Low cost motoreized pan and tilt head.

Has anybody ever used this gadget:

the Bescor mp101
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/994374-REG/bescor_mp_101_motorized_pan_head_power.html

I have one gathering dust here. Although there is adjustment for speed, I found it needed to be much slower to meet my requirements. The plus points are it's very smooth and silent.
If I get a chance I'll do some demo shots later.

Seems to be the same like my http://www.enjoyyourcamera.com/Fernausloeser/Funk-Fernausloeser-Wireless/Motorisierter-Stativkopf-MP-360-fuer-CamRanger::7096.html which i use since a while. Works great, but the tilt angle is a bit poor.

I have one. It works fine but the pan is too fast really; although the tilt seems slow enough. Probably only suitable when using wide angle lenses - with a telephoto it's much too fast.

I bought a telescope tracker. It's a bit big but does independent and variable X-Y at speeds that can, well, track stars.

Yeah, got one of these. It'll be OK for indoor use and for repositioning the camera rather than panning while recording.

Why indoors only? Even a slight breeze makes the camera vibrate because there is so much slack in the gears that when the platform is stationary there is nothing restraining the rotating part of the gadget and the camera is effectively decoupled from the weight of the tripod. The slack gears result in several degrees of free movement with no restraint from the gearbox. Any degree of zoom applied to the lens shows up the wind-induced vibration badly.

Why repositioning only? The slack in the gears means that sometimes when you want to start a pan the motor overspeeds for a very short time when there's no load on the motor, then the motor slams into the load and the pan starts with a jerk. This is particularly noticeable when starting a pan in the opposite direction to the one just completed as the degree of slack is at it's maximum.

If you want the camera further away than the few feet of cable on the remote control allows the 7-pin DIN extension cables are disproportionately expensive - though I think a radio remote is also available. 5-pin DIN would work but you lose the variable pan speed.

Personally, I don't think it was worth the money I paid. I wanted to shoot more wildlife while hidden from view. I tried it, couldn't use the footage because of the problems and put it away. I can live with it being a repositioner only, but not with the vibration while shooting.

Paul.

I was thinking about getting one of these to give remote control for my GH4, I wasn't looking to use it for real time panning but for remote positioning of the camera. The GH4 has wifi and all controls can be used via an iphone or ipad including zoom with power zoom Panasonic lenses, the only thing you can't adjust is up and down and side to side, where this unit would give that ability to remotely reposition for wildlife shoots.

This one I think never made it to the market:
http://www.fotografovani.cz/novinky/novinky---prislusenstvi/mcroy-digital-mdrp360-153715cz

My Camranger works very well! No problems like writen above. Ok, maybe i could pan a little bit slower, but never hab problems using it outside!

The Camranger and the Bescor look identical. If I can't anything better as such a price, then it will go into the tool box.