sales@cobracrane.com

Mission Statement

To design, produce and distribute the most cost effective camera support and control systems increasing the production value and significantly enhancing the cinematic capabilities of video professionals worldwide.

Our vision is to Keep Inventing Simpler Solutions pertaining to camera support and control systems, offering the digital filmmaker and production professional the tools required to get shots, angles and moves you could not get any other way for a price that is simply unbeatable. To offer smaller facilities with economical tools to cost effectively create higher quality product than the competing companies.  To showcase affordable, durable, high value American made Camera Motion Equipment.

Our Story

The CobraCrane International Company business that is built on the foundation of strategic and creative minds to design and provide products to enhance the value of any video project. CobraCrane strives to provide a quality, cost effective, product while holding onto their shared value of excellent customer service. We are always open to answer questions or hear any comments that you might have about the products. 

Our Staff:

Our current staff is comprised of video production and post production professionals with over many years of industry experience. With backgrounds from well known companies such as ProMax Systems, MicroNet Technology, Avnet, and Markertek, the passionate SteadyTracker Company personnel is ready, willing and able to meet the upcoming challenges of video, television and movie production professionals worldwide as we soar into new horizons. When you call us, you speak to one of the owners here in the US.  Calls are not sent anywhere.

Our Products

We build a line of high quality, useful, rugged, easy to use products that allow you to make better videos.  Proudly made by us in the USA. Need I say more!

Our Distribution

CobraCranes and SteadyTrackers are distributed by better camera resellers worldwide. Our products are warehoused in Southern California, Bremen Germany, Melbourne Australia, and Cebu Philippines, allowing us to get equipment to you fast, safe and within budget.

Our History

The Company started as Classic Video Products based in Aliso Viejo, California. The products, designed and developed by professional cameraman, Eric Ortleib, in a constant search to build an effective, truly cost efficient tool for operators of the digital camcorders (dv) of the day. Remember the XL1, DSR-300 and VX-1000? For many years Classic Video developed and marketed the CobraCrane and SteadyTracker product lines, and using the concept of “Keep Inventing Simpler Solutions” consistently improved the design. What is being sold now is the result of that intense passion. In the late nineties, Eric Ortlieb, the original founder of Classic Video Products sold their CobraCrane and SteadyTracker lines of camera support products to ProMax Systems, Inc. of Irvine, Ca. ProMax had been successfully marketing the Cobra Cranes and SteadyTracker product line since then.

In 2006 ProMax spun the CobraCrane company off and sold the company to its current owner The SteadyTracker Company LLC of Mission Viejo, CA. The family owned SteadyTracker company is committed to continually improve the engineering, materials, and - most importantly – the usability of the product line.

2010 was a great year for us. Our BackPacker system became the best selling crane in the world and has retained that title every year since. We want to thank all our customers and our dealers for all their support in making that happen.

In 2011 we introduced the CobraCrane UltraLite systems, which were designed exclusively for modern DSLRs and high performance lightweight cameras. Our CobraCrane UltraLite HD came out in 2012 and The FotoCrane 2 was released in late 2013.  The FotoCrane brand has become a best seller in the Asian and European marketplace.  Lightweight cranes for lightweight cameras are popular in those markets.

The past couple of years saw the release of the BackPacker UltraLites, which provide all the backpacker features with a considerably lighter aluminum body, providing a very affordable portable system for lightweight camera operators.  The Ultralites are ideal for DSLRs, GoPros and smart phone shooting.

In 2015 we released the first phase of the ProLine Motion Control systems. These systems are the beginning of a real exciting chapter for us as we enter the open source market with open sourced electronics and boards as well as open source software and free code for anyone wanting to develop apps and software.  This allows our products to take on highly controllable and very stable motion control for a wide variety of cinematic equipment.  The idea is to provide a universal, open, free platform which can use a wide variety of hardware and vendor options.   We will update again soon.

2017 we aim to provide super affordability, useful feature updates, very aggressive pricing and prove that we can provide a fine, rugged, US built product at a truly affordable price that out feature and certainly outlasts the competition.  

In 2018 we took aggressive pricing action to keep the CobraCrane line attractively priced vs. low cost less capable product from overseas.  We now have complete crane systems starting at just $99.99 and SteadyTrackers from $49.99

What’s Next?

The Rollocam H-2 is a robotic portable tripod and controller for DSLRs, GoPros, and smartPhones.  The motorized H-2 features articulating wheels and moves linearly, in arcs, and even circles while shooting video or photos. A free downloadable app is included for shooting awesome videos, time lapses and self presentation.  The elegantly designed Rollocam can carry a camera weighing up to 5.5 lbs. and run for 5 hours in continuous motion or over 13 hours in time-lapse mode.  The system can be charged with any USB charger and fits in your pocket.

Thanks again to all of you for your interest and your business. We certainly appreciate it. Remember you can call Dana or Jeanine at anytime: 949-510-7249