ULCS Team
Ultralight Control Systems Inc. (ULCS) is a small company located in Oxnard, CA. We sell mainly to the Underwater and Cinematography industries through dealers domestically and internationally. Because we are a small company, we are able to operate with a small team consisting of the owner and president, Ken Kollwitz , office manager Toki Lee and Generalist, Bill Kendig.
Ken Kollwitz-Owner
Born in New York, my family and I moved to Riverside, California when I was a young boy. Growing up, I was a huge fan of shows like “Sea Hunt” and “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and naturally, I wanted to become a scuba diver! At 16, I earned my NASDS Open Water but did not dive as much back then. After graduating from high school, I attended school in Arizona to become a diesel mechanic.
In 1980, I moved to Oxnard, California, and started a job as a heavy equipment mechanic for the County of Ventura where I worked for 31 years; retiring early to go work for Ultralight Control Systems. I met Dave & Terry over 25 years ago while in the Channel Islands Underwater Photographic club which no longer exists. Their business was bustling so they reached out to me to see if I would be interested in working for them part-time. 8 years later, I am the proud owner of Ultralight Control Systems!
A little bit more about myself. Around 1992 I wanted to start diving again and signed up at Ventura College for the NAUI open water class. Over the course of 15 years, I worked up the ranks and earned my Instructor certification but decided teaching wasn’t for me. The one thing that was for me was DIVING which I have been active with for the past 30 years. I am a true cold water diver with British Columbia being my MOST favorite place to go!
Over the years, I have been quite involved with a number of local dive clubs as dive coordinator, served as President for a time, and even helped run a dive boat out of Channel Islands Harbor for a couple of years. In 2009, I started a side business, Channel Islands Dive Adventures (CIDA) heading up 35 to 40 local charters and 2 to 4 group vacation trips a year. I get to travel a lot and have been to other dive locations both warm and cold.
Along the way, I met my wife Tessie, got married, and have been together for 37 years. Tessie only snorkels in warm water but loves to travel with me and she is very excited about this new chapter in our lives! My wife has 2 kids and we have 4 grandkids who are all grown plus a young great-grandson who is a delightful addition to our family and another great-grandchild on the way. Life is good and our family spends a lot of time together!
Meet Ken with this video interview.
There you have it! I love diving, I love my family, I love traveling and I love staying busy. I believe ULCS is a perfect fit for me and I will take the best care of all of you!
Bill Kendig
Bill started diving at 13 during the summer of Jaws in 1975. “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” was his inspiration as it was for many new divers. He says, once he had his own steel 71.2 tank and requisite 7-inch Scubapro knife it was “full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes”
During high school, he worked at a small local dive shop, and soon after he earned his instructor rating through NASDS. He would go on to become a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer. Bill has introduced hundreds of new divers to the sport of Scuba diving and he says,“I have met the most interesting people and closest friends because of diving”.
Bill got involved with testing equipment for Scuba Diving Magazine and held the position of Scubalab Director in the early 2000s and worked on motion pictures as an instructor and safety diver.
Bill has been an avid user of ULCS products for years as a volunteer diver/videographer for Channel Islands National Park. He came to us during our recent growth and has jumped in with both fins.
He believes, his best dive is yet to come and he looks forward to helping you make your next photo trip the best it can be.
Toki Lee
Toki is our office manager and is a huge help here at ULCS.
ULCS Brand Ambassadors
Here at Ultralight, we have Brand Ambassadors in the Underwater and Cinematography industries. They help in promoting our products, testing our products in the environment they were intended for, and help offer advice and ideas on new products.
Underwater Brand Ambassadors
Brent Durand is an avid California scuba diver, surfer, writer, and photographer.
He has been diving for almost 25 years, worked as Editor-in-Chief of the Underwater Photography Guide for over 5 years, and served as an Imaging Expert at Scuba Diving Magazine and Sport Diver. He writes for numerous dive publications and takes on photo and video assignments as time permits.
Brent’s photography is widely published in print worldwide, in advertising, and across the web. He has written for most of the top scuba publications and has a reputation for insightful-yet-simple reviews and tutorial articles.
Clients include scuba brands, dive resorts, tourism boards, and underwater camera equipment manufacturers like Ultralight Control Systems Inc.
Brent has led underwater photo workshops in the Bahamas, California, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, helping hundreds of guests take their photography to the next level.
Check out more about Brent and his work on his website.
Mike Bartick is a working Underwater Photographer residing in Anilao, Philippines, and a photo pro at Crystal Blue Resort.
Originally from Southern California, he has an insatiable love for finding unique marine life and telling their story through photos and video. Mike is a widely published, award-winning photographer, writer, and international public speaker with work appearing monthly in various publications, aquariums, and museums.
