UPDATE: PB Pocket Dolly latest batch go on sale Tuesday! The Kessler Basic Controller and an upgrade path to the Oracle Controller

Ethics statement: Kessler Crane are one of my main site sponsors and this is a blatant plug for their products, but they make the best stuff (especially my rather lovely signature dolly) simple as that! If they didn’t I simply would not have them on my site!

By the way the next batch of my pocket dolly’s go on sale on the Tuesday the 26th of July!! 1100 EDT and 2100 EDT

 

 

 

Motorised timelapses are sweet. We all know that. They add a lot. Digital movement in post is nice but there is nothing like optical movement to add that third dimension. The problem is the investment in a dolly, be it a Cineslider, Pocket Dolly V2, or my Signature Edition adding a motor kit with an Oracle adds a lot to the price. So if you want to get into motorised movement. Both timelapse and real time and don’t have the spondoolicks  to get it all in one go this is the answer you have been looking for. An upgrade path!

Click on any of the images to be taken to the products!

Me and Eric at the HQ who has become like a brother in the past year.

Whilst visiting Kessler HQ recently for the first time Eric and I talked about how many people want to get into motorised timelapse but simply can’t afford it in one go and that is where the basic controller came into the conversation. I didn’t realise that it was actually very usable in timelapse mode. He showed me some thing from some guy in Boston that has done a video blog on it and I was interested 🙂

I suggested an upgrade path. All the bits that go with the motorised kit, like the motor, mount and of course dolly are standard. It’s up to you whether you buy the Oracle or the Basic. There is a price difference and a big feature difference. But if you are just starting out and money is tight then the basic controller is the one for you. So the idea is you buy the basic controller for $250 and use it until you decide you want the more advanced features, or you may decide it’s all you need, and then you return it to Kessler for a $100 rebate on the Oracle controller. Simple!

When you want to upgrade simply email them tell them you want to upgrade and then will go through the simple procedure with you.

The Basic controller package with all you need is $630 whereas the Oracle package is $1315.

Basic Controller

 

Oracle Controller

You can motorise with the basic controller any of these sliders….

 

Philip Bloom Pocket Dolly

 

Cinslider

 

Pocket Dolly V2
Shuttle Pod

 

 

20 comments

  1. Great Video,

    I have a basic question…

    What is the slowest speed I can get for Timelapse with this controller. You go at the end and mention 5 Min on Speed 1 but is there a motor combination that can do 2-3 hours on a move? Not with oracle of course.

    There is 0.5 seconds on digital dampening on this as the specs show but not nearly enough to make it a very smooth auto dampen.

    Bert is a natural salescat, it helped sell the idea of the system to my Wife… Great!

  2. Hi Philip,

    Just wonder where you got this “joy-strap” to protect the joystick ?
    I bought the Oracle controller but it was not delivered with it ..?

    Oh and by the way, since yesterday I’m also the happy owner of your PB standard size, now both sizes I can play with !!! 😉

    Thanks for all your nice stuff.

    Christophe (from Brussels workshop)

      1. Yes I’m a lucky man ; on last June 1th, I stayed awake until 3 AM to try to order one PB standard size, since I’m so in love with my 2 foot one.
        The batch was gone in 3 minutes, but I ordered mine in just one minute 😉

        And yesterday a friend coming back from new-york brought it with him !

        I will practise a lot more, but as soon as I’ll be able to do “PB” stuff, you’ll be the very first to know.

        Christophe 🙂 probably the happiest man in the world at this time 🙂

  3. I have the basic controller and use it on my pocket dolly.
    Works great and I use it every chance I have.

    I just wish it had some type of limit switch to stop it at the end of the travel.
    Somethings going to break if that happens to much I’m afraid.
    Right now I have to be very aware when it gets close to the end and manualy stop it.
    But if that is all the issue is that is pretty minor.

    Jake

  4. I’ve been experimenting with the Basic Controller doing timelapse, got some decent results so far trying to get it all worked out before a project in Japan in September where I’m going to do a lot of timelapse videos.
    I reckon I would keep the Basic controller even if I was going to get the Oracle due to the portability of the former, but it’s nice to have the option!

  5. Hey Philip,

    Wasn’t able to procure one of those sweet, sweet PB Pocket Dollies in time… I had no idea they would sell out so quickly. Any word from Kessler as to when the next batch will go into production OR do you have an extra one I could buy from you? I envision you having an entire war chest full of them.

    Thanks!
    colin

  6. I spotted a PB Dolly being used in the wild on a research vessel in the Provincetown (MA USA) harbor right next door to the pirate museum. I bet the operator wondered why I was watching so intently.

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