This week I received the Glide Gear slider and a ball head with a release plate from Amazon. Although I had created one of those DIY dolly slider on wheels(much thanks to The Frugal Filmmaker on YouTube), there was too much slack that created some wobble in my footage. It worked well enough on smooth surfaces but I needed something a bit more versatile so I chose the aforementioned combo.
DIY Dolly worked well but if you check closely, there was a good mount of wobble and this was my best take.
The DMKFoto ball head with release plate attaches to the Glide Gear base plate without any adapters. After running some tests, I'm satisfied with the results. I get much cleaner shots but there is still a tiny amount of slack that will cause wobble. It will take a bit more practice and extra takes to make sure you get a smooth shot. Example below:
The clips with the dog is with the Sony HDR SR-11 that has optical image stabilization and the latter shots were with the GF2 with 20mm f1.7 that has no stabilization.
The Glide Gear slider is cheap but well built. I've heard it's self lubricating but I can imagine after a ton of use, spraying it with WD 40 from time to time won't hurt.
The thread in the center will fit the standard release plate so you can add a tripod. I was planning on adding a tripod on each end but the threading at each end was much larger than the threading in the middle. Also, when I did attach my tripod in the middle, my tripod release plate had a bit of slack making it difficult to get good sliding shots. I then attached the slider to a light stand and it became more manageable. Most of the sliding shots will be low any way and the shots where I need some elevation, I wouldn't need to slide too much either so no worries.
I can't wait to use it on future projects. Particularly, I wanna replicate many of the tripod panning and tilting shots as well as the low sliding shots in this car video. It doesn't seem difficult to do. Hopefully, I can try that out soon.
Edit: Another Practice Slider Shots
Couldn't help it, a few more shots with the slider!
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