Dodd Camera

Dodd Camera has been around since when George Eastman was selling film out of his trunk. Serving photo enthusiasts and professionals alike, the people at Dodd Camera pride themselves on keeping in front of technology changes and bringing new products to market. Dodd Camera is uniquely positioned to serve professional photographers with the stores in downtown Cleveland and Chicago focused on the specific needs of working commercial shooters including an extensive rental department in both locations.

“Thanks to companies like Matthews, we can bridge the gap for professional photographers now shooting video,” says John Popp, from Dodd HQ in Cleveland. “We’ve carried their lighting and grip equipment for more than 25 years. With the growing popularity of HDSLR video, we expanded our rental offerings of Matthews’ gear that has enabled our customers to say ‘Yes’ to their clients more often. That’s extremely important, as there aren’t many straight photographic shoots where the photographer isn’t also asked to provide some video as well.”

When Dodd’s representatives visited NAB 2011, they had several goals in mind. “We needed to find some small table top sliders – and check out how LED lighting was progressing,” Popp explains. “There were plenty of small sliders available, and I don’t want to say we were underwhelmed, but it proved to be somewhat difficult to find a line that would cover our customer base from the enthusiast to the professional.

“It was a day into the show before we made our way to the Matthews booth. And, boy were we stoked by what the DC Slider had to offer. We already carry a line of Jibs and larger sliders, but the DC-Slider (and the MSE brand of course) offered the functionality of both with the greater flexibility of a counterweight system. It is truly something that could find a home in any professional’s studio. And with the impending motorized computer controlled options, well, this left everything else in the dust!”

Dodd Camera quickly added DC Slider to their stock. As with all other MSE products, it fills a niche “and will blow the roof off of the possibilities for our clients,” says Popp. “The minute they arrived, our customers started diving into the nuances of using this new MSE tool.

“The quality is what we’ve come to expect from Matthews.”

View the Dodd Camera video:
CLICK HERE and scroll down a bit to watch the video on their homepage

From L-R: Scott Yager (aka YagerBomb), John Burdett (aka Burdman) and Jon Cole (aka Trickle).