Stopping a manual slider smooth

[Joe Cage]

Hello,

I have a manual slider that I move with my hands, but I want to slide and gently stop and keep recording in still position. But while doing it manually it is not as smooth as with an electronic slider. Any tips for helping this?

Thanks!

 

[Phil Holland]

Hard to be as smooth as a robot, but a fun trick is wearing a glove or using a hand to slowly brake. Anything you can use to add friction can help too.

In this case though practice makes perfect and you can certainly do it by hand. Rehearse the move, study the easing rate and hat it takes to get to a dead stop.

 

[Craig Allan]

Another good trick, if you are able to add sufficient friction to the slider is to attach a rubber band to the slider cradle, then pulling the rubber band to move the cradle/camera. By using the rubber band you remove any jitter movement and by slowly releasing the tension the cradle comes to a gentle stop.

 

[Christopher A. Bell]

A good, smooth slider with some mass to the payload and practice. I’ve actually thrown shot bags on my CamTram, before, to add mass(on top of the already probably 35lb payload) when I was doing really long, slow, continuous moves. I drag a finger on the rail next to the carriage on my “smaller” slider sometimes. Just had to replace my MYT Works slider, because I dropped it about a month or so ago and the repair was going to be almost as much as a new one with trade in allowance. They have added magnets to the carriage and ends to help you stop softly or at least “feel” when you’re close to the ends. I guess I’ll see how well it really works when my new one gets here next week.

Ironically enough, I had a producer on a shoot recently that asked me if my slider was robotic when I was setting up. I said no and he said good, because he doesn’t like the movement of robotic ones for interviews.

 

[Björn Benckert]

Replace it with a big heavy dolly with a fat DP ontop and it will be smooth as F.

 

[Jan Balster]

Replace it with a big heavy dolly with a fat DP ontop and it will be smooth as F.

Kind of along the lines of what Bjōrn said.

Add weight to the dolly. I used to have a Dana Dolly and I always put several shot bags ontop of the sled to give the whole rig more mass. That way it'll take more inertia to get it moving or slowing it down and therefore will be smoother.

 

[Cameron Currier]

All good tips above. I've also been successful with this sort of move on a Kessler cine slider. It has that knob for adjusting drag or locking the belt system in place. Slowly tightening that helps me control the ramp down and I can then lock it down once I've reached my stop.

 

[Christopher A. Bell]

So, my new MYT Works slider came in the other day, to replace my old damaged one. The new ones have a magnetic "bumper stop"* system integrated into them now, to prevent you from hitting the ends of the slider, resulting in a hard, jarring stop. Playing around with it briefly with one of my VariCam's on it(head & camera = 30lb-35lb payload), it is (virtually)impossible to physically have the carriage hit the ends of the slider with anything resembling a normal move that you would make on a slider of this length.



*It operates just as you would think. Just imagine trying to force two magnets, same pole to same pole, together. You can't do it under normal circumstances.

 

[Matt W.]

The DIY tip they had for bad consumer tripods was rubber bands or elastics to bring them to a stop.... maybe there's something similar in this case that will work.

 

[Steve DiMaggio]

no short cut, it technique

steve