A. No. You cannot center mount the CineSlider to any head, other than the Hercules head. With the Hercules head, you use two bolts that pass down through the body of the CineSlider into the solid aluminum top of the head for a rock solid connection. You can also center mount using our Revolution / CineSlider 100mm Ball Mount direct to 100mm or 75mm bowl tripod legs.

If you wish to use a standard video tripod head, you will need to screw your quick release plate in to one of the threaded holes at either end and then support the other end with a 2nd support of your choice (i.e. C-stand, tripod, etc).

The reason you can not use a standard video head to center mount is because if we put a threaded hole in the center and you tried to attach your quick release plate to it, when you slid your camera to one end the amount of lb./square inch of force would be so great it would strip the hole out and your camera could end up on the floor. Even if you had your set up light enough to not strip out the connection you would get a large amount of drop as you slide the camera down the rail, due to the compression of the rubber pad found on most quick release plates.

A.Yes but you will have to go into advance mode. There you will see the step is set to .05 and the period is set to .300. These are small set of time so to speed the unit up change the step (motor on time) to .10 so now when it does run it will run for 2x as long thus cutting the overall time/distance in half when sent to .05. Remember to always keep the motor speed to 50 or less. When the motor speed is less than 50 it is slow enough that if the unit is moving while your shutter is open you will get ghosting or blurring. The only time you may want to increase the motor speed faster than 50 is if you have the slider set up vertical or at steep incline and you need to compensate for weight lift. So now due to a heavy weight lift you may need to set motor power/speed to 100 for it to move at the same speed of 50 when flat. You will need to experiment to find what settings will work with your camera set up as they are all different.

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A. Because our weight bar is adjustable forward and back to fine tune the balance of the crane, the amount of weight will vary. A middle of the weight bar weight requirement for the 8 ft crane is 7.5 lbs. to balance just the crane with no camera and then add 1.5x the weight of the camera. I.e. if your camera weighed 10 lbs you should add 15 lbs. Just multiply the weight of your camera by 1.5 to get the added weight amount you will need. For the 12 ft crane you will need 27.5 lbs to balance just the crane then add 3x the weight of your camera. I.e. if your camera weighed 10 lbs you will need to add an additional 30 lbs.

A. The crane (KC-8) by itself weighs 21 lbs. . The crane will break down into (2) two easily transported (4) four ft. Pieces by removing just 3 bolts.

A. The camera will mount by way of a standard thumb bolt (included) that is located in the center of the camera basket.

A. No special plate is required. You will simply bolt your tripod shoe to the crane's center pivot plate with the supplied bolt. Next, place the crane on top of your tripod so that the shoe lines up with the shoe pocket and lock into place.

A. There are no preset holes for wires but the frame of the crane is made of hollow Aluminum rectangular tubing that is open on the camera end, so it would not take much to run your wires down the tubing. You would be required to drill an exit hole for your wires to come out of the end. We would recomend the use of Velcro straps (included) for quick setup and tear down.

A. The Kessler Crane® (KC-8) will show up at your door pRE-assembled but in (2) two sections. All you will have to do is lay out the front and rear sections on the floor and bolt them together with the (2) two supplied 3/8" bolts. Next, bolt the two control rod sections together with the supplied ¼â€� bolt, attach your tripod shoe to the pivot plate, and lock into your tripod. The last step would be to attach your camera securely to the camera basket and add your counter weights so that the crane is perfectly balanced. The total set up normally takes less than 10 minutes.

A. The boom/crane itself CAN pan left to right provided that your tripod head will turn/pan left to right. The camera itself CAN NOT turn/pan left to right independently from the boom with out the use of a MOTORIZED PAN/TILT HEAD. You will find that this feature is not needed in most cases.

A. You can do the FOLLOWING movements

- Boom up and down.

- Camera tilts up and down.

- 360 boom rotation (left to right).

- Fixed camera angle up and down -Automatically keeps the camera level or fixed angle no matter how you move the boom up/down left or right.

- Variable camera tilt / independent camera movement. You can move the camera up and down when ever you want no mater how you move the boom.

DUTCH ROLL- By placing The camera sideways on the basket and positioning the boom parallel to your subject you will be able to start out with a level shot and roll the camera up to 80 degrees in one direction and 30 degrees in the opposite direction.

A. Yes, in fact, if you mount a fluid head to the end of your crane you can position the tilt/pan lever of the fluid head forward so that you can operate the camera from the basket end of the crane. By operating the crane from the camera end of the boom you will be able to produce beautiful fluid walking/tracking shots as if you had your camera on a tracked dolly.

A. Our cranes are often built to a higher level of quality over other cranes. The reason our competitor's cranes are usually 2-3 times the price is because they sell through retailers/ dealers, so they have to set their price much higher to accommodate the chain of sale and make their distributors and retailers money. Kessler Crane® at this time only sells direct, thus keeping the overall price to a minimum.

A. We recommend using our K-Pod System™ tripod and Hercules Head , as we have designed them to support the weight of a camera crane / jib setup. If not using our K-Pod™ and Hercules Head, use a tripod that is made by a quality manufacturer that is rated to support the weight of a crane rig. Please feel free to contact us if you are unsure.