Kessler Cineshooter Motion Control Cinema Robot - Full Review 

Coming actually!

It is honestly one of the most fun ways to be creative. It doesn’t take a ton of skill to do it, so you are just being creative, mixing, and then playing with a little chaos and you get art in the end. Its a blast.

@@ScottBalkum sweet, what kind of paint is that?

@@WhereAreWe7Just acrylic. You can buy some at walmart to play with. There are some add ins you need to do to thin and make the paint thickness consistent. There are tons of videos on “paint pouring”. Its a blast.

@@ScottBalkum thanks!

What new camera would that be?

@@ScottBalkum idk I guess I'm wrong for some reason the colors looked different on my phone but maybe its just the lighting/ my phone combo

Its probably because I forgot to set my white balance on my Sony back from 5600K to 5200K...... but I won’t admit to that.

@@ScottBalkum gotcha lol ;)

Which part are you interested in seeing?

@@ScottBalkum your lighting, camera, lens, mic, setup. Love the warmth, depth, clarity and the sound is very nice

Check the last 2 vlogs.

Thank you. I have used the Syrp system, not a big fan. Repeatability, payload, and programmability are the weak points and all will have an adverse effect on your performance and abilities.

HA! It was a gift from BlueShape! It is one of my favorites too.

@@ScottBalkum I have been looking foreeeeverrrr for them. Tell them they need to mass produce them!

Its about the way I have it rigged. There isn’t any backlash or play in the motors, but the way I have it rigged, I am taking it a little further than it was originally designed and my rigging isn’t perfect. I have been slowly perfecting it and can make it better. Obviously, if you sling 25 lbs at full speed and ask it to stop on a dime, inertia will have some effect. Curves really help this.

@@ScottBalkum thanks for the reply mate. Love the Frankenrig and the thorough review 🤙🏻

It is coming. Soon. Something else dropping before… something also very cool.

@@ScottBalkum Thanks for the timely reply Scott! Love the reviews

I would say its quite the opposite of “build it yourself”. I choose to use mine in a very flexible way. Kessler has 4 different sliders/dollies with different lengths. Because of this, they don’t have a “one size fits all” approach. But a very common build would be a 3’ Cineslider and a Cineshooter. I just don’t play the same way as most. I am pulling the most I can out of every piece of kit I own. As for the ST4, it is an older product. It uses solid motor system and is very quiet. The negatives are, it can’t hold a lot of weight, isn’t very fast, and they don’t have as many options to build the rig you want. Ultimately, you should do your research on each and choose what it best for you. I wanted to show the world how I use the Kessler system. I think it is “freeing” for people to see that you can do so much more with it than what people typically see.

@@ScottBalkum Thanks Scott for the thoughts. I agree the ST4 is an older system and you are completely correct...I need to figure out what my uses will be and how I will use it. Right now I have the JibOne system and I love it. I just wish it would move along a track :p

@@Justin_Allen Yea, you are bumping up against the design limitations on the EK system. Take your time. Do your research. There is no perfect system. There is only the one that does everything you need. Just don’t let your equipment limit your creative vision. That’s what I love about the Kessler systems. I can just keep coming up with ways to adapt with it and it just keeps chugging along.

Yes, there may be a few countries they can’t ship to because of the nature of motion control but I believe they can ship most places.

