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This motorised DIY camera slider can be built for under $100 and lets you track objects as it moves

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Building your own motorised camera gimbal or slider seem to be the in thing at the moment. In fact, I built one myself recently (that’s for another post, though). This one, though, from Michael Klements at The DIY Life is pretty cool and incorporates a slider with a motorised pan axis so that it can track a subject as it moves from one end of the rail to the other.

It’s a total DIY project with a bunch of off-the-shelf parts and 3D printed components that Michael has designed himself. And while he doesn’t appear to have released the project under an open-source license, he has made the STL files and the source code available to download so that you can have a go at building your own.

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Still the best motorised mini slider I’ve tried – Smartta SliderMini 2

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The SliderMini 2 is Smartta’s latest iteration of the SliderMini, its small form factor motorised slider. It’s largely the same as the original and you can read that review here, but it has received a couple of significant changes since the original that allows it to offer much more versatility.

Like the original, the SliderMini 2 is a super-compact slider that allows for easy portability for use just about anywhere. I’ve been using the SliderMini 2 for the past few weeks now in order to try to answer two very specific questions. But first, how about some pretty (yes, I know that’s subjective) sample footage shot using it?

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Smartta’s back with the SliderMini 2 – more power, battery life and (finally) speed ramping

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When Smartta announced the original SliderMini camera slider in 2018, we were all quite excited. It was launched on Indiegogo and for what they were selling for, it offered some fantastic features. We eventually got our hands on one and you can read our review of the original here. It’s a product I still receive questions about on social media and still use regularly.

Well, Smartta has announced the SliderMini 2, which offers some significant upgrades over the original, including a more powerful motor for vertical slides, up to 52 hours of battery life and a new “curve” mode which lets you tweak the speed profiles of your slides, timelapses and stop motion. And this time, it’s just straight up for pre-order. No crowd funding.

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Axibo is the world’s first AI-powered camera slider

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A motorized camera slider is a commonly used tool in filmmaking, but Toronto-based company Axibo Media wanted to take it to a new level. They made a motorized slider more (artificially) intelligent than any other. That’s right, the Axibo slider uses artificial intelligence to pan, tilt, and slide your camera, to track objects, even take photos. As far as we know, it’s the world’s first AI-powered camera slider in the market, and it’s meant to be “your personal camera assistant.”

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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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Make a DIY smartphone slider with a toy car and some household items

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If you want to take slider shots with your smartphone, there are a few DIY options you can make. But in this video, COOPH teaches you how to make an interesting automated DIY slider on a super-low budget. You’ll need a wooden toy car, a kitchen timer, a few household items and only a little bit of time.

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The best motorised mini slider we’ve tried – DIYP reviews the Smartta SliderMini

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Of all the tools and devices on which we can place cameras, sliders have always been the one that intrigued me the most. I’ve used quite a few of them over the years and I still really enjoy using them whenever I shoot with one. Especially motorised ones. I’ve even spent some time over the last few months working on motorising one of my own sliders.

For the last couple of weeks, though, I’ve been trying out the new Smartta SliderMini. It’s a mini motorised slider for video and timelapse with remote app control from your Android or iOS smartphone that just launched on Indiegogo. So far, I quite like it.

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MUWI is a super compact motorised dolly for cameras and smartphones

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Finding that perfect slider or dolly is a challenge. I’ve got a few of them now, and they all annoy me in slightly different ways, and for different reasons. None of them look quite like this, though. The MUWI is an ultra small, folding dolly for smartphones that packs up about as small as the phone itself. It’s not just for phones, though, it’ll also handle small cameras.

Currently funding through Kickstarter, the MUWI has already smashed its $35,000 goal and currently sits at $195,000 with two weeks still left to go on the campaign. Prices for the MUWI start at only $39 for the early bird basic model, but there are a bunch of extras available, too, including a motor to automate your movements.

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How to 3D print your own DIY motorised tracking 2-axis camera slider

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I’ve been getting into 3D printing quite a bit this year. Mostly with regard to how it can help me with my own photography and video challenges. One of the first things I did was to motorise my camera slider. Now, my own efforts in this realm are still quite basic, but while researching how others have overcome certain issues in this area, I came across this tutorial recently posted to Instructables by jjRobots.

It’s a tracking 2-axis motorised, mostly 3D printed camera slider. This means that it doesn’t just move the camera from one end of the slider to the other, but it also turns the camera. This way, your camera can move while remaining fixed on a specific target. And it’s all controlled from your smartphone – that app’s available for free, too.

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