Glambots have had the attention of the photo booth world for a while now, and if you’ve operated a photo booth company for any period of time, you’ve likely had a customer ask if you offer Glambot services. In all likelihood, you were unable to provide these services because the solutions that could offer the breathtaking, sweeping slow-motion shots your customers sought came with an out-of-reach price tag for most clients. Recently, though, Glambot products have been introduced into the market at more approachable price points, making the photo booth world take another look at these breathtaking video-capture machines.
In this article, we’ll get you up to speed on Glambots, teaching you why they became so popular and what you need to know about offering them in your photo booth product line-up.
Table of Contents
What Is a Glambot?
A Glambot is a type of photo booth that attaches a high-frame-rate video camera to a high-speed robotic arm. The arm can be programmed to follow a unique paths, resulting in captivating slow-motion videos that provide scroll-stopping content for guests to post on social media.
Glambots are popular activations at events because of the speed at which they can create content that event guests value. They can be used to film one guest or multiple guests at a time. Very little is required of event guests to produce stunning videos. They simply need to strike a pose while the camera records them for anywhere between 1 and 4 seconds. These features keep the lines to use a Glambot short and guests happy.
You can get more information about what Glambots are by reading this article.
How Did Glambots Become Popular?
Glambots, as we know them today, were invented and made famous by Cole Walliser, a videographer with a background in directing music and skateboard videos. Walliser’s experience with celebrities helped him see a need for enhanced coverage of red-carpet events, and his execution in creating a machine capable of delivering cinema-worthy content in seconds has made Glambot-style videography a sought-after activation at events.
Until very recently, Glambot-style video event activations could only be accessed by the most elite events. This was due to the high cost of manufacturing the robot and the expertise required by the team of people running the machine at the event. This meant that although the demand for Glambot activations was certainly felt by the photo booth and event industries, it went largely unmet due to these high costs.
What Are Glambots Used For?
Glambots are most famously used at events like red carpets award shows and movie premieres, but they can also be used as photo booth activations at sporting, corporate and private events, sending guests away with scroll-stopping content by which to remember the event and potentially share their experience.
What Makes Glambot Videos Look So Good?
Our eyes love movement in an image. When a camera is moved quickly, yet smoothly, over a large distance while keeping the subject in focus, the resulting video is naturally compelling. Glambots make these types of shots possible.
Key to producing this content is an arm that enables the camera to travel a large distance. This capability is termed “reach.” Reach is determined by extending the arm horizontally and measuring the distance between the central pivot point of the robot and the camera lens at the end of the arm. A Glambot such as OrcaVue’s has a reach of 5′-9″ and can move a camera across a distance that is approximately double this amount–or 11′-6.” Note though, that most shots will not keep the arm perfectly horizontal and will instead move it into all sorts of contortions as part of a pre-programmed path. When the arm bends to accommodate these moves, it uses up valuable reach, which makes it even more important to start with an ample amount.
In summary, Glambots with greater reach and faster motion produce the best videos.
Types of Glambots
Depending on where you saw your first Glambot, there are three types of robot arms that may come to mind.
Cinematic Glambots
Cinematic Glambots, like the one Cole Walliser uses at his events, place heavy cinema-quality cameras and lenses at the end of a high-speed robot arm that is capable of delivering camera movement with no visible shake as it accelerates and decelerates through pre-programmed movements. These cinematic robot arms produce the highest-quality videos with perfectly smooth and stable shots. They use expensive cameras with low aperture settings and very high frame rates, which allows them to create flawless ultra-slow motion video. As you might imagine, keeping a cinema camera perfectly in focus while the arm whips around is no small matter. this problem is generally addresses by using an external motorized focus puller. Configuring these devices as well as the many other parameters required for using a cinematic Glambot is a technical process that has added additional hurdles to making Glambots more mainstream.
Photo Booth Glambots
Photo Booth Glambots also move a camera at a high speed through pre-programmed movements similar to those of a cinematic Glambot. These Glambots also have a reach that is comparable to a cinematic Glambot. The difference is that instead of using the heavy professional cameras found in cinematic Glambots, they rely upon lighter-weight action cameras, such as a GoPro. The benefits of this are several-fold:
- Action cameras don’t weigh much. This allows the robot components to be reduced in strength and weight, which creates a much more portable solution and dramatically cuts the costs of motors and the other parts.
- Action cameras have built-in stabilization. Because the photo booth Glambot arms are lighter and the motors/gears have been reduced, they sometimes vibrate slightly as they move through a pre-programmed movement. This can be particularly noticeable when stopping at the end of a fast move. Fortunately this is exactly the kind of movement the internal stabilization of action cameras was built to address. Think about the crazy-mountain-bike or snow-board (or even just jogging) videos that you may have seen–all of which are eerily smooth. By comparison, a photo booth Glambot is an easy challenge.
