Brian Grabski’s newest invention is a dolly designed to carry a camera over a curved track in order to make time-lapse videos. I was drooling when I first saw this machine and only grew more excited when I learned he had a write-up and video explaining the build. The bulk of the machine is made of wood.  It uses skateboard wheels on metal pipes and is driven by a servo motor connected to an electronic speed controller.

This might be much cheaper than buying professional equipment but I suspect Grabski had to spend some money putting this together. That large gear looks suspiciously like the new gearmotor gearbox sold through ServoCity for $59.99.  Throw in the precision digital speed control ($99.99) and manual driver ($49.99) and the project starts getting expensive.  Is it too late to put those things on my Chirstmas wish list?  More photos, another video, and some cool projects on Grabski’s website.

This was the third video I took but the only one, so far, with panning.  I still like the final result but it took too much effort to create.  In order to get the panning effect, I turned my camera on its tripod a little bit, snapped a photo, and then repeated.  It took about five minutes to take 114 photos.  I’m intrigued by the possibility of camera motion but other videographers get a smoother effect by using a motorized telescope mount (such as this one); something I’ll consider once I have $200-$300 to spend on time lapse.

This video was shot at the Embarcadero in San Francisco.