted to track alongside the cheetah as it ran (rather than simply capture it from a fixed location). The short behind-the-scenes video above shows how they went about doing this.

How to Build Your Own Cineskates Using a Gorillapod and Rollerblade Wheels

Editor's note: Since we featured in back in August, Justin Jensen's Cineskates project has raised nearly half a million dollars. Here's a DIY tutorial by Ed Lewis on how to make your own.

Want to get a nice dolly shot without spending a lot of money? With less than $20 and a GorillaPod you can have an adjustable tripod dolly. You can adjust the angle, the direction, and the radius for circular dolly shots. It's also ridiculously easy to make. With all the supplies and tools, the build time here is less than 10 minutes.

Time-Lapse Motion Control Using a BBQ Rotisserie Motor

While adding movement to time-lapse videos is cool, the special equipment (e.g. dollies, cranes, etc...) you need can be pricey. Derek Mellott couldn't afford to shell out hundreds of bucks for a dolly, so he decided to make his own using things found in his garage. His resulting setup included tripods, a cable management tray, a TI-calculator as an intervalometer, and a BBQ rotisserie motor to slowly pull the camera along.