Davide DB

Actually on my example with WA shots I swim with the camera in my hands. Hummm you will probably have to make some modifications, or else: If the feet have a common thread (1/4“ or M8-M10 you might find compatible 1” balls. Another option: many sliders have a 1/4” photo attachment at the bottom to mount them on tripods. you could take advantage of it to attach a plate with 1" balls. However, regarding the equipment used on professional productions, for sliders you don't use ball bearings but use Teflon friction bearings or similar materials. There is a company that sells all the parts, and in the catalog there are also parts designed to work underwater. They also supposedly have a technical consulting service to help make custom solutions. there are also lots of projects in the film and TV field on their page. I leave links below for those who would like to learn more: Parts: https://www.igus.eu/product/940?C=DE&L=en&artNr=WW-10-30-10-SL-HKA Custom projects for camera sliders: https://www.igus.eu/industry/camera-technology Last but not the least, if you are looking for ready to use bespoken solutions: https://www.waterproofmedia.co.uk/

Good news for owners of some of these well regarded lenses. Monster Adapter is set to launch an F to Z mount adapter equipped with a motor to operate old AF-D lenses.

My interest in the slider for macro video (not extreme) is not so much for focus but to get small side or frontal tracking shots. Trying to explain. I happen to do these frontal tracking shots with a medium wide lens inside small soft coral forests. You don't need perfect focus, quite the contrary. I open the lens to F2.8 and focus about half a meter away i.e. to the first coral in front of me. Then I advance slowly with the camera near close to the bottom to get in between the corals. In this way I will have in focus only a portion of the field in front of me flowing as I advance. Sometimes you get a nice artistic effect. Wanting to translate this effect into macro, the perfect lens would be a 130° or 160° EMWL advanced slowly through the corals getting an unusual view. If you watch some scenes in some documentaries you will find that it is widely used. If you look at the first picture with Roger Munn and the manual slider, I think he's doing just something similar among the polyps of that hard coral with an EMWL.

the most important factor is being able to maintain a minimum total height. The more pieces you put in, the more micro shaking you will have.

I had the opportunity to chat with one of the filming assistants on this very documentary of the photos. The slider is self-made by a guy who does this work for the BBC and other blue-chip productions. It is electronic, and although it works well, it requires ongoing maintenance in the field. In these productions and with this equipment you dip into two or three people who help run it. The fluid heads used are film heads, and vintage fluid heads are often used because they are more water resistant and are completely removable. One of these vintage heads such as a Ronford Baker can cost as much as 2 to 3,000 euros. In short, a whole other world!

For focus distance should be ok. Let me know how it goes 😉

What else can we say? Documentaries are a cultural product and therefore they too reflect the spirit of the times. As you often love to say it is the Netflixication of nature documentaries or, as Cory Doctorow puts it, the Enshittification of nature documentaries. P.S. if you do a Youtube search you will find that virtually all of the video ads chosen by NBC are titled, “Tom Hank Narrates...”

Mine is similar to the one in your photo. It is impossible to shoot during movement. The camera wobbles during movement because the carriage is too small. One of the parameters to take into account is the advance in mm for each rotation of the crank. In these models it is about 1 mm per rotation. More advance per rotation is needed. Blue chip productions use huge DIY sliders. They are usually electric but there are also manual ones. In both cases I have been told that even using these monsters requires patience and commitment and results are not granted. Credit: Roger Munn (https://www.instagram.com/rogermunns/) I was intrigued by this model from Novoflex which has no screw but rack and German construction but (for me) it's expensive to give it a try.

Absolutely. For Easydive, basically the camera tray has an integrated electronic board which connects to the camera (a model via usb and another via Wi-fi) and translates controls to the handle. Main controls are mapped directly but other controls are accessed via menu. IIRC correctly, forget custom buttons and such. I had investigated for my Panasonic and the functions I use most often for video. several functions were impossible to have mapped directly. So, yes, the devil is in the details. Also, their ports and domes are not great. I know several users who use the old Igloo/Underwave crystal domes. They were very popular in the days of film and both Easydive and Isotta were compatible. The advantage is that if you change cameras, for a few hundred euros they reprogram the electronic board in the tray and you are ready. They even send you a firmware update by email for the wi-fi version. On the latest models you can switch off the electronic board from the outside and the camera goes directly into stand-by. Then I don't really remember what the problem was with the bulkhead for the external monitor. In short, a world apart. It's a solution you either hate or love. There are no half-measures.

Welcome aboard! You are in the right place 😉

Where I can find the Gates tripod video? I have a macro slider with an endless screw and I can move the tray only via the wheel

Could you elaborate on the macro slider? I saw an identical model and was wondering if it would work for underwater shooting, Do you have any examples of shooting done with the slider? Thank you very much

The guy who made the special 30m hdmi cable, years ago, used a multi cores cable and he asked if I needed a remote trigger too because there were several free cores left. So it's possible and maybe you can find a good technician who makes these kind of works. It's common in cinema and TV services

Is it the same concept of Easydive housings?

Is it you current setup? Were you able to use that macro slider underwater? Thanks