NEEWER 31.5″/80cm Motorized Camera Slider, App Wireless
NEEWER 31.5″/80cm Motorized Camera Slider, App Wireless Control Carbon Fiber Dolly Rail Slider, Support Video Mode, Time Lapse Photography, Horizontal, Tracking and 120° Panoramic Shooting (ER1-80)
From the brand
Desk Camera Mounts
| Weight: | 5.5 Pounds |
| Size: | 80cm |
| Dimensions: | 95.1 x 30.4 x 10 centimetres |
| Brand: | Neewer |
| Model: | 10100620 |
| Part: | 10100620 |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. |
| Dimensions: | 95.1 x 30.4 x 10 centimetres |
| Size: | 80cm |
Sliders, drones, gimbals, dollies – whatever you use, smooth, stable, moving shots are now expected in every corporate video. Whether you believe it’s an overused gimmick, or a great way to breath life into otherwise dull material, a slider of some description should be in every professional videographer’s arsenal.
I’ve had a number of sliders over the years, including fully manual, motorised and ‘wing’ sliders. They’ve all had their strengths and weaknesses. None of them, though, have equalled the balance of price and performance offered by this Neewer motorised slider. For the price it’s outstanding. Sure, I would love an iFootage Shark Nano at several times the price, but I am absolutely not a brand snob and as the Neewer slider was in my range financially, it was a no-brainer to try it out. Build quality is fine, weight is fine, ease of assembly is fine. No complaints.
I won’t go into detail about what’s in the box etc. Suffice to say there’s everything you need to get up and running quickly. All you need to do is tighten up the belt (you’ll need to go online to find a demo of how to do this as the manual is dreadful!), download the app, and you’re ready to use the slider.
I gave mine a baptism of fire by using it on an intense two day corporate interview shoot. I mounted a Panasonic GH5 with a 25mm Voigtlander Nokton f0.9 lens, plugged it into a USB charger and let it run almost non-stop on both days.
I chose the 80cm slider over the longer lengths, purely because from experience I realised I simply never used the full length of the previous sliders. In fact, had Neewer offered a (cheaper) 50 or 60cm version, I would have opted for that. If ever they bring one out I will very likely buy it and sell this one. Or have two :-). I didn’t buy the stabiliser arms (overpriced at 70) but I found I didn’t need them. I used two mic stands, which were just about stable enough. I’ll use two small tripods in future, or possibly a couple of light stands. That’s my project for the weekend – to find the lightest and smallest stable support for the slider.
The footage is buttery smooth (at the slow speeds I am using it at) – including the end points and reversal, and the unit is near silent. The ability to establish a point of focus and, in effect, introduce parallax into a shot, is great. Very simple to set up, although there’s not much in the way of fine tuning.
Complaints are few, but there are a couple:
The biggest is the manual. It is rubbish. Tiny print with very little useful information. My advice is to check some of the useful videos on YouTube. I don’t have the manual in front of me but I think the instructions for how to change between panormaic and focussed shots are the wrong way round. I may be wrong, though. Either way, the dreadful manual loses half a star.
The ball head is fiddly and not the best quality. It does the job for level shots, but I wouldn’t mount a heavier lens or camera and certainly wouldn’t try and clever angles. Another half star lost.
The case is a bit naff – but it’s functional, so no stars lost for that.
I was disappointed to find the price had dropped by 66 just a few days after my purchase and I did consider sending it back and buying it again. Sadly, though, I needed it for a shoot and didn’t want to risk it.
Overall, then, for my application, which is to use it professionally for interviews, product shots etc this is an outstandingly good value slider. I highly recommend it, if you don’t have the budget for the Shark Nano, that is . . .
I was so excited I got it because I was looking for similar ones for a pretty long time. Neewer was an option, although an expensive one but everyone was saying it’s worth.
Anyway, I got this one and filmed it straight! Sensational item!
Comes straight packed in a quite thin case, but in this price range that’s a very good option. So there’s a case to carry it from the very box.
Inside everything placed in foam because parts are quite fragile and sensitive to shocks. It may not work properly if hit accidentally at some point.
Works amazing, the move is smooth, no strange vibrations (happened with a cheaper one, but that’s why that one was cheap), parts of the whole mechanism are made very well, I see the bars made out of something similar to carbon fiber – resistant and lightweight.
The little motor is working very well, battery comes in a separate hole in the case.
Everything is marked very precisely, a small level indicator on the top where the camera is fixed (I wish it could be a bit bigger tho, there’s enough space for that as the small bubble doesn’t really show anything).
As many other accessories from Neewer, this one is made well, the price is a bit above the average, that’s true, but items are designed and made very well and only in some specific cases feels like they saved the money during manufacturing. Even so, perfectly fair price for big majority of those products.
Recommended!
When I initially tried to test this the app wouldn’t let me register, it just kept giving me an error and would only let me continue as a guest with a limited feature set available. Thankfully that’s now been fixed, but it does always worry me when I can’t use a product properly if something server-side breaks.
The unit itself seems really well built and comes in a great carrying case which offers loads of protection for transporting. The app, once fixed, is easy to use although not the most intuitive I’ve used, however, you can find your way around without constantly referring to the instructions. It’s nice and responsive too, with barely any lag between a button press and the slider responding.
