GEAR MINI TESTS
MANFROTTO VR DOLLY £149/$199 manfrotto.com
If you are working in a studio or on location with a smooth floor, it can be a real pain to move your tripod around, especially if it has a slider, fully rigged camera or other accessories. To avoid the hassle and protect your back and kit, you need a wheeled dolly – like this aluminium Manfrotto rig. It’s designed for medium-sized payloads up to 10kg/22lb. So that’s the tripod, slider, camera, lens and anything else you might have. Your tripod feet are splayed out wide and sit inside the dolly’s universal feet. A rubber strap is then tightened around to keep them in place. To make the dolly suitable for most tripods at the vast majority of heights, the legs are adjustable using a simple knob. Undo this, slide the dolly legs out to the right length then tighten it up again. It’s easy, but can be a bit fiddly the first time you do it since on some tripods the legs can move too. But you soon get the hang of it.
After this, the whole kit can be scooted around wherever you want. Once it’s in the right place, just push down the large grey levers to lower the safety feet, raising each wheel off the ground. It’s all fairly obvious, and once you have your tripod on wheels it’s such a nice feeling to be able to change positions quickly. Though designed for tripods, we also pressed it into service for large light stands. It was perfect for the carbon-fibre Hobolite unit we tried last month. These are the sort with legs that splay outwards – and are adjustable rather than the fixed legs of movie-style C stands. Although it’s virtually identical to the dolly Manfrotto used to offer, this one is now branded the VR dolly, as it can be used for virtual-reality and 360° cameras. However, this calls for one of Manfrotto’s VR-ready tripods to be mounted in exactly the same way as any standard tripod. Or
you could affix one of Manfrotto’s VR stands with aluminium extension column, essentially in the same way we fastened our light stands. Don’t let the VR label put you off, this is a standard tripod dolly in every way, which also works for Manfrotto’s VR-branded tripods and accessories. When you want to store it away, the dolly quickly folds up. It will fit seamlessly into your studio set-up and take some of the stress out of your working life. With a recent price reduction now bringing the Manfrotto VR down to a mere £149/$199 – some alternatives cost more than ten times as much – it’s a good buy that should work for years. PRO MOVIEMAKER RATING: 8/10 Once you’ve used one, you’ll never want to go without Pros: Price cut makes this an attractive buy Cons: VR title is a bit of a stretch
HELLO DOLLY The Manfrotto VR is ideal for a mid-sized camera, slider and tripod trio
SPECIFICATIONS Load capacity: 10kg/22lb Locking wheels: No Wheel size: 7.6cm/3in Material: Aluminium Working footprint: 78-114cm/31-45in Weight: 3.15kg/6.9lb
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PRO MOVIEMAKER
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