A while back I had the fortunate job of playing jib man on set with the DSLR Devices MK3 version I believe. The design was so simple yet so genius, a quick and easy way to get great little crane movements without the hassle of setting up a large system. Ever since that shoot I have wanted to get my hands on one of these mini cranes myself and eventually when the opportunity arose it looked as if the chance at owning one was not going to happen. DSLR Devices website showed they were out of stock. At the same time I heard a little rumour that the inventor of the DSLR Devices mini crane had been snapped up by the guys over at Genus and that soon they would be releasing an MK4 version under the new company branding.
Fast forward and I now own my own Genus mini crane and it is bloody amazing. The few sore points of the old version have been figured out and the new design is almost perfect. To be fair the mini crane is never going to be as useable as a large sized crane but that’s the beauty of it. It does the one man jobs like no other. Set up takes a few minutes and you are shooting away. It’s one of those items that you would never have had the space for before but now you do. Do yourself the favour, it’s not a lot of money for such a great piece of kit so just go buy one and get using it.