Hey Robert, Thank you for the kind words. I don’t have the actual stated rating but I can tell you what I know and what I have done. I own a 500 series, 1000 series, several 100 series and a 25 series motor. They are way more powerful than you think. Briefly, the number on the motor is the gear reduction ratio. So, a 25 is a 25 to 1 ratio. In the Second Shooter series, they all use the exact same motor inside. Its only the ratio inside that changes. The Cinedrive motors are of an even higher quality. All motors run at a maximum of 10,002 rpms. The motors will operate at maximum capability all day long. If you exceed the rpms (which you can do through a trick, but not readily available) or you exceed the capability (which would cause the motor to pull more power than the controller can provide), the motor will stop and the controller will error. Reboot and you’re fine. I have a 25 series motor with the small gear on the Shuttle Dolly with a CineSlider underneath, a Cineshooter etc, (like my Frankenrig shows) - I can run the 25 series motor at full speed with 0 ramp all day long with a fully rigged RED on it. At maximum speed and optimized ramping, it will complete 9’ of rail in 2.9 seconds which is pretty fast. It never skips a beat. I probably have about 40 lbs on the Shuttle Dolly. The failure point will be the tension on the belt first. I have never, ever had that happen. The belt is exceptionally strong. You will experienced wiggles in your mounting because of rapid starts/stops before you’ll be concerned with the motors. Inertia is a difficult force to overcome. Ramping really smooths all this out. When I play with my vertical lift, I enhance the effect of inertia and it acts like a pendulum if asking it to move sideways too fast. Ramping is critical there. These are rare and out of the norm builds so most people would never experience them. So, I have always been concerned about what the motors can actually do. After talking with the team at Kessler and experience with the motors, I have long given up on concerns for these motors.. and honestly just giggle a little when I make the giant heavy dolly fly across the rails without skipping a beat. To answer your other questions, here is how I’d put it. With the different ratios of motors, the other benefit/negative to the motors is how precise they are versus the speed they can achieve. For instance, a 25 series motor can operate at 10,002 rpms max like all the other motors and has a 25:1 ratio. It means the resolution of that motor has about 400 “ticks” per revolution. If I recall, the motors actually have either 2 or 4 times the number of “ticks” as the rpms but we’ll just use the rough number to explain. Think of a stop watch with a mechanical hand. There are 60 seconds in a minute so when you run it at slow (normal) speed, you can see it advance from 1 second to the next etc… and the hand will move in large leaps. And the hand stutters to each second. When you reset the stopwatch, the hand swiftly and smoothly returns to 12. The same effect works on these motors, just with a higher resolution. So, you get 400 ticks per revolution. IF you were to use the fastest (lowest ratio) motor and ask it to operate extremely slowly in a macro setting, you would could experience stuttering in certain situations because it simple cannot advance half the distance of a single degree of rotation. To force this example, have the motor do 1 rotation over 800 seconds. that would make it 2 ticks per step but it only has 400 ticks available. That’s actually extremely slow. But, through vibrations in your mounting, etc, oscillations could occur in the entire rig and amplify this. I have personally only experienced it once and I was using a probe lens at an extremely slow, macro speed with the high speed motor. The probe lens amplified the effect greatly. Switching to a 100 series instantly cleared this up with 4 times the resolution. So, you want to buy the motor that will move your rig the fastest you’ll need but not faster if you want to do macro work. The 100 is a great motor. Get both pulley options to have the options of speed, resolution. If you can only have 1 motor, the 100 is great. If you need a wide range of speeds and resolution, well, just buy various motor options. I know that was a long winded explanation but I wanted to make sure you understood where the problems could arise. The Kessler gear can do WAY more than they advertise which I absolutely love. Its just solid. If you happen to order from Kessler, I’d love for you to use my affiliate code. I get a tiny % to support the channel. It took 5 years but I finally got an affiliate code! ;) kesslercrane.com/?ref=XajMvzf0cHF3DB Let me know if you have any other questions. I’m happy to answer and wow this font is small now… Scott

It won’t be long now. The bulk of the work is near completion. Congrats on getting the Kessler. You made a very solid choice. The features coming are sooo good.

Good for you! I have Rhino Arc II! It's trash unless you want more portability & to only use it for real-estate

To be honest, the Edelkrone stuff is not great. It can’t handle any weight and is glitchy, shaky, and not smooth. Couple that with the constant need to replace little batteries and the lack of flexibility when programming and it adds up to not a great system. They do spend a ton on marketing though so that’s why it appears everyone has one. No system is perfect, but the Kessler system is far more stable and can handle much, much, much more weight than the Edelkrone stuff, and then run it at faster speeds. I mean, in the end, it only has to get the shot you need. But, don’t let your equipment be the limit to your vision..

@@ScottBalkum thanks for the input. I will look more into this system!

Heh…. Yes, it can go exceptionally slow. There is even a Macro version of CineShooter that is 4X slower. Chris Fields did a time lapse of a tiny mushroom with a 10X magnification lens on it. It is very capable. But, if you are mostly looking at slow speeds, I would get the Macro version just so you have that extra slowness. The Macro won’t be able to go as fast as the regular CS, but since regular CS is so fast to begin with, most wouldn’t notice it.

@@ScottBalkum this video review (and the fact they have a telephone number on their website!!!) im sold

@@jasoncannon They are really good people. You’ll love it! You can use kesslercrane.com/?ref=XajMvzf0cHF3DB to order if you want. (Affiliate link) Also use “SCOTTBALKUM698” for a 5% discount.

That’s what they’re there for! Let them know I sent you.

@@ScottBalkum You bet! Unfortunately I have the worst signal. I'd just email them but I would rather nerd out over the phone with a representative. I need three of these for something I'm working on and I like the price. If they work like I hope they do, they'll become a prime fixture in my arsenal.

But you can bet I have Kessler Robotics savved in my phone for when I have the opportunity!

@@theloganpresley Give them a call in the morning, ask for Jason.

@@ScottBalkum Will do!

Quick question, can you give me a time stamp of the micro jitters? I do get them every so often but its pretty rare now. I am wondering where you saw it?

