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Building my own slider for timelapses.

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joris.blanc
Posts: 914 - Karma: 6,584
So last weekend I went up into the mountains at night and took a few of long exposure pics and I was really pleased about the result.

And this made me want to get back into doing timelapses. I did quite a bunch of timelapses a few years back, and really liked it but then I didn't take the time to do some since then.
But now I want to get back into it and this time I want to build myself a slider to add a bit of movement into them.

I have been looking around on the internet for some sliders and stuff and came across quite a few precision sliders, mostly for precision mechanics and from what I guess will be quite expensive (not sure at all about the price).

I then found this kind of linear slider http://www.accuride-europe.com/slides/all/DA0115RC do you think it could be a good solution ? I can get if for about 150$ for 1,2 meter long and I can add multiple 1,2 meter sections together if needed.

With that I will just buy a 2RPM DC motor and tie a fishing line string to it to move the whole camera system slowly.

My big question is if this kind of slider is appropriate for timlapses ? And do you have any other examples of cheap but still good quality sliders that I could buy ?

Here is a pic from last weekend !
Click for larger image

Thanks
Joris

Dec 4 2012 10:02AM
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NickVentura
Posts: 243 - Karma: 1,229
That might work but i love that picture! What settings did you use for your exposure?
Dec 4 2012 10:18AM
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joris.blanc
Posts: 914 - Karma: 6,584
I used a 10 second exposure time and I little bit of Photoshop. Nothing to fancy.
Dec 4 2012 10:20AM
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.qzyxya
Posts: 1479 - Karma: -26
Maybe look at the igus DIY sliders, they're pretty good. Also, there are some good videos on DIY motorized timelapse sliders on youtube, check them out and try to modify a igus one or another type.
The konova sliders are better and are true roller bearings but they're more expensive.
Also the juicedlink sliders are supposed to be decent.

just a few links
Dec 4 2012 11:04AM
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.qzyxya
Posts: 1479 - Karma: -26
especially look on youtube, there are a lot of ones iwth tiny little servos and controllers tied with a little string pulley system on them
Dec 4 2012 11:12AM
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Mkvackay
Posts: 1903 - Karma: 5,460
i really know nothing on the mechanics of building your own slider, but if you're interested in spending some money, check out http://slidetracked.com

i bought his timelapse slider when it was on kickstarter, and for $400 i think it works really well. You can buy it all without the 6 foot rail too, if you already bought that one you posted on.

shot this all with his slider and i really like it. its sometimes finicky but 90% of the time it works for me

Dec 4 2012 11:32AM
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.qzyxya
Posts: 1479 - Karma: -26
That looks pretty cool. Though you would probably be able to make your own and save some money. The motor and electronics will probably not be too much, id say under $50.
Dec 4 2012 11:53AM
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gravel
Posts: 5479 - Karma: 41,493
I have plans to do this as well. I spent a good amount of time looking at it earlier this fall, and I came to a general idea for what I was going to do. I recently purchased a small slider from Bmo., and those who have Konova level sliders probably would laugh at it, but it's the indislider mini (http://www.indisystem.com/indislidermini/) and you can get it for pretty cheap.

As for motorizing it, I found an awesome article that explains how you can create your own motor and modify it onto your slider. http://cheesycam.com/motorizing-the-juicedlink-diy-slider/

I haven't done it yet but plan on it soon
Dec 4 2012 12:09PM
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gravel
Posts: 5479 - Karma: 41,493
oh shit, that QZYXY or whatever linked that already, oh well
Dec 4 2012 12:09PM
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.qzyxya
Posts: 1479 - Karma: -26
Did I? That thing actually looks pretty sick, especially for the price, the indislider that is. I might have to pick one of those up :P
Dec 4 2012 12:17PM
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gravel
Posts: 5479 - Karma: 41,493
well i think you linked the motorized thing tutorial.

as for the slider, you didn't link that, but i think it works fine. if you have two rubber bands to drag it with, it looks nice and smooth:

Dec 4 2012 12:21PM
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.qzyxya
Posts: 1479 - Karma: -26
Yeah that slider shot by the tree looked pretty smooth. Did you use one tripod or two?
Dec 4 2012 12:24PM
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joris.blanc
Posts: 914 - Karma: 6,584
Thanks for all your answers, I was mostly wondering if it was possible to use any kind of linear guiding system or if a camera slider had anything special to it like some kind of drag like a tripod head.

I'm probably going to with my original idea http://www.accuride-europe.com/slides/all/DA0115RC for about 160$ I can get 2.4m of slide and it uses some Stainless steel balls to guide it smoothly !

I'm not yet 100% sure on how I'm doing the electronics of it, but I'm going to study what the propose on http://cheesycam.com/

Dec 4 2012 5:57PM
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.qzyxya
Posts: 1479 - Karma: -26
Yeah that sounds good. Basically any tipe of linear slider would work for your purposes, some of the ones with little plastic bearings (is that what they're called? idk) that slide instead of roll can have friction adjustments, but thats mainly just for real time use and not long time lapses
good luck
Dec 4 2012 6:22PM
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