What’s up guys, welcome to another Tech Gear Talk video. Today I want to talk about the Edelkrone SliderPlus XL and Motion Kit. I love adding camera movement and this 4-axis motorized slider is one of my favorite tools to use for getting that buttery smooth broll. This slider is totally packed with features, so let’s take a closer look. The Edelkrone SliderPlus system is modular, if you’re not interested in the whole thing, you can can pick and choose the parts that you like best. We’ll start with the basics and build towards the 4-axis system.
One of the main reasons that I love this slider is that when I use all of the modules I’ll describe in this video, the interaction with the slider itself is really intuitive. I don’t have to use a dial or a joystick to point the camera, I can literally just push it to where I want it on the slider and point the camera. At the end of the video, I’m going to be discussing the App which is incredibly important so make sure you stay tuned.
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For starters, you can choose to get just the SliderPLUS. This will let you do manual sliders and is where most people start. The slider is really well made, it’s sturdy and at the same time light. Whether you use the slider in manual mode or if you put the whole system together, it can be used on a surface or on a tripod.
One of the things that I really like about this slider is that when you use it on a tripod it extends to twice it’s length giving you a much wider range of motion to work with. This isn’t just useful for longer slide shots, it also lets you do dolly in/out shots without the slider appearing in your shot. You’re going to want to get a really good and solid tripod, and you’re going to want to mount the slider directly to the tripod, rather than to a fluid head so that you can eliminate as much movement as possible.
This slider comes in 4 sizes and I chose the largest one because I still wanted a good amount of travel when I use it on a surface. Now, something else that you may want to consider getting is the FlexTilt Head 2. This is something that I got because it was part of a bundle, but once I had it, I absolutely fell in love with it. I’ll do a dedicated video at some point, but let me just tell you that it saves me so much time over using a traditional fluid head on the SliderPlus.
Sometimes, when you’re using a slider with a lighter load, it’s difficult to get a perfectly smooth slide because the amount of pressure you’re applying isn’t consistent. To help with this, Edelkrone offers a Steady Module that uses fluid dynamics to help even out your slide and give you better results. There is a tension adjustment on the side so that you can decide how fast or slow you want your camera to move. This is an alternative to the flywheel design you may have seen on some other sliders.
I wasn’t sure how well this was going to work because it’s such a small and unassuming part, but it makes a huge difference.
Alright, now we’re going to start taking things up a notch. And we’ll start introducing some automation to the slider. The first component is called the Edelkrone Slide Module. Sometimes, you want to have that perfectly controlled slide, because you either want to control the speed, you may want the carriage to loop back and forth, or you may want to do some fun Visual stuff in post production.
In those cases, something like the Slide Module is great to have. Basically, it’s a motorized add-on that you can attach to the SlidePLUS and it will control the carriage for you. The Slide Module can be powered by 2 Canon LP-E6 batteries or the provided DC plug. The Slide Module attaches to the slider with these 2 thumb screws, and is controlled by the SliderPlus App.
It’s absurdly easy to program. You literally push it over to where you want it to start, click on A to set it, then push it to where you want it to stop, click B. That’s it, you’re ready to go. You can control the speed of the slide, and you can ease in and out so that the movement doesn’t come to an abrupt stop. The slider will automatically loop back and forth between points A and B and you can add idle time on each end.
You can also convert any program you set into a timelapse or a stop motion. Both are super intuitive and it’s really nice to do everything from one app. The timelapse setup is super simple. You can tell the app what you want your final FPS to be, then how long you want to shot for, how many images you want it to take, and the interval is set for you. What’s great is that you can modify any of these variables and it will auto adjust the rest for you.
That’s how I usually do it, because it’s easier for me to think of what I’m shooting, and how much I want to speed it up. So if I’m doing a timelapse of people moving around, or traffic, I may do a 1 second interval, but a sunrise, or clouds, I will want to allow for a longer interval. If you have any questions about this, drop me a comment.
Ok, now we’re going to get fancy. So far we have been looking at pretty basic movements but now we’re going to take this to the next level. You may have heard the term Axis used when people are talking about sliders. Up until now, we have been looking at a 1-Axis setup. Meaning, we can control the movement of the camera on one plane, as the camera is moving from side to side.
