Over the past several months I’ve had the CineSpider in for review and have really enjoyed working with it. The CineSpider is a versatile camera mount system. It can be used as a car mount, or a dolly.
I have to admit, I picked the worst time of the year to review a car mount… Winter time in Chicago. But I’ve made the best of it and I will continue to share CineSpider updates and videos with you as the Midwest starts to warm up.
The Parts
The CineSpider is composed of 3 main parts: The Base, arms, socket accessories (wheels, suction cups etc).
If you get the master kit you get all the above as well as a rod accessory that will allow you to use rods with the CineSpider.
You can get just the camera dolly kit for $219. Car mount kits start at $419.
Car Mount
I have to say I was a little nervous mounting a DSLR to this for a time-lapse. But after getting the CineSpider and my 7D on the interstate I felt much better about it. Everything was snug and safe cruising at 75MPH (before traffic hit). You can see what I came up with in the video below. This was my first real timelapse so that was fun too:
The suction cups are fantastic on the CineSpider. I could shake with with the rig and it wouldn’t budge.
What is also great about this is you can really attach anything to your car now… Don’t have sticks with you? Throw a head on your car, or an LED light, or a microphone, flag, BTS camera you get the idea.
Dolly
While the car mount is the CineSpider’s hottest feature, there is another great use for this piece of gear. Like its older brother the CineMover, the CineSpider is also a dolly. The biggest difference is that you can customize the position of the wheels to create arced shots and circular camera moves.
The wheels on the CineSpider are incredibly smooth. So the smoothness of your shot is dependent on your surface.
What is also great with this kit, is how accessory ready it is. There are so many ways to customize your dolly rig. Monitors and LED panels can be attached to the arms or any of the extra 1/4 20″ mounting points on the base.
Conclusion
All in all you can’t go wrong with this rig. Its a car mount and a dolly in one. If you have a tiny camera you can even use just one suction cup and skip the CineSpider base altogether. Heck, you don’t even have to use this with cameras! Anything with a 1/4 20″ mount can be attached to your car.
I really hope you check out the CineSpider. Its such a great tool. Not to mention you would be supporting a great guy and gear manufacturer J.G. Pasterjak who is working on making some sweet stuff for us shooters!