Gettin' Jibby Wit It

I took my 4 foot jib out for a first real spin and it was a blast! As opposed to the steadicam devices I have tried, this will get you smooth, professional looking shots the very first time you use it. This is so much fun to work with and this jib is a real solid product.
The portable side to it is very relative, if you consider the heavy duty tripod and weights you have to bring along... Moving the whole setup is a pain and you ought to take the camera and jib off the tripod before setting up somewhere else, even 100 meters down the road. I picked up the whole thing and walked 50 meters, risking tripping or crashing in the process. I would strongly suggest not doing that...
Leveling is a bitch, too, you need 4 hands and a heavy duty tripod head to hold all that weight. And you need a heavy tripod: my Manfrotto 503 fluidhead performed great.

I had my Sony EX1R still set to DVCAM from a prior shoot and I forgot to set it to HD. That's too bad but the action is just as smooth in SD as in HD :-)

Portable, more portable, portablest jib...

I have written about my portable jib which arrived just over a month ago. It's light and well-made and portable. There's another kid on the block that claims to do the same while being even lighter and more portable. The downside is that it costs twice as much and that it will only hold DSLR's.
Well, it just happens to be that today for the first time I took along my jib to a paid gig and mounted my EX1R to it. It took the weight effortlessly. (even though I need some more counterweight) Anyway, check out this ultraportable jib and tell me how you like it if you happen to own one.