Camera Operator David Bushner goes Cartoni for OB Sports
In his 40 years as a camera operator, you would be hard-pressed to find an event Dave Bushner hasn’t shot.
Bushner has been behind the camera on more major sporting events than he can count from the Olympics, Super Bowls, the World Series, and the NBA Finals to Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants. These days, Bushner is shooting the Dodgers, Lakers, Clippers and Kings games.
Bushner’s head and tripod of choice?
Cartoni’s Magnum pan and tilt head & Cartoni’s Sport 200 heavy-duty tripod legs.
“The consistency of the tilt and pan is pretty remarkable,” Bushner said of the Magnum. “There are no niches or catches. With other pan heads, it always seems like, after a while, they always have issues, especially on the tilt. There is always a sticky spot or a dead spot. This pan head is fluid throughout, whether you tilt it way up in the air to get a shot or if you tilt it all the way down to get a shot, it feels really consistent all the way through.”
Bushner figures he’s used the Magnum and the Sport 200 close to hundreds of times over the course of a single year.
Called a “game-changer” by Elisabetta Cartoni, president and CEO of Cartoni, the Sport 200 heavy-duty tripod legs offer exceptional torsional rigidity and a unique shape and design. Each leg is reinforced with rotary locking knobs, and safety pins, and the bubble level is located on the side of the platform making for easy use. The combination of the Magnum panhead with the Sport 200 is the perfect pairing for Outside Broadcast and designed to support the massive OB camera systems – delivering consistent movement for the unpredictability of sports.
“Unlike more expensive competitors the Cartoni Magnum delivers precise movements consistently and the built-in safety mechanisms are also a huge plus with the Sport 200, and panheads sit on top of those tripods really, really solidly.” Bushner said.
“The S200 safety pins are great. Secured by a steel cable in a good spot where they don’t get torn off or lost. A lot of those other tripods have pins, but they get torn off. I can depend on the pins, but more so, I can depend on the knobs that I tighten down. The pins are always there, are well hidden and stay secure when traveling. I really, really like the tripod.
“With other camera supports, it’s disconcerting a lot of times,” Bushner continued “When you doing hockey, you’re following the puck and you stop at the goalie and all of a sudden it’s wobbling around. And then you’re whipping off back to the blue line and its wobbling again. With Cartoni, there is none of that; when you stop, it’s solid. When the panhead isn’t working properly, a camera operator may have to adjust how he shoots”
“For example, if I am using another head, I’d be shooting a shoulder shot off somebody running down the court and all of a sudden I notice that the panhead isn’t as good as the Magnum, so all of a sudden, I decide I better shoot an away shot of the guy, otherwise it’s going to be a problem and I’m going to have one of these things happen where either he has too much headroom or I chop the guy in half.”
“With the Magnum, I feel completely confident it is going to be smooth all the way and I can just stop it where I want it” he said “These other panheads … if there is a sticky spot, it’s just really hard.”