Hi everyone.

Just would like to open a topic how you guys transport the dolly around.

I was searching for ski bags the past few days. I guess thats a handy solution to pack the 6ft rail into. Specially if you plan fly somewhere.
But to get a decent bag you can easly spent over 50 dollars. Although you can find super cheap ones which will maybe be fine with a little extra foam inside.

After two days of intensive research I found this product though--> http://www.portaski.com/
I ordered one right away and will post my review on this product in combination with the DP dolly...
Could come in very handy.

Will keep you updated.

Best, Alec


UPDATE 01.03.2010 :

You might hunt around for a fishing rod bag. A lot of high end rods come in a canvas/cloth bag, so if you have a friend that likes to fish, he might have one in the closet. Most people I know who fish never use the bags....

Don't know how well that would do getting dragged around in the wilderness.

Me either. I try and stay out of the wilderness

@ Jim: Good idea with the ROD & REEL BAG's. I considered that before but lost the thought and only concentrated on ski bags. I just got one on ebay for 10 dollar. I guess that the ski bags are more robust and specialy the shoulderstaps are made to carry more weight. I planing to put all my tripods in there aswell.

@ DerekMellott: I hope I ll get this Portaski delivered soon and will make a wilderness test only for you!

I use sewer pipe to transport fishing rods/photographic backdrops etc - glue cap on one end and screw cap on other end.

Takes an awful lot of force to break.

@doubledark, Good tip, but I hope you're talking about a plastic/PVC type rather than a terracotta one.

Finllay! The Portaski arrived and here is the result!

Enjoy!






Best, Alec

Excellent solution, Alec.

Thanks Jim.

I am tuning the whole thing and I decided to protect it a little better too.
Next week when i m back from germany I will give you guys a update.

Cya!

I use a 6ft Dakine ski bag and I'm very pleased with it. I recently travelled with it from ATL to Banff, Canada without any problems except the $100 over-sized luggage fee! The ski bag fits the 6ft dolly with cart (assembled) and both my Induro tripods. It has an inner pocket to hold the basic tools needed in the field. The shoulder strap works well when travelling or hiking with it solo, however, it gets a little uncomfortable about a 1 mile into a trail due to the awkward length of the extrusion. Another nice feature, is that there are handles on both ends, so if you're hiking into shoot locations with a friend the transportation is much easier. This worked for me in Canada while wearing snow shoes and/or cross country skis. In the deep snow, it was helpful to have the bag fully open for an assembly surface when setting up the rig, thus preventing items from accidentally disappearing into the depths of the powdery snow (like my wedding ring). Not very ideal conditions to be lugging the dolly into the wilderness, but thanks to the highly portable design of the SZ kit you can take it anywhere you want. The bag also fits a second piece of extrusion (double stacked) for 12ft set-ups, however, installing the connectors between the two 6ft extrusions is always a hassle in the field and usually requires a bit of post work to smooth out the transition between the track seam as the cart passes through.

Here's a link to the bag (I purchased mine from a local retailer in ATL):
http://www.backcountry.com/dakine-conco ... ag-dak0871

Looking forward to hear more about all the other travel/storage configurations other users are using!

For the rail - 6 foot section of PVC 4" pipe. Screw cap glued on one end -hard cap glued to the other.
Heavy but protects well -have shipped it twice with no damage

Hi, Just wanted to add a important note for everybody who wants to use my way of transporting the dolly: I recommend not to leave the slider attached to the rail when transporting for a longer time. Because of all the vibrations from the road, it wears out the plasitc brackets which hold the slider on the rail to fast out. Best, Alec

For getting the DP Stage 0, tripods, Merlin mount, batteries and cables around I use a Ski bag from REI. The bag was $25 on their website and has padding and a seperating padded divider where I put the tripods on one side and the dolly on the other.

Took it out to Joshua Tree last week and though it is not the best for long hauls it did great for keeping everything localized, out of the dirt and was great for short treks out and about.

Hi Skyml

Would you call that a double ski bag?
I visited the REI website but the only one I can see doesn't look anything like yours.

Most doubles come with a divider like he described.

actually, they describe it as a single 190cm ski bag but truth is you could easily fit two pair in it. The link is here: http://www.rei.com/product/806407/rei-e ... le-ski-bag

I got mine from the store for $24.00 plus tax, it was hard to find as the season has changed.

Can you fit your Sky watcher head in there as well?

Yup Can actually fit too much in there. Tossed in a loose Canon 40D and two large zoom lenses with a third tripod just to minimize trips to the car and the bag was freakin heavy.

I bet it was heavy.

I've been looking at the ones with wheels. Obviously the wheels would be no good for hiking so I have an idea of modifying it with larger wheels to create more clearance.

