Blog

July 2010 UPDATE:

First a big "thank-you" to all of you who have expressed interest in the iDC SYSTEM ONE.

We had hoped to be delivering our first batch of System One kits by July 15th but production delays continue to plague us.  Our machine shop and anodizer have been overwhelmed with increasing demand for our original Run & Gun so it now looks like we'll need a few more weeks for them to catch up.  This is extremely frustrating for us and we'll be taking steps to expand production through additional sub-contractors at the earliest opportunity. 

As the only guy actually using System One on a daily basis, i can say it will be worth the wait! 

Once again, sorry for the delays.  If I could chop off some heads and not do hard time in the Big House, I promise you I would...

- Bruce

At the time of this writing, we’re just a day away from leaving for Las Vegas and the annual NAB Convention.  The 2010 National Association of Broadcaster’s Convention will be the official debut of our new super-compact and modular HDSLR camera platform henceforth known as iDC SYSTEM ONE. 

SYSTEM ONE is built upon a Double-Dovetail MonoRail.  This monorail may be directly mounted onto most of the smaller-scale fluid heads and monopods from Gitzo, Bogen, and Manfrotto with no adapters or quick release plates required.  If you use another brand of fluid head or quick release system, no worries; the iDC SYSTEM ONE monorail will be quick to adapt via either the industry-standard 3/8”-16 or 1/4”-20 threaded bosses.

Digital Media Producer and U-Boat Captain, Pete Santa Maria, of Carlsbad, California is enjoying a fun but grueling mission in France. Pete is currently shooting the Tour de France and has been sending us updates and production still from the field. We love seeing this sort of thing. Please consider this an open invitation to all U-Boat Commanders and Run & Gunners to send us samples from your own amazing adventures....

In the meantime, check out Capn’ Petey at work...

We will be at Cine Gear Expo in Hollywood this Friday and Saturday. If you're in the area come over and join us...

We'll be showing off our iDC Run & Gun, iDC SYSTEM ONE, and our new iDC Rigging Cage. The iDC Rigging Cage is perfect for car or high performance mount shots. The top plate and side handles are riddled with 1/4"-20 and 3/8"-16 threaded bosses, and there are some 1/4" through-holes thrown in for good measure. Economically priced and very robust! In stock now!

Here’s a follow-up e-mail from my adventurous young pal, Erica:

Brooooooooose,

Please tell everyone THANK YOUUUU for creating the most amount of hits on my group's video by far!!! YAY! And thank you so much for blogging about it so much! I really appreciate it!

So the camp is done! It was an amazing 10 days; full of learning, adventure and fun! All of the 15 young explorers that I was with in Chateau d'Oex were so SO great! They all had wonderful new ideas about projects around the world and were all so friendly and just fabulous! It is amazing that I can now go anywhere in the world and have a place to stay; the YEP (Young Explorers Program) community is slowly growing and everyone in it just wants to meet everyone else!

My safari pal, Erica Wineland-Thomson, is in Switzerland at this very moment undergoing tests and trials to see if she will qualify to join an international group of young explorers that will make an attempt to climb Everest. The ongoing training of the Young Explorers may be tracked through photos, text, and video online at http://www.mikehorn.com/en/yep/young-explorers-program/ . Look for the Himalayan Selection Camp section...

Only a handful of applicants will make the cut and young Erica really, really wants this. I think she deserves it as well. Each competitive climbing team has produced a video as a part of the overall competition and the video that generates the most click-through views will win and progress further in the competition.

If you admire young people with big ambitions and the heart to back them up, please follow this link and cast a zillion votes for my pal Erica:

http://pangaea-yep.com/m/videos/view/Promotion-Video-BEST

- Bruce

The last time I blogged properly was weeks ago when we were preparing for NAB and a quick trip to Oahu for several different projects.

The National Association of Broadcasters show was great and filled with many planned and serendipitous meetings, We saw many of our long-time gear users and friends and met many, many more new ones. We spoke with lovely folks from all over the world and broke bread with as many as we could. It was a really great show with way, way too much to see, especially when working in one booth and speaking in another twice a day.