Just a solid camera and a sturdy tripod can take you far, but what are the tools you should be looking at acquiring next if your budget allows for it? For sure adding smooth camera movement will greatly enhance your work, so I recommend investing in a steadicam/stabilizer or a slider (or both!).
For most indie filmmakers, it probably make sense to buy a steadicam before a slider, unless you are shooting a lot of slow-moving shots. But if you do get a slider, you’ll right away find lots of use for it, since it is a great replacement for a dolly.
I’ve thoroughly reviewed steadicams/glidecams available for DSLR and smaller cameras in my previous post. So check it out if you haven’t already.
I’ve been using a camera slider for four years now, but it was a cheaper model. Therefore, I still have been using my DIY dolly a lot – see here how I built it if you’d like to build one yourself. But a few months back, I had the luck of receiving a top-quality slider from the company Konova for review. The slider came right away really handy on several projects. Among other things, it saved me a lot of time and trouble because I was able to leave my dolly in the storage. But to find out more about what I liked about this particular model, check out below the video review I posted on my YouTube channel.
Tutorial 50
Besides the points I made in the video, there are a few other advantages of using a slider over a dolly or a steadicam. Namely, sliders allow you to do a lot more precise and slow camera movements. For example, you can do moving macro shots/extreme close-ups, which are otherwise very difficult or impossible to execute.
And – related to the point above – you can use long lenses, whereas a telephoto lens on a steadicam almost always produces vibrations.
To buy this slider and any other Konova products on eBay, visit the
Also on eBay, you can get the tripods and video head I use with the slider:
You can also buy these on Amazon.com
very nice , by the way do u have any new tut for the month of September? how do fine it
Yes I do. Check out the tutorial section on my website to see it
What camera do u mostly use on your music videos?
Canon 7D. Its cheap light and fast to work with.
I prefer a dolly and want to build one like you did with my dad but i can’t find where to get ready wheels for it. i looked on the site you provided but can’t order from them for some reason. where can i get them?
Those wheels are hard to get lately. They sell out very quickly. Just have to keep on looking on amazon.com maybe or ebay.com and get them before they sell out again.
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Extremely helpful info specifically the last part 🙂 I care for such info much.
I was looking for this particular information for a very long time.
Thank you and best of luck.
this is very nice and easy to operate
We should call you Tom Awesome, your tutorials are really awesome and very helpful.I took a semester at film school but I find I have learnt way more from your videos.Please keep up the good work you are doing.Thank you
😉 That’s great to hear… thanks!!!
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