Camreras & Accessories News

Road test for Motion Control System

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:28

Rick Gomez in test mode

Long time Matthews Studio Equipment customer, director / DOP Rick Gomez of Rick Gomez Photography, a Los Angeles/South Florida-based production house, recently took MSE’s new Motion Control System out for a test.

According to Gomez the new system takes the DC-Slider, designed and manufactured by Floatcam, to the next level of production support.

“A motor is critical to my work for a variety of reasons,” says Gomez. “I need to be able to plan a move and time it really well. The controller on this system allows me to make quick changes in timing without having to re record the move. I can speed up or slow down the move easily until I am content with the speed.

“I found that, should I need to adjust my timing, the controller on this system lets you try different changes in speed without having to re-record your move.

“The repeatability of certain moves is also important to me,” he adds. “I recently shot a test for a web series I’m about to DOP. In this series, one of the main characters also has to play the part of her identical twin sister. To have her in the frame speaking to the twin is not difficult if the camera is locked off. I wanted to ad a camera move during the conversation to make the shot more interesting. I was able to do it easily with the Slider. The motor is consistent enough to do the shot.”

Gomez found that there are several other factors where DC-Slider with the Motion Control System beats other setups. “I can shoot sound,” he says. “It’s that quiet. The power of the motor allows for smoothness and a nice easy ramping. And, it’s so easy to programme. It took less than 30 minutes to get comfortable with it.”

He also put the combo to the test on a music video. “Here, instead of pulling focus, I used the motor to push in and pull out of focus,” he explains. “Once I set my closest focus point, I was able to sit back and just play with the move all the while knowing that I could always move forward and nail my focus at any time. The camera move is a subtle thing that many people won’t notice but I think it’s really beautiful.”

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