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Losmandy® 5-Leg Spider Dolly
shown with 4 track wheel clusters and optional LightWeight tripod on Losmandy FlexTrak.
Losmandy® 5-Leg Spider Dolly
shown with 4 track wheel clusters and optional LightWeight tripod on standard steel dolly track.
Most clients interested in this system use the dolly on traditional steel track. Therefore, they need the legs to be our standard spider legs designed for 24.5" separation (not the extended leg version which is primarily used with floor wheels).
Since they are often carrying a heavy jib on steel track, the issue of flat spots on track wheels arises. Therefore we also offer the option of upgrading the track wheel clusters to our multi-dimensional wheel clusters that are used on our Porta-Glide Dolly Sleds. This will eliminate the bump one will feel as the wheels compress due to sitting under load for awhile on the steel track. For details on how this works, visit our Porta-Glide page.
Losmandy® 5-Leg Spider Dolly
shown with 4 Porta-Glide wheel clusters and optional LightWeight tripod on standard steel dolly track.
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click to enlarge
Standard Porta-Jib on
Losmandy® 5-Leg Spider Dolly
shown with 4 track wheel clusters and optional LightWeight tripod on standard steel dolly track. |
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Why the 5-Leg Configuration?
First, let's acknowledge that controlling all of the axes of motion when a jib is moving on track is quite daunting. Consequently, it is not often that one needs to make the camera pan, tilt, boom, sweep, and track all at the same time. Nonetheless sometimes we do want to put a jib on a track dolly, but we need to be aware that certain combinations work well, while others do not. For example, our Explorer has its own 3-Leg track dolly, and because the Explorer jib is small and lightweight, it works perfectly well. Likewise, you can effectively put any of our jibs on the DV column of our 4-Leg Spider with track wheels. Also, using the Extended Leg Spider with floor wheels has proven to be a very popular combination, providing an easy and safe way to position the jib. However, what if you want to put a tripod-supported jib onto track? Then there are two problems.
1) Unlike the 3-Leg floor wheel dolly, which has all three wheels in line with the legs of the dolly, the track wheel dolly uses one floating wheel which is not in line with its leg but instead angles away as pictured here.
This unfortunately creates an unsupported area as the jib arm moves around, and there is a danger of the jib tipping from this lack of support, especially with our larger Standard Porta-Jib.
2) We can solve this problem by adding a 4th wheel, but unfortunately, you cannot put a tripod on the 4-Leg Spider base. The 120° angles of the tripod legs do not line up with the 90° angles of the 4 spider legs, therefore, there is no way to attach the tripod to the dolly.
So to solve these two problems, you can combine the dolly's 3-Leg and 4-Leg hole patterns to create a
5-Leg/4-Wheel dolly.
Three legs are attached using the normal 3-Leg pattern, but it only uses two of the wheels. The leg without a wheel becomes the connecting point for one of the tripod legs.
The two remaining legs and wheels use the dolly's
4-Leg hole pattern.
With this 5-Leg/4-Wheel combination you have the ability both to use a tripod as the jib support, and to have four wheels for stability on the track. |
The 5/4 configuration folds compactly for transport.
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5-LEG SPIDER DOLLY SYSTEMS |
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| SP5T |
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5-Leg Spider Dolly with 4 Track Wheel clusters |
$1695 |
| SP5PG |
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5-Leg Spider Dolly with 4 Porta-Glide Wheel clusters |
$1795 |
| SP5TC |
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Case for 5-Leg Spider Dolly |
$325 |
