Mark Roberts Motion Control, a Nikon company, has launched its latest innovation, the Cinebot Mini, a small, lightweight, and versatile camera robot designed to enable operators to take charge of every shot. The Cinebot Mini has been engineered for simplicity, with a range of user-friendly, simple, and portable features ideal for studio owners, content creators, grips, cinematographers, and camera operators.
The Cinebot Mini is a compact camera robot offering the ability to manually control and record camera positions, helping to make complex camera movements more accessible. Built to be highly portable, it allows for convenient transportation, setup and location work. It can also run up to eight hours on battery power, providing an extended period of operation without a main power source. In addition, the Cinebot Mini allows users to control the robot by hand, directly from a mobile device or via MRMC’s Industry leading Flair Software.
Emphasising user-friendly control, the Cinebot Mini simplifies on-set operation for grips and Directors of Photography. It can handle a camera payload of up to 10kg and offers a 1.3-meter arm reach, allowing operators to shoot from a variety of angles and positions. For added flexibility, the Cinebot Mini comes with a track and pedestal option. This feature allows the robot to be used on an adjustable pedestal for height variation or equipped with a track for an additional axis of movement, expanding creative opportunities.
"MRMC continues to develop the most innovative technologies to meet the evolving needs of the film and cinematography industries," said Assaff Rawner, MRMC CEO. "It’s the ideal solution for professionals looking to record and replicate any movement manually made on set with maximum flexibility and ease of use to meet a wide variety of production requirements.”
Motion control is often seen as a specialized technical skill that allows for absolute control of the camera path. It can be used to create high-precision moves and repeat camera movements for visual effects purposes. Typically, motion control has been achieved using software to create keyframes that are then joined together to create a smooth camera path. This has been mostly seen in high-end work or high-budget productions. MRMC’s latest innovation integrates motion control with the familiarity and type of control that is used on everyday sets, using regular grip equipment.
Cinematographers can hand-hold the camera in various positions, and the robotic arm will record them. They can also push the track like a standard dolly, and this movement can be recorded and played back. The idea behind the Cinebot Mini is to make motion control available to any set with simpler, familiar control, a smaller footprint, and a price that makes it accessible to everyone, not just for bigger productions.