Photography is a lot like a car hobby. You start with one camera and one lens, and things can get out of hand pretty fast. Soon, you have a million different lenses, three backup bodies, a whole staff of backup photographers, and that's just hardware.

Sometimes, you realize you have a problem and get help.

Other times, you decide to figure out just how far this rabbit hole really goes. You need more. You need whole a lot more. A flash to match Sol won't cut it, and you already have a lens to pick individual dust particles out of Jupiter's Great Red Spot.

No, you need something bigger.

Like a car. Yes. That's it.

You need to car. You need a mid-sized luxury crossover car made by one of the biggest names in the automotive industry. And you need it strapped to your camera.

Perfect.

Wait. One more thing. A high-dexterity, crane arm with something that might be able to fly model aircraft for a controller. There. That's better

(For now.)

Enter Pursuit Systems Inc. and their Pursuit Crane. It's made for capturing high definition, high speed (literally and, uh, literally) video. As ridiculous as this is, we love it. This is probably one of the coolest after-market add ons you can buy, and it's for a Porsche. If we had one, we'd take a couple of our cars through some Boston Mountain switchbacks or southeast out of Fayetteville on Highway 16, just across the north side of the Ozark National Forest. Beautiful.

Of course, this setup would make daily driving and parking it at the office, or home, or just about anywhere a little more challenging. But just think of everything you could capture.

One can dream...

Pursuit Systems developed their Crane over many years, and the result is the most capable stabilized remote crane system for motion filming and photography. The whole set up can make of speeds in excess of 120 miles per hour and reach camera lens heights of approximately 21 feet above to six feet below the ground plane. A unique “Flight Dek” controller propels precise movement from 1/100 to more than 90 degrees/sec.

More info: Pursuit Systems.

The Pursuit Crane is behind all of the footage out of these Porsche commercials:

And of course, OK Go needed a Pursuit vehicle for one their madhouse videos:

Dream (and film) on, enthusiasts.

A new toy for the serious photographer!