Zinema Motion is teasing THOR, its new 6-axis camera robot arm that is coming in June 2023.
THOR is a mid-sized motion control camera robot aimed at advanced professionals that require a system that is capable of creating precise high-speed movement. Robot Arm Pick And Place
It is designed to take camera payloads of up to 13.2 lb / 6kg. 13.2 lb isn’t a massive payload, so this will limit what camera and lens packages you can use.
Zinema Motion state that THOR is still small and light enough to be transportable, but you would need a decent-sized truck and a lot of man power. They go on to say that the high-speed 6-axis arm is fast enough to capture super slow-motion scenes where fast camera movements are critical to capture action within a fraction of a second.
Zinema Motion already makes LOKI, a smaller 6-axis arm that is more suited to tabletop product video creation in a studio.
LOKI can handle a maximum camera payload of 3kg, yet it weighs 78kg.
Above you can see LOKI in action.
Given that LOKI weighs 78kg, it would be safe to assume that THOR is going to be easily north of 100kg.
THOR has an operating range of 2.03m / 6′ 8″. And it can operate at speeds of up to 4.3m/s / 13.8’/s.
THOR runs on the ZM STUDIO Software which was developed from the ground up to give users an intuitive robot programming experience.
The wireless controller pad lets you position and align the camera and keyframes can be added with a simple press of a button.
Motion controlled camera robot arms are not cheap, and even the smaller ones are out of reach for most people.
Zinema Motion doesn’t list the price on their website for the upcoming THOR, however, the smaller LOKI retails for €26,990 (+ tax and shipping) so it is probably safe to assume that THOR could be almost double that.
Matthew Allard is a multi-award-winning, ACS accredited freelance Director of Photography with over 30 years' of experience working in more than 50 countries around the world. He is the Editor of Newsshooter.com and has been writing on the site since 2010. Matthew has won 48 ACS Awards, including five prestigious Golden Tripods. In 2016 he won the Award for Best Cinematography at the 21st Asian Television Awards. Matthew is available to hire as a DP in Japan or for work anywhere else in the world.
1 Axis Cnc Controller A site for working professionals in the TV & Film industry