- Action cameras were created with lightning quick auto-focus and appropriate apertures. As noted earlier, cinematic cameras need external focus pullers; the auto-focus in mirrorless and DSLR cameras are also slow and require similar help. Fortunately, action cameras were designed to shoot at high frame rates (240 fps or 1:8 slow motion) while keeping the subject crisp and clean, which happens, again, to perfectly suit the needs of a photo booth Glambot.
Ultimately, action cameras allow photo booth Glambots to deliver superb video at 1/10th the cost and 1/100th the complexity of a cinematic Glambot. We have found that a GoPro 12 used in conjunction with the OrcaVue Glambot delivers excellent quality at 1:8-speed slow motion, making it a solution that is practical from a cost standpoint and desirable from a client standpoint.
Mini Robot Arms
In an effort to quickly jump in on the Glambot trend, some companies have begun selling mini robot arms and calling them Glambots. These robots were originally manufactured to complete repetitive tasks on an assembly line or in a lab as opposed to arcing through the movement paths desired by videographers. As such, they can replicate some aspects of what photo booth Glambots are able to achieve, but because they generally only care about moving something from point A to point B (and none of the points in between) they have limited control possibilities and interfaces, which results in less-than-ideal movements. Equally important is that they have limited reach and can typically only span distances of a few feet. Some add a slider-base component, but these aren’t really effective because the bases often then end up in the camera’s field-of-view, particularly for the kinds of shots Glambots are known for. The net result is video footage that is not as dramatically captivating. Also worth noting is that most/all of these robot arms are manufactured overseas and, as a result, will limit the ability of companies to service them in the United States.
How Do Glambots Work?
Simply stated, Glambots move a video camera through a pre-programmed motion using a robotic arm.
Cinema-quality Glambot robots are relatively complicated to set up and operate, requiring teams of technically skilled people to move, set up, operate, film, and edit videos that are created with the camera rig.
Photo Booth Glambots, on the other hand, are designed to be more approachable, with the best Photo Booth Glambots able to be set up and operated by a single newly trained event staff member in just several minutes. These types of Glambots are generally paired with common photo booth activation iPad software to automatically edit and deliver videos to guests at an event.
How Much Does a Glambot Cost?
When it comes to Cinematic Glambots, the Bolt series offered by MRMC has been the go-to brand for producing cinema-quality Glambot shots. As of March 2024, mrmoco.com lists the price of their entry-level Bolt Mini Model Mover at £45,000, or $57,000. The site also mentions that their Bolt Jr+ Glambot product has a package price starting from only £85,000 or $107,800. Pricing for other Bolt Glambots requires inquirers to request a quote.
Photo Booth Glambots have much more approachable price points. For example, OrcaVue is currently pre-selling a Glambot for only $11,990. Despite the much lower price, Our Glambot has a reach that is comparable to a cinematic Glambot. It’s worth noting that Photo Booth Glambots are a relatively new product, and many photo booth hardware companies are only offering them for the first time in 2024. As a result, there is currently a great deal of variation among photo booth Glambots in terms of specifications and actual capabilities. Be sure to conduct thorough research before purchasing a Glambot for your photo business.
Glambot Photo Booth Software
A photo booth software app is required to automatically capture, edit and deliver footage shot with a Glambot at an event. Presently we include the same bluetooth control capabilities in our Glambots that we use for our 360 booths. This enables existing photo booth software apps that use this bluetooth integration to also provide basic control of one of our Glambots. An extended protocol that includes many more options is currently being developed and will be released shortly. It will be available in many of the same apps. Basic integration is presently available in :
How To Set Up the OrcaVue Glambot
OrcaVue’s Glambot is very easy to set up, and by following the steps below it only takes about three minutes to get started!
- Move the road case containing the packed Glambot into position.
- Tip the road case up onto the robot’s exposed feet.
- Remove the clamshell sides of the road case.
- Adjust the leveling feet.
- Pull the built-in display back into the working position.
- Plug the Glambot into an AC power connection using the supplied 15 ft cord.
- Attach a GoPro to the top of the arm.
- Connect the GoPro to the USB-C port on the side of the head.
- Connect an iPad to the USB-C port on the rear of the robot.
- Place a tape mark (or small rug) 8 ft in front of the robot to indicate where subjects should stand.
- Start your preferred app on the iPad.
- Press the unfold button on the operator display to put the arm into its initial position.
- Select a move and then press start in the app you are using!
Glambots for Sale
Cinematic Glambots
MRMC has long been the frontrunner in the Cinematic Glambot space. If you are looking for the absolute best and the price isn’t an issue, MRMC has the best robot arms available, period.
Photo Booth Glambots
Companies manufacturing Glambots with more approachable pricing have entered the market over the last year. Here’s a list of companies that have made Glambots for photo booth activations available for sale:
- OrcaVue (We obviously recommend that you take a look at our product!)
- Pixster
Mini Robot Arms
Mini robot arms are available for purchase in the United States from the following companies:
- Booth Workshop
- DSLR Booth