It’s very quiet, but on first my test video in a quiet room I could hear the motor whirring a little in the background, although I couldn’t notice it when outside.
It tracks very smoothly, and that carries through to the videos where it looks really professional.
Sliders like this come in two types, wired control, or remote, this Neewer slider is app-based through Bluetooth. The app itself is very easy to use although it was a bit finicky trying to connect the fire time. The controls on the app are simple and straightforward with options for manual or “Live” (Automatic) control for sliding the camera if you are infront of it. There are also options (and various cables) for timelapse photography as well.
The slider itself is of the type that has the motor on the sliding platform, rather than having the motor to one side with a full loop of chain track, this one has a single strip (which you can loosen or tighten) and the platform crawls along that single strip track. Powered by a small Li-Ion camcorder type cell a full charge give a good long use out of it.
The motor that’s powering the platform does have a LOT of torque in it, i found it very difficult to stop the slider in its tracks by holding onto the platform. This also means the motor is powerful enough to tip the slider itself on its end and do a slide up and down or down and up shot without the motor straining.
All in all, a really good slider and solidly built.
The size is about 80cm , it comes with a rechargeable 2600mAh NP-F550 lithium-ion replacement battery and a USB battery charger, it is noticeable from the get go at how silent this slider is, it is very quiet which is very important if you are recording with sound.
You can adjust the length of the runs and if you want to do panoramic up to 120 degrees. The picture achieved whilst using this camera slider is brilliant, it has 4 adjustable legs to suit unstable/uneven ground and it has 4 balanced roller bearings which are more stable and shake proof to ensure clear video and photos.
There is an app to download onto you phone, it is extremely easy to download and set up , you can then either choose to use as a guest or to register, there are slightly more things you can do if you register, from speed, run lengths etc……
Another great thing about this slider is the wide compatibility with devices that can be used with it from cam corders, cameras, mobiles and sports cameras, for example its compatible with miniature cameras, such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and Pentax cameras.
This slider does cost a lot but if you want a quality product that lets you achieve superior pictures and videos then this machine is worth a try!
I am a keen photographer and in the past I have done stacking on a manual gauge works ok but this is a big improvement.
It’s well made comes with all the accessories you will ever need together with a large bag for storage.
It comes fully assembled unlike some models and all that is required is the opening of the feet and tightening of the belt pulley.
Download the app and connect and you are away. I had issues with connecting the app to the pulley but it may have been an internet issue as my network was faulty.
Manual is well written and easy to follow.
Bi-directional and it can be programmed to do the slide in
Intervals.
Great accessory and well made.
It took me a short while to first download the app then to connect it to the slider. The reason it took a while was down to my Smart Phone Settings but once they were tweaked the app works very well with the slider.
The slider is so easy to set up and the small legs are very good for getting the device level. When levelling there is a small green circular spirit level to guide the user.
When in use, this slider operates very smoothly and is perfect for getting good panoramic views for memorable holiday videos or for travel companies to get some good promotional content. It is very good for getting close ups for marketing / sales materials etc. etc.
Basically, this is a product that can easily turn an amatuer photographer / movie maker into a professional as it comes with everything needed except a camera of course. The camera can be rotated to different angles so one can get many different shots of the same scene as it slowly and smoothly slides along the bars.
There is one negative aspect and that is the battery. The battery is rechargeable but that is where there is a minor issue. The USB charging Port is on the motor so one does have to have the whole unit close to a USP charging point to recharge / power up the battery. The technology is around to have a USB Port connected to a battery as I have been charging such batteries for some time, for power tools. When charging the power tool batteries I simply remove the battery and take only the battery to a USB lead whereas it’s not possible with this so there is a little inconvenience unless one uses power banks.
For outside shots the negativity of the way the battery is recharged can be turned around and become a positive point. On sunny days, rather than using a rechargeable power bank that will be drained, one can use a solar powered power bank so the battery can be recharging whilst the slider is in use and the power bank can be increasing it’s charge.
The slider is well built and so easy to set up. It’s a quality product that will last a long time; it’s strong, it’s stable, it has a good carry bag to store it inand it is good value so I am recommending it.
Say goodbye to sliding your camera over a greasy plank with fishing wire. This is a high quality unit
easy set up and wonderfully smooth in motion. If you are into still photography, stop motion, or general film making, this is a must. You can use it to set up identical motion shots, moving horizontally while rotating the camera through 120 on a separate axis.
The setup of this ingenious motorised camera slider is fairly intuitive and straightforward overall. First, I moved the feet and locked them into place, then tightened the toothed belt, connected the RJ45 data cable to the motor and wired controller, and finally fitted my camera using the supplied mount.
In operation, the slider moves both smoothly and quietly enough to not be picked up by the camera’s microphone. The controller just has a joystick for main movements. Once I had gotten used to how to control the motorised camera slider, I found it easy to get some nice shots while changing the angle of the centre rod controls the rotation of the camera which is very useful, particularly when shooting time-lapse photography etc. The app is straightforward and has a multitude of practical modes and features that enhance the user experience and helps to produce some professional results without a great deal of tinkering.
Overall, this clever motorised camera slider produces smooth video and striking photo content and has so far been a pleasure to use during my live streams. It has taken the quality of my content creation and videos to the next level so I’m a big fan and I highly recommend it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review, I hope you found it helpful.
All the bes