Best Camera Sliders for iPhone and Smartphones 2019
Camera sliders allow you to move your camera very smoothly in a straight or curved line. If you want to add extra professional polish to your video, a slider is an affordable, useful tool to achieve this. You can even make your own for $10. Allegedly.
Before lightweight digital cameras came along, film cameras needed heavy tracks and a team of expert crew to assemble and operate them to achieve these shots.
Amazing results can now be achieved with iPhones and smartphones. If you’ve seen the recent Netflix release by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s High Flying Bird you will have noticed the silky smooth tracking and dolly shots achieved. Now you can achieve similar results to the tracking shot above using a simple gimbal or camera slider.
If you go too cheap when buying a camera slider, be aware any flaws in the manufacture could ruin the smoothness of the shot – the very thing you are buying it to do. A slight imperfection in a rubber wheel will cause jumps in the shot, for example.
To mount your smartphone to any of these sliders, like mounting an iphone to a tripod, you will need some kind of clamp.
Neewer
Neewer do a range of photographic equipment, including a series of camera sliders. One of the cheapest they do is skateboard-style table-top slider. It’s affordable, it’s small enough to pop in your kit bag and it’s simple to use: you just push it along a smooth surface with your hand.
The nuts allow you to adjust the angle of the axle to create custom curved slides with you camera. For example, if you had an object on a table, you can set the slider to circle around it as you pan.
The mini track slider – a more common option is the fixed track slider. This is simply a mini version of the tracks in photo at the top of the article.
Neewer do a variety of these sliders, at varying lengths (clamp not included). Combined with the 5.8 – 8.8 cm width cellphone holder, this slider enables smooth motion control for a range of smartphones, including iPhone, Samsung, Huawei and others. The carbon fibre and aluminium alloy construction makes this slider solid, lightweight and durable.
This (like other sliders) allows you to mount your phone using your preference of grip. I personally have Zecti which was a bargain. The slider itself can be mounted on table, tripod or light stand
Interested? Why not slide yourself into Gio Gargiuolo’s beautifully smooth review here:
Zecti also do something pretty similar. However, they only do the one size which is equal to the smallest Neewer. Again a well built, light weight, carbon fibre slider.
Fosicam MIMI Slider
For my smartphone filmmaking kit, I love things that fold up small. I’ve gone to shoot short films with all my camera kit in a small backpack. So the Fosicam slider is a great because its clever design means you get a lot of smooth from the minimum backpack space. A pretty good deal too at about $100.
Made of aluminium alloy, it weighs about 530 grams. And, like above, the Fosicam can be mounted on a tripod, table top or light stand. The slider is equipped with 1/4 inches and 3/8 inches threaded holes for different photographic devices. There’s a bubble level, too.
Kamerar Fluid Motion Slider
Moving your slider by hand has some advantages (lower cost device, adjust slide speed instinctively) and some disadvantages (harder to get that ultra smooth slide). To get smoother motion, this slider utilises a flywheel counterweight system. This is perhaps a good compromise between the instinctive hands-only slide and the robotic motorised slide.
Kamerar Fluid Motion Slider on Amazon
“The flywheel counterweight system gives you more consistent and smoother slides when compared to a standard slider. The belt drive system ensures optimal performance for fluid and quiet movement. The rotating counterweight provides momentum for smooth acceleration and deceleration when creating the perfect panning shot.” Kamerar
This is a great slider at this price range. It has features of much more expensive sliders but is a serious piece of kit and pretty sturdy.
GVM Camera Slider
The GMV slider is motorised which gives you even smoother slides. This motorised slider offers the features you would want at a fraction of the price you would usually pay.
Made with high grade and sturdy carbon fibre tubes, can be used for panoramic shooting and time lapse, too. Using the handset, you can set the starting and ending points as needed, the sliding speed, the dwell time, the sliding distance, the pause time, the number of pictures etc. Again, can be mounted on a flat surface, tripod or light stand.
The motor is incredibly quiet, so for interview situations it’s great. Meanwhile, the central rail allows you to rotate the carriage as the slider moves, so you can pan up to 120 degrees – or circle a subject. The motor ramps up and down for smooth movements when filming on loop – no sudden shake when the motor starts movement.
Read next: The Full Epic MoMo KIT LIST.
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