@@ScottBalkum Wow, quick reply! I intend no offence by my question. I just really want to find a solution. So I notice jitters at 2:42 on the wide of the balls, 2:53 at the end of the move in, 3:22 on the timelapse (noticeable on the tree trunk in the foreground), 3:44 on the snow timelapse it's like there's a bit of stutter to the pan. Now I know long lenses will exaggerate the jitters and wind plays a factor for exterior shots. Thanks for your input :-)

@@themediaclinic No, no, no offense taken. I was genuinely concerned when you said something as I thought I hadn’t seen something. I’ll explain each, they actually aren’t micro-jitters so much as “other interference” - the 2:42, yea, that is there but it isn’t a micro jitter, it is sadly a scratch on my speed rail and I haven’t gotten around to sanding it down. That bump is the shuttle dolly wheel traversing it. The 2:53 is a little jitter from the CineShooter. This is one that I have reported. The reality of that one is the probe is 14” long and exaggerates any vibration. The Cineshooter is so fast and has tall gearing, the probe will show the increments of the move at the slowest move speed. When it came to the end, it does a slow drop and that was a micro move and the jitter showed. The 3:22 was actually me accidentally hitting record at the bottom of the move forgetting that it had to reset to the top and it was on timelapse mode on Red. I didn’t do edit that out it appears. That’s a goof, but my goof.. The rest of that move is smooth and that is the TLS with a full Red on it. 3:44 was artifacts from Komodo recording at 24fps and “timelapsing that bad boy in post”. On the realtime footage it is smooth. Jitters to exist on motion control and Kessler is not immune to it. I have experienced it in the past but there are lots of little things that will help it, tremeandously. 1 - Balance. Balance that rig as best as possible and it will reduce. On long slow parallax shots going side to side with a pan, if a jitter shows up, adjust your motion speed up/down by 1 second. I have no idea why that works but it seems to fix it about 70-80% of the time for me. (Calculation issue?), other thing to check is clean slider track and also, if you are on cineslider, make sure your wheels are “too tight” against the track. I notice that loosening them ever so slight allowed it to absorb anything on the track much better. If you have other situations that this happens, go ahead and comment. I am interested in seeing what is happening.

​@@ScottBalkum Thanks so much for taking the time to respond in such detail Scott! I really appreciate your input and suggestions. I will definitely try the 1sec trick. I'll also double check my balance and slider wheels. I'm in the middle of a car commercial shoot so very keen to get the smoothest footage I can. One other question if I may, in your experience is slow moves preferable to fast moves for getting the smoothest shots? I've tried both with varying results. My go-to these days are slow moves (20sec) sped up in post, but that has it's own drawbacks as speeding up in post can accentuate movement errors...

@@themediaclinic On Second Shooter, I try to stay between 0-80% speed. I notice after about 80%, things can exaggerate and a tiny issue can become a much bigger one. SS really loves to go slow and its what I grab when I do want slow shots. CineShooter is almost the polar opposite.I run it about 20-95% speed for the best results. When I can go slow, I tend to do so. I like being able to cram as much light into the camera as possible. With Red, I’ll run frame summing and run the move 1/4 the speed just to gather more light, especially with a probe. You aren’t wrong to want to go slow, but you don’t necessarily have to. It really depends on what is happening in the move, the payload, the start/stop times, etc.

Ok, first, that’s funny. I swear I saw this comment on a different video review I did. So, if you were notified of that comment, you’ll understand why my reply was so weird. Hahah. Secondly, I see what you’re saying but I don’t think you can have a review without an opinion. Even a review without dialog will have opinion in there. What I try to do is give my thoughts and take on gear, when I do reviews, so people can have a good idea of what to expect, from my point of view. As always, I never tell people what decision they should make. I always believe that is up to the individual. I simply want to give facts and opinion, clearly separated, to the viewer to help guide them. As for the error rate. I stated its technically closer to 99.999% accurate…and this is my opinion based on my use. And in reality, there are 100’s of things in motion control shots that are less accurate and we just reshoot when this happens. A memory card could fail, a battery could run out, the jelly bean could have a slight sticky spot on it and not drop from the gripper at the precise millisecond we want. The actor could flub their lines, etc. Its the nature of the business. I would say that the point of this is, the CineShooter is mechanical so there is always risk of an error occurring. But, its so slim, you just don’t worry about it.

The two are in 2 completely different worlds honestly. Edlekron can hold a maximum of 10 lbs where as Kessler can exceed 25 lbs. Edlekron moves very slowly where CineShooter can move extremely quickly while exceeding 25 lbs. Kessler has the ability to use kOS software which has an extreme amount of programmability for moves and one huge difference, Edlekron is very shakey, fidgety, and quirky. It takes a ton of patience to get a single move on Edlekron that doesn’t have problems. They really are just 2 completely different classes of motion control.

There is no reason it can’t do it. Balance it as close as possible and keep it under 25 lbs. No problem at all.

@@ScottBalkum I'm pushing 25 lbs for the 17" hi-brite teleprompter I'm wanting for outdoor use. An iPad-based teleprompter would be easy, but they're not too useful outdoors. I'm thinking a teleprompter on the Cineshooter would be cool when the tracking feature becomes available. Even if I exceed the 25 lb limit by just a bit, maybe it would not matter since this would be a pan/slider move application only, no tilt. Introducing just a bit of walk and talk to this rig would be tremendous thanks to introducing parallax and a live dynamic background.

@@dannypgrizzle If you keep it balanced you’ll likely have no issues with it as I have pushed the CS way beyond the 25 lbs. Also, don’t discount the brightness of the new ipad pros. They are exceptionally bright now.