Evolve

Would Stanley Kubrick approve? Beats the hell out of me. It’s a good bet, though, that The Greenville News will be none too amused by next month’s fête promo (embedded here) that invites readers to evolve beyond print media into the digital, by which we mean mobile device, age.

Igus is a multinational company founded 50 years ago in Germany. They manufacture things like “complex polymer components” for industrial applications. Esoteric stuff. Things you’d find only in factories.

Up until recently, that is.

A year or so ago, Igus noticed that one of their products, the Drylin linear guide, was being bought by videographers, individual do-it-yourself types taking advantage of the company’s no-minimum-order policy. They were drilling/tapping holes in the guide’s extruded aluminum rail and die-cast aluminum carriage to accommodate tripods below and video heads above. The result of these modifications was a close-tolerance, industrial-grade slider dolly acquired at a fraction of the cost of those sold by companies that cater specifically to the video trade.

Igus responded, not by abandoning their no-minimum policy (which I assume was instated to encourage potential large customers to buy samples), but by offering a line of ready-to-use pre-drilled Drylin sliders at Amazon.com. The fact that they’re bothering to do this, given their size and traditional customer base, makes me wonder if they’re about to spin off a video equipment division. I hope they do. The first time I saw a Drylin demonstrated on YouTube, I thought … So sleek. So simple. So perfectly constructed. No way am I going to be willing to pay what this thing … holy shit! Where’s my credit card?!!

Yesterday afternoon, Tim’s very own Igus Drylin W-1080B Linear Motion System arrived. This morning, he used it to shoot the dolly shot you see at the end of the video embedded here. Ganz toll, Igus. Danke sehr.

And if I may lapse back into my native tongue (and first person singular) for a moment, I have but one thing to say to everyone who’s paid $300 or more (in many cases, much more) for a brand name equivalent: You’ve been punked.