He hosts photo clinics, workshops, and seminars at Crystal Blue Resort, concentrating on the different aspects of Underwater Photography and the natural history of southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific. Mike is also a Global Ambassador for Sea & Sea underwater imaging, Kraken Sports and Retra UWT and works with various companies to bring quality products to market.
For more information, please contact Mike at saltwaterphoto@live.com or mike@divecbr.com
Cinematography Brand Ambassadors
Tiffany Aug is a 1st assistant camera person (focus puller) in the Los Angeles area. She has primarily worked in television and commercial production since 2005. Originally from Philadelphia, Tiffany moved to Boston to attend school at Emerson College before moving her career to Los Angeles. She is also a community manager at focuspulleratwork.com.
Tiffany is the daughter of a mechanic and has always enjoyed taking things apart to learn how they work, only to put them back together- in a more efficient manner wherever possible. Over the years she has come to favor small, compact, lightweight camera builds ideal for work with gimbals and handheld operating. Ultralight control systems have been instrumental in her ability to build lightweight, sturdy cameras that can be quickly reconfigured for multiple shooting scenarios.
She is excited by the ever-changing field of digital cinematography and the new technologies and workflows it has shown her. The flexibility in this media is a key factor in what’s kept her interested in the field for these past 15 years. In recent years, she has been involved in projects featuring the adaptation and merging of cinema-style “large sensor” cameras into a traditional multi-cam “live to tape” workflow as well as applying this workflow to digital set extension and augmented reality applications. It was through this avenue that she met Ken Kollwitz and gained the opportunity to discuss with him the dry land aspects of his company’s products- from simple color coordinated multi-cam monitor arm setups to sturdy and well supported multiple point rigging options for focus pullers remote lens control system workstations. She remains excited to work with Ken at Ultralight to find new ways to use their products and help to push and find the limits of their product line.
Aurel Wunderer is a 1st assistant cameraman based in Munich, Germany. He started his first apprenticeship at a camera-rental company in 1997. By the end of 1999, he gained his first experience in focus pulling and completed the transition to a professional 1st AC by mid-2002.
Mainly pulling focus on 35mm film cameras in his first decade, Aurel got to travel all over Europe and other parts of the world, such as Kenya for the Academy Award-winning feature “Nowhere in Africa”. For the most part of his second decade, he shot mainly commercials and a feature or two per year. Since 2018 he transitioned back to fewer commercials but bigger features, international co-productions, and others shot in his hometown, as well as abroad.
Always in search of the optimum tools for the job and keen to improve the conditions and tools he works with, Aurel started handcrafting many an accessory over the years and got into 3D designing and printing a few years ago. Ultralight Cine Camera Accessories form an integral part of his camera builds; he’s happy to give his thoughts on improvements and aid the development of new Ultralight products. Aurel is a community manager at focuspulleratwork.com and holds a CMAS ** and other diving certificates.
His career started out in the Red Sea filming wildlife, and after finishing his education as a cinematographer in Australia, he specialized in underwater film from his home country Norway. One of the big benefits of Scandinavia is the possibility to shoot in both the ocean, fjords, arctic surf, lakes, and under the ice. Also, a lot of drama productions are executed in water tanks to ease logistics in terms of actors, lights, weather, and production design.
Fabio Giolitti is a 1st AC based in Spain. He started out in 2011, thanks to the opportunity given to him by a well-known Italian DOP that somehow felt Fabio was ready to pull focus after only a few gigs as 2nd AC. Things went well and Fabio’s been pulling focus ever since.
Nowadays, he works mainly in feature films and tv shows. He has shot features in Italy, Spain, Morocco, the UK, the US, Israel, Bulgaria, and Turkey and still considers himself a junior focus puller after ten years. “Our job is so unpredictable that I think that anyone with less than 15 years experience is a rookie” is one of his favorite sentences. Nevertheless, he was lucky enough to get to work with academy award-winning directors such as Pedro Almodovar and Oliver Hirschbiegel.
Before getting into the industry, Fabio has always been passionate about cameras, lenses, and cinema gear in general. The search for the perfect build is always something he strives for, doesn’t matter if you are speaking about a camera or a focus station.
Fabio is one of the earliest community managers for the group, Focuspullersatwork. It was through their website, www.focuspulleratwork.com where he got in touch with ULCS and it was love at first sight. “I often work in production where the efficiency and speed are crucial, so I’m always searching for accessories and rigging solutions that are both reliable and lightweight. My focus station is now built entirely with ULCS pieces, which keep my gear solidly rigged but are not bulky nor heavy, so when I need to move, I can be fast without worrying about my hand unit or monitor falling down!”
Fabio was delighted to start working with Ken as an Ultralight Control Systems brand ambassador and beta tester, starting what he hopes will be a long and fruitful relationship.
