I’m working on a new camera rig that will improve some of the shots we take.  This project doesn’t have an official name.  Some call them indisliders, glidetrack, mico-dolly, zazaslider,or various other names.  I will be modifying the plans from the ZazaSlider web page.  You can find their plans online at: http://zazaslider.com/instructions.html.  They use a rail and carriage system built by igus® Inc.

Although the DryLin® linear bearings are not a product built for video, this is one of those great do it yourself projects

Linear Rail System for video

Linear Rail System

There are some videos on line at:

http://vimeo.com/groups/zazaslider

[vimeo 7922895]

Here is a good example of a slider in use.

Slider History

To view a history of the ZazaSlider you can checkout the http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=145701 there are over 198 pages to date.  Some of the stuff is repeat, but there is a wealth of information and last night I checked out each page for research.  It felt like I read a marathon.  There were only three people who are working the same system I’m building.  There system is these two parts:

WS-16-60 Drylin ‘W’ rail 1000mm
WW-16-60-10 Drylin ‘W’ carriage

This will get you a rail that has 16mm guides that are 60mm apart.  This equals 39.37  inches or just over 3 feet of  rail length.

I just ordered this:

WS-20-80 1500mm  This put me at 59.05 inches or just at five feet long.

WW-20-80-15 This is the 150mm or 5.90 inch carriage.

If you order this online you can ask for WK 20-80-15-01-1500 This the complete 20mm rails that are 80mm apart with a 150mm carriage quantity 01 and a rail length at 1500mm.  I got an email response in 12 hours, but your best bet is to call them on the phone.  1-888-803-1895 is the Igus number in the United States. The total for this order was $284.19 US.

The alternatives:

Dp Slider uses a ball bearing system with their rail and has an inner track instead of igus’ outer track system.  The DP Slider system creates more noise as it rolls on the track.  It seems solid and they have some quality video on their site.  Granger has thePBC Linear RediRail® linear guide system that looks like the DP Slider system.  They use the 45mm setup on the RediRail® linear track.

Future of this Project:

I’m looking to video my progress, and will start when my rails get here.  I will modify this post when things start to happen.

[vimeo 11025713]

This was my first test of the new slider (2nd week of April 2010)  I need to tweak a few things, but I think it is really solid.

Enjoy,

Derrick Perrin

Big Box Pro Video Productions

www.BigBoxPro.com

361-883-4227