Hi all- I'm looking for some suggestions and recommendations on a solid (and ideally adjustable) vibration isolator for use with my MoVI Pro on dolly mounts. I know about the Black Arm for car mounts and the like, but that's a bit overkill for this purpose. We often mount the MoVI to a dolly (usually a Chapman PeeWee) for shots at practical locations where we don't want to lay track or dance floor and the floor is just a bit too bumpy for another head. The MoVI can handle a lot, but there are often conditions with just a little too much displacement for the rig. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with something along the lines of the Libra Isodamp for such shots. Thanks for the input. -c
If you have the Black Arm, then it comes with an isolator usually -- there's a wire-rope isolator and the newer Tranquilizer. You could just use that part on the Dolly. Kessler Makes a Kill Shock, and I have a Stratus CVI-XL and CVI-U, but I'm not sure if they're still making their wire-rope isolators. Depending on the weight, there's also a Cloud Mount and I think a few others out there. I used the Movi (actually, I think it was my R2) recently on a Fisher dolly on a concrete floor that had some small bumps, and we added my Stratus CVI-XL, and it helped quite a bit. Maybe not as smooth as rails, but it was certainly more acceptable. The DP on the project didn't want me to take the few minutes to add the Isolator at first, so I got to see a good before and after of how well it worked, and it was an improvement.
I am biased obviously but the Kessler KillShock has and is being used on a lot of big TV shows, commercials and movies. We now have a black arm adapter so you can used the killshock in place of the tranquilizer. We also have an inversion under-slung kit so you can do both hood mount and off speedrail, etc. Lots of bang for the buck. We also have the killshock mini as well which is sold out.
I can second Michael's post above. We use the killshock on Riverdale constantly. Had it mounted to a teryx and we were flying around on a football field and it was very good. I do think it's all situational though. I'd say 85% of Riverdale is studio and some of the set floors are in rough shape. Minor bumps and waves in floors etc. And it's a balance of knowing when to use the killshock or just hardmount the movi or use soft wheels on the buggy with or without the Vibe Iso etc. I'm considering getting the air/tube insert and try that out.