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Edelkrone Jib Plus – Upgrade your Jib

April 17^th, 2016

by Olaf von VossApril 17^th, 2016

Just moments ahead of this year’s NAB, Edelkrone has announced a bunch of new products that will become available this summer. One of their new achievements that immediately sticks out is the Edelkrone Jib Plus. Edelkrone claims this new kind of motion control device is capable of tracking up to three targets during manual operation of the jib arm itself.

Basically, the Edelkrone Jib Plus is a set of 4 individual modules.

A fresh approach

Edelkrone is well known for fresh thinking and for developing neat solutions for filmmakers. And it seems the Jib Plus fits that description as well. Although little is known regarding specifications or pricing as of yet, this set of modules seems like a very cool approach to pull off killer jib moves. There is currently a promotional video out there showing off the Jib Plus’ capabilities, although there’s no explanation of how this thing works in detail.

It seems that the device is capable of storing up to three ‘targets’, which are marked by manually pointing the beginning and end of a given move. Then, the controller module stores all the values and calculates the points in between as a curve. Even the focus axis is tracked along the path. How does all this work internally, you ask? I honestly have no idea yet. We will have to wait until Edelkrone shows a working Jib Plus at NAB.

Semi motion control

All the motion control systems I know, namely the Mark Roberts Motion Control for big rigs and the DitoGear for smaller ones, work like this: Each and every axis of the rig is motorized and computer controlled. One of the many modes of operation would be to store start and end points, and the system will go ahead and calculate all the values in between as a smooth curve. Done. For the Edelkrone Jib Plus, this mode of operation won’t work, seeing as the filmmaker will operate the rig manually. Only the two-axis head and the focus gear will be controlled by the system. So I’m quite curious to see how the folks at Edelkrone managed to pull this off.

Please note that the Jib Plus is not a jib arm. It’s just a set of modules aiming to upgrade your existing rig. You’ll need to have a decent jib arm, a tripod and some form of monitoring solution to get a working setup. Well, a camera would be a good idea, too.

We will definitely dive deeper into this one and keep you posted about our findings, both in terms of pricing and modes of operation.

There is more

Edelkrone didn’t only announce the Jib Plus, but a bunch of other new products, as well: The Stand Plus seems to be an unconventional interpretation of a tripod, and the new Focus One looks like a revamped version of the Focus One Pro.