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How to shoot epic slow motion food commercials without $100K+ robot arms

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We’ve all seen those fancy slow-motion food videos with ingredients slamming into each other in midair. Such videos often require expensive rigs involving multiple motion control robots that cost more than your house. But you don’t necessarily need to spend quite that much to start having a go at this kind of thing yourself.

After watching some of Steve Giralt’s work, the guys from Syrp were inspired to try it with a couple of their Magic Carpet sliders and Genie Mini heads to see if they could pull off a food video that had a similar look. I think they managed to do it quite well, and they were able to control the whole setup from just an iPad.

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This insane camera rig spins a Phantom slow motion camera at 150rpm (32mph)

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Steve Giralt is pretty well known for pushing things to the extreme when it comes to super slow-motion video. This time, though, he’s gone way overboard, by making a rig that spins a Phantom VEO 4K high-speed camera around a platform at 150 revolutions per minute.

The rig was made to film Jack Daniel’s Honey. They wanted to show a piece of lime spinning as it was falling into the drink as the whole thing was rotating around in front of the camera. Naturally, they couldn’t easily spin the lime as it fell, and they couldn’t really spin the drink, so the solution was obvious. Spin the camera.

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Syrp’s Genie Mini II upgrades connectivity, adding WiFi, more reliable bluetooth and USB Type C

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The original Syrp Genie Mini quickly became a leader in motion control for timelapse photographers and filmmakers. The small form factor made it easy to slip into your camera bag or even a pocket, and take with you just about anywhere. It also offered a lot of control and consistency.

Syrp has today announced its successor, the Syrp Genie Mini II, offering everything the original has but adding WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, Type-C USB and future-proofing it for new features within the Syrp mobile app.

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The SYRP Genie II is the perfect motorized slider (just give us the full app already)

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The SYRP Genie is a motor/wire driven motorized slider. This means that it uses a cable to push it forward. You can choose the length of the cable which makes it virtually endless in length. (You can even use hockey sticks to build a sling-cam)

DIYP reviewed the first Genie way back and the next iteration is nicer, more versatile and now runs on 3 Axis

We are taking a look at the Genie II 3-Axis Epic Kit which includes the: Magic Carpet carbon Slider, Genie II Linear, and Genie II Pan Tilt head.

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The Rhino Motion Kit is not cheap, but it’s one heck of a motorized slider

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We are a small crew, this is why it’s handy to have one moving camera that needs no attention when we shoot. It means one less crew person while getting top notch B cam footage. And our slider package of choice for that is the Rhino Ultimate Slider (Amazon | B&H).

Having an automated motorized slider is a powerful tool to have in your box. It allows the same camera moves that your typical slider will allow. But it also adds an array of abilities to the team that a normal slider does not:

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Automating image capture for 3D scanning through photogrammetry

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3D data creation is part of a growing trend in the use of computational imaging techniques within cultural heritage digitization shops. In particular, operational adoption of photogrammetry has been witnessed at such institutions as the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA), the Smithsonian, and the University of Virginia Library.

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The MIOPS Capsule360 is a 3-axis motion control system with face and object tracking

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MIOPS has seen some measure of success with its rather popular MIOPS Mobile camera trigger. Well, now they’re getting into motion control with the launch of the new Capsule360. It’s a modular motion control system that offers up to 3 axes of movement. Paired with your Android or iOS device, it also offers real-time facial and object tracking.

As with some of the previous MIOPS projects, the Capsule360 is being funded through Kickstarter. Units start at only $179 for the early bird single pack unit up to $879 for the full “premium pack” (also early bird price) which includes 3 Capsule360 units, L bracket, slider, dolly, turntable kit and a mobile dongle.

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This 7.3 Gigapixel “Gigalapse” shows a 24 hour period over London

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“Gigapixel” and “Timelapse” aren’t phrases one often hears together. Both, individually, require massive amounts of storage to do well. When combined, things start to get a bit ridiculous. It’s been done before, though, at least as early as 2010, when Carnegie Mellon University’s CreateLAB made this.

Now, UK contact lens retailer Lens Store has teamed up with Nikon, Canary Wharf Group and photographer Henry Stuart to produce 24 Hour London, a 7.3 Gigapixel “timelapse” covering a 24 hour period over the city of London. The use of the word timelapse is a bit debatable here, but it’s definitely pretty cool.

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Timelapse shooters delight! the Genie II is a 3-Axis motorised timelapse delight

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When SYRP first introduced the Genie in 2012, we did not quite know how to swallow this new animal. It was a motorized panning head, but it had a wire-wrapping function that allowed to travel great distances, creating some very interesting results. Ever since SYRP evolved the system to include a second motor, a pan-tilt head a Cable Cam and a complete eco-system in general.

Now, the company is releasing their second version of the Genie – Genie II, and I have to say it makes a lot of sense.

The two most notable things are integrating PAN and TILT into a single unit. I mean, you could always kinda pan and tilt with the Genie, but it was a cumbersome solution involving a big bracket and two Genie minis. No,w this function seems a lot more mature and integrated.

The other big thing is that SYRP is bringing their app control (bluetooth) to the main unit. I have not seen the app yet, but I assume it will be similar to the app that drives the mini which is pretty easy to use.

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PINE is a universal wireless motion controller aimed at DIY maker photographers

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Motion control has so many applications for both photographers as well as filmmakers. From creating 360° stitched stills with your DSLR to moving timelapse and video sequences. There are a lot of complete solutions out there for this, and there are also many plans out there for completely scratch built DIY projects. But there’s very little that sits in between.

PINE aims to change that. It’s not a complete motion control system, it’s just the controller. It lets you control up to four motors from a single unit, and you can chain multiple units together. And it will let you do this wirelessly using a mobile app on your phone. PINE is currently being funded through Kickstarter,

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