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There’s a new motorised camera dolly in town. Or at least, there will be soon. It’s called the Hyperdolly, and it’s being launched on Kickstarter soon.
Most camera dollies run along a track to ensure smooth movement. But this one’s track-free so you can use it over long distances easily. It comes with a dedicated remote control and packs up tiny for easy transport.
You may know Accsoon from their Accsoon Seemo transmitters or lighting control software, but the company is now entering the slider market with two new sliders: TopRig S40 ($349) and TopRig S60 ($399), with a slide range of 22.5cm and 42.5cm respectively.
The slider market is pretty saturated with big players like Manfrotto and smaller players like YC Onion. It is interesting to see what the TopRig slider series has to offer.
This is a video that was posted to YouTube a while ago but doesn’t seem to have seen much traffic. It was posted by the channel Handy Bear (aka, Michel), and unlike most camera slider motorisation conversions these days, there’s not a 3D printer in sight!
The Slider shown in the video is just a cheap one Michel found online. It looks like many inexpensive sliders, and these are often the best candidates for a motor conversion. An Arduino Nano controls the electronics.
Panasonic has announced PanaTrack, an interesting and somewhat unique motorised camera slider/dolly track system. It’s essentially a big bendy track along which you can run your camera. How big? Well, the minimum length is 2 metres. The maximum length is 50 metres, with travel speeds of up to 1.4 metres per second. PanaTrack is targeted to events, concerts, corporate, conferences, cinema and TV shows running on a low budget.
PanaTrack appears to have been developed by Panasonic in conjunction with Waterbird Systems. Exactly how much of a role each company played in the device’s development is unknown, but Waterbird has a pretty solid reputation for flexible camera tracks. Panasonic describes it as a “highly flexible camera track system by Waterbird” So, it may be that it’s been developed by Waterbird and is simply being branded and sold by Panasonic.
As well as showing off the Axibo PT4 motion control pan-tilt head and slider, the company was also exhibiting their upcoming E-Jib Mini. Well, technically, they were exhibiting a prototype, hoping to get feedback from visitors at the show to finalise some details and get it prepared for final readiness to go on sale. The E-Jib Mini is a low-cost alternative to the massively expensive motion control robot systems on the market.
It works in conjunction with the PT4 in order to provide a full six axes of movement for your camera when working with virtual productions. But it also allows all of the usual motion control capabilities, too, such as repeat movements and timelapse. There is a page with some basic info on the Axibo website, but we had a chat with Axibo CEO Anoop Gadhrri at NAB 2023 to learn more.
Robots have fascinated mankind for decades. For those of us that grew up in the 80s and 90s, our introduction to robots was probably Johnny 5 and we’ve been obsessed with them ever since. Growing up to become a photographer or filmmaker, robots we can attach cameras to are the ultimate tool and toy. One camera robot in particular on the Axibo stand at NAB 2023 stood out to us.
So, we stopped by to have a chat with Axibo CEO Anoop Gadhrri to learn more about it and the company itself. Founded about a year and a half ago, the company’s goal is to democratise cinema robotics. They want to give advanced robot capabilities, including virtual production, to filmmakers on much lower budgets than the typical Hollywood solutions.
Dolly shots are among the basics when it comes to cinematic camera movement. But if you’re just starting out, buying a proper camera dolly could be a bit of an overkill. So, why not turn to cheap, even free options, at least for a start? Caleb of Wondershare Filmora has a few ideas how to do it and still get those sweet, cinematic shots in your video.
The goal is not only to have your camera slide in different directions but also to minimize camera shake while doing so. Caleb proposes a few options that could do the trick, and you already have at least one of them at home.
You know what goes really well with onion? Hotdogs! Accessories brand YC Onion have introduced its all-new updated motorized slider, the Hotdog 3.0. DIYP got to see the slider in action.
The slider comes in four different lengths: 60, 80, 100 and 120 centimetres. It can easily manage 20 kilos of weight when horizontal and up to 14K at a 45-degree angle. Carrying the Hotdog 3.0 weighs in at just 6.5K, making it a pretty portable option.
This is a pretty novel idea for a camera slider, called Slidee from maker Shivam Dehinwal. It has no motors, no Bluetooth, no electronics at all and no batteries. It’s built around a regular retractable tape measure. Well, ok, a not-quite-regular retractable tape measure. It’s built specifically around the Komelon Touch Lock measuring tape because it has built-in speed control – which is important when you want to control how quickly your camera moves.
It’s very cool, using a simple 3D printed housing with some bearing wheels and a simple mechanism to hold the retraction button at different positions to adjust the retraction speed. Essentially, the button acts like a variable speed control. The harder you push it, the quicker it retracts. You will, of course, need a 3D printer – or a friend willing to make the printed components – but this is about as simple as it gets.
There are as many different camera sliders out there on the market as there are cameras. If not more so and you can spend an absolute fortune getting every possible feature you could think of. But nothing beats building your own, and this DIY camera slider from Sasa Karanovic is probably one of the more compact and feature-packed builds we’ve seen here on DIYP because it supports multiple axes.
As well as just moving your camera down the length of the slider, it will also rotate the camera. It’ll even let you control the two simultaneously for some nice orbit-style slider shots. It’s based around an ESP32 microcontroller and the whole thing is controlled over WiFi using a web interface from your phone – or your tablet, computer, whatever.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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