Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
We’ve featured our share of DIY sliders. Heck, I met Stefan through his DIY slider about 10 years ago. Some are more complex than others, and some are stupidly fun and simple.
This DIY slider project from Jan Derogee is a nice combination that is (kinda) simple yet feature-packed. The project will require a bit of electronics know-how, but it goes in the weekend project bin.
Sliders are an essential tool for filmmakers. They help us get those super silky smooth shots that even a gimbal can’t. The problem is finding the right slider. The market varies so much with regard to the price of a slider based on its materials, features, and length. The Zeapon Micro 2 slider is a beast of a slider. After using it for just a few weeks, you will forget everything you know about sliders. This Slider packs a bunch of features into a surprisingly small package.
There are a few ways to make your own horizontal slider. But if you need a vertical one, you can just grab your tripod. In this video, Mark Holtze will show you a handy trick that will give you smooth camera movement and turn your tripod into a vertical slider.
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.”
At NAB 2019, Gudsen announced the new Moza Slypod. It’s a kind of slider/monopod hybrid that looks pretty weird but is also very cool. When we saw it, we were intrigued, so we went to have a chat with them about the Slypod to find out more about how it worked and what it can do.
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.
The humble pizza cutter. Who knew it could be such a wonderful cinematic tool? Well, it turns out that it might be. For your smartphone, anyway. The folks at COOPH have come up with a great way to get a dolly or slider for your phone without actually buying a dolly or slider. All you need is a pizza cutter.
I own, maybe 8 tripods. I also have a monopod, couple of sliders and a gimbal. Each of these has heads which take some form of tripod plate. A way to attach your camera to the device. But the big problem with them is that they all typically tend to use different tripod plates to each other. This means lots of switching out plates on-set as you need to move from one to another.
This number of camera supports might seem excessive, but I am not alone. Many folks out there own a number of tripods, sliders and other units, especially if they shoot video as well as stills. This video from Jordy Vandeput shows us how we can standardise all of our tripods to make swapping out a breeze, saving a lot of time.
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.
Syrp has just announced the new Magic Carpet Pro slider. Designed to handle some seriously heavy duty filmmaking the Magic Carpet Pro offers some very cool and interesting features. For a start, the flywheel is located in the carriage itself, removing the need for belts and pulleys for manual control. But this also allows for another perk.
Combined with new “Track Joiners”, you are able to create a slider of just about any length you wish by simply adding more lengths of track. No longer do you need to worry about having belts of different sizes, regardless of how long you want to slide. Of course, you can also add motion control it if you wish by adding either the Genie or Genie II.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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