The Edelkrone Head Module lets you control 2 more types of movements. This module simply screws onto the carriage, and is then connected to the Slide Module with a cable. Now you can go ahead and mount your camera to the Head Module with the ¼ 20 at the bottom. You do need to balance the camera for the best results, and there are great tutorials on the Edelkrone support website.
Now, when you connect to the the App to the slider, you’ll see some different screens and options. I’m going to leave the more detailed instructions to a tutorial but I want to show you some of the awesome things you can do, and how fast it is to do them.
First, let’s use the Target feature. I can move the camera to where I want it to start, point it at the subject and click on the Target I want it to be. I now need to move the camera to another position and again, point it at the same target. That’s it, the Head Module will now use some sort of wizardry to be able to track the the subject as the slide moves. This is incredible. I can now just start a slide and let the camera automatically track your subject.
You’ll notice that as the camera slides it will adjust both pan (side-to-side) and tilt (up/down) in order to keep the subject framed correctly. Now, if you’re going to pan and tilt, you’re going to want to use this feature with cameras that have continuous auto-focus so that your subject remains in focus throughout the shot.You can also convert any of these movements into a timelapse or stop motion.
Alright, so if a 3-Axis slider is not enough for you, let’s add one more. Up until now we’ve either used a fixed focus or the camera’s continuous autofocus, in order to keep our subject in focus. But with the Edelkrone Focus Module, we can actually dictate what will be in focus. This add-on module attaches to the Head Module and then controls your lens focus ring. There is a calibration process that you go through for each lens/camera combo, but once you have it is and stored in your app, it works great.
Now, we can simply point the camera at a subject, then use the app to set the focus on the subject and then set the target. You no longer need to move the camera to another position because the app can now calculate the distance of the object from the camera and track it as you move the slider. You’ll notice that as the camera slides, pans and tilts, the focus ring is slowly making adjustments to keep the subject in focus.
You can create more than one target, and then switch between between targets while you slide. You can do this without the focus module as well, but what I found is that the autofocus will begin to hunt during the transition, so this works much better for me. And that is because as I move from one target to the next, the App knows where the next target’s critical focus is, and it’s already starting to move in that direction. So there is no hunting for focus during the transition.
You can set up to 6 targets and change between them during the slide. If you want static positions, you can switch to what are called keyposes and then move the camera from one key pose to the next. This gives you a different type of control and you can move the camera from one point to another when you are ready, and there is no camera movement happening unless you select the next keypose. You can turn all of these really cool options into a timelapse or a stop motion.
If you’re looking to add some amazing camera movement to your video, the Edelkrone Motion Kit and SliderPLUSX combo are an excellent option! You can have full control over the slide, pan, tilt and focus, so that you’re alway going to get exactly the shot you want. The app is super easy to use, and this is something that I don’t think you should overlook. It’s great to have a product that can do a lot of very sophisticated things, but it’s not good if you can’t easily get it do those things.
The point-and-click aspect of this app is one of my favorite aspects of this whole system. I’m not programming keyframes for each axis separately and everything I need to do is right there at my fingertips. I found that I never had a need for a user-manual, or a help section, for the app. I don’t even know if they have one. Well, they probably do but I’ve never used it. The interface is clean and for me, the whole user experience has been very good.
There is always some level of give and take when it comes to features and ease of use. As you add more features to a device, it becomes more complicated to operate. This slider with the motion kit ranks high for me in both functionality and ease of use, and that’s what originally attracted me to looking at this combo.
I’ll put links in the description to where you can buy all of the Edelkrone modules I covered in this video because there are always specials and discounts and the links will be automatically updated with the lowest pricing. Those links also allow you to help support my channel for free and give me the ability to create more content for you. If you have any questions for me, leave me a comment, I do my best to answer every question.
I really hope I was able to give you a good overview of the Edelkrone SliderPLUS and Motion Kit combo. If I did, please let me know by giving this video thumbs up, tweet it, share it, and if you haven’t yet, hit that subscribe and notification buttons.
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Good luck and see you soon.