How much is it to check a ski bag as baggage when flying?

I like the big wheel idea... will have to look into that.

This website has some info on costs... http://www.snowpak.com/news/toolkit/ski ... gfees.html

Cool thanks. Ill keep you updated on the big wheel conversion.

yeah! big wheels! i found a old golf buggy in the garage from my dad. the only thinggy with it is that the tiers are hard plastic and have no profile. but i could imagen that there might be some well feathered, offtrack buggys. will have to make a research in golfing department....

Here are a few photos of how i travel with my gear. I live in LA and most of the TL I do i drive to then have to hike a ways. This is what i got so far.
Dakine bag with camera block. I strap the two tripods to the side of the bag when i gotta hike somewhere.

Mx2 in a back pack by K Nowicki, on Flickr

4" pipe holds my 8' rail nicely. I added foam on the end caps to keep it from banging around

Travel for my 8' stage 0 rail by K Nowicki, on Flickr

Down town LA Time lapse by K Nowicki, on Flickr

8' Stage 0 on my truck by K Nowicki, on Flickr

Set up on 7th street bridge downtown LA


I don't carry the pipe cause its pretty heavy. i just drive with it in my truck. when i park all i have is the backpack with the two tripods and the rail. All together its pretty heavy. Working out some sort of wheeled set up. Like a Pelican case with wheels that you can strap on the two tripods and the rail. I'll see what I can come up with
Down town LA time lapse by K Nowicki, on Flickr

Here's a quick snap of my latest transport method. While the ski bag method works best when the shoot locations are easily accessible and not far from your vehicle, I have found that back-country carry works best in a diagonal ski carry fashion. I'm using my limit switch terminators to prevent the extrusion from sliding around while hiking. The MX-2 lives in the the camera bag within the 85 litre pack. I'm using a Mountainsmith Kit Cube traveler (fits in my pack better than a large F-stop ICU) to hold all camera gear and mx-2 accessories. Both tripods are strapped to the sides of the pack. Total weight is in the 50+lb range once I add my hammock, sleeping bag, h20, food, etc. I max out without any room left to add the Teletrack pan/tilt... so it's crucial to have a kind friend who is willing to help haul any extra gear. Socks are added to the end of the extrusion for padding in the event of it hitting rocks, etc. Getting that pack on my back with the 6ft extrusion is exhausting, so I have recently swapped to a 4ft extrusion to cut back on weight and size. It takes a few minutes to unpack and approximately 5-6 minutes to break-down the dolly and get all the gear back in place on the pack.

Very cool set up. It's crazy how heavy everything is. And the DPSZ is the smallest and lightest moco dolly out there. Makes you appreciate the the guys over at dynamic perception for the awesome rig.

Has anyone made a pelican case with wheels that hold all the components and camera in one case?

The perfect bag for transporting the Dynamic Perception Dolly. This is a padded bag for a 1800mm long Faithfull spirit level. The 6 foot rail fits in it perfectly. But please note the rail you get is not 6ft long it is 4 inches or so shorter than that. If you buy a 72" rail from an 80/20 supplier it will be 72" and will not fit in the bag. I cut my second rail to length to make it fit the bag. Here is the link to buy it on UK eBay for £7.07 + delivery:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAND-NEW-FAITHFULL-LEVEL-BAG-1800MM-72-6FT-STRAP-/250760759499?pt=UK_Measuring_Tools_Levels&hash=item3a628188cb#ht_2223wt_1163.

And this is the only way to go timelapsing in London...

WOW!

AWESOME!!! Thanks a lot! Love the yellow too... KILL BILL STYLZ!

Hi I thought share and post some pics on the modification i have on to my stage 1 dolly

I got my local metal shop to cut the track in 3 x 2 ft lengths using the drop saw for a precise cut.
I made the joiners using 10mm x 3mm stainless steel flat bar they are 50mm long with 2 x 1/4in threads taped into them
(i used imperial bolts to stay in line with the rest of the nuts an bolts on the stage 1)
i had to trim the cap head bolts down to about 8mm

The dolly runs up and down with no problems with my camera on it, i havent tried it with a pan and tilt head or a any heavy loads yet but i will soon give it a full load test.
it is fairly ridged but i saying that its not as strong as a new.

- Bullishb

more pics.....

Cool bag!

Just to clarify: the rails sold by DP, which are blue in color are all exactly 72" give or take minor deviations in production. A 68" rail would stand out quite a bit on the pallets we get them in, and we'd return it as defective.

!c

I just received this bag and it has a nice padding inside. Now my issue is the rail is around inch longer and cant zip the bag.
Whats the best way to cut the rail? Would the metal saw enough?
Thanks.