DIY IndieSlider...

dominichicks said:
Really? :shocked:

First, do not take your car to that shop!:happy:

Drilling and tapping a hole is very easy and only requires a $5.00 T-wrench and a $5.00 Tap (which includes the drill bit too). Search "Tapping a hole" (I know that just doesn't sound right) on YouTube, you'll see, it really easy.

Now, as far as the carriage not sliding smooth. I hope it's just because they knocked it out of alignment. Make sure there's no damage to the rail itself, then make sure the Drylin bearings are in the glide blocks. Next, go through the alignment process:

This is OFFICIAL igus procedure for "aligning" the carriage.
It only needs to be done once.

They say

1. Loosen all carriage bolts - (don't remove - just loosen a few turns)
2. slide carriage back and forth to allow bearings to align themselves)
3. (tech actually recommended "tapping" the center of the carriage to "bump" the bearings into place)
4. With downward pressure on carriage tighten the bolts again a few turns at a time (alternating them - i.e. do NOT crank one down and then do the other ones)

Let me know how you make out....
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Thanks for your help... I was warned off from tapping/threading holes myself as everybody says you need clamps etc to get a straight hole?

Looks like they have knocked the carriage out of alignment.... I don't seem to have any Drylin bearings in my glide blocks - never did?... Are these little bearings that go through the other holes next to the bolts? Without them the alignment is screwed every time I tighten up the bolts. Where can I get hold of some bearings?

Dom
 
tapping a hole straight is just a matter of being carefu and lining up the tap right, all you need is a tap, tima and a little finesse. If you tap it yourself remember to back out as you go, 2 steps forward 1 step back as i always say.
 
dominichicks said:
Thanks for your help... I was warned off from tapping/threading holes myself as everybody says you need clamps etc to get a straight hole?

Looks like they have knocked the carriage out of alignment.... I don't seem to have any Drylin bearings in my glide blocks - never did?... Are these little bearings that go through the other holes next to the bolts? Without them the alignment is screwed every time I tighten up the bolts. Where can I get hold of some bearings?

Dom
Click to expand...

What? The glide blocks ship with bearings in them. Did the shop lose them on you?
They look like a plastic tube with a slit cut out...these aren't like steel ball bearings.

If you ordered the parts I listed in the first post... you got the bearing too.

Something is really wrong here, you better check back with the shop.
 
ride2bhi said:
I thought that was the WS-16-60S version? They said that it was out of stock. Did I get the numbers wrong?
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You ordered correctly, the "S" indicates solid rail.

This has become so popular, they are having trouble keeping stock.
:happy:
 
ZazaCast said:
You ordered correctly, the "S" indicates solid rail.

This has become so popular, they are having trouble keeping stock.
:happy:
Click to expand...

I guess I waited too long... :cry:

Unfortunately it means I will have to shell out for the prebuilt ones. If anyone has an extra rail, let me know. Thanks!
 
ZazaCast said:
You ordered correctly, the "S" indicates solid rail.

This has become so popular, they are having trouble keeping stock.
:happy:
Click to expand...


Yea the person I talked to on the phone knew all about us using them for movies. It's almost like having a love affiar at work, It dosent take long and pretty soon the whole office knows, lol
 
N635DC said:
Yea the person I talked to on the phone knew all about us using them for movies. It's almost like having a love affiar at work, It dosent take long and pretty soon the whole office knows, lol
Click to expand...

Yeah... I started this thread in August 2008, by March of 2009, you could call igus and ask for a "ZazaSlider" and they knew what parts you needed. It was about a month after that the regional sales manager started visiting me every couple of months. It's a viral DIY project!:happy:
 
It is indeed. I just ordered and assembled the solid track because the one with holes was out of stock for awhile. Works great. The one thing I wasn't expecting was the noise when sliding. If going at a very slow creep it's fine, but anything faster and shooting with sound becomes a problem. It's not that loud, but these microphones pick up any small hiss, especially in interview situations where the room is normally tight. Are there any solutions/lubricants? I'm hoping there is a trick like lemon pledge that solves this.

Also, I've found that I need some heavier tripod legs with a spreader. I've got a bogen 503 head as of now, which for my purposes works fine. Any suggestions? For the most part I'm using a 7d on it, every now and then something like an hvx.
 
The new 5D firmware coming out March 17th will fix the hiss if you have a directional video mic.

You'll need at least a 17-25 pound load tripod. Carbon fiber ones are great. I wouldn't apply any lubricants because of the clean up problem and eventually it will collect a ton of dirt, dust and jam your slider while scratching the aluminum.
 
I'm not talking about audio hiss in terms of the camera - sound is recorded externally always anyway. I'm talking about the sound when moving the slider carriage on the rails at a decent pace.
 
If you do actually understand, you make no sense. How can a camera firmware update make DryLin bearings slide on aluminum rails quieter? This isn't a matter of cameras or sound recording, it's a matter of the sound the slider itself produces.
 
Because a directional microphone, such as a Rode Video mic will pic up sounds directly in front of the microphone. The track being "not in front of the microphone" will be much less obvious when we are able to turn down the sensitivity on the 5D...THUS....Reducing the sound the slider makes. I'm not sure if I can be any more specific than this Noah.
 
I am well aware of the principles of microphone pick up patterns and recording levels/gain. What you are saying does not reduce the sound the slider makes, it reduces what the 5D hears the slider makes. The 5D firmware update does not affect my situation at all since I am not recording sound to the camera. In an interview situation before the 5D update, I would, for instance, have a cardioid on a boom recording to a CF field recorder like the Sound Devices 702. After the 5D update, nothing has changed. If you took the camera out of the situation entirely and placed a weight on the slider carriage equal to the weight of the camera it would still create the "hiss" sound when sliding.

Sorry for interrupting this thread with this argument. Moderators, feel free to delete the posts. If anyone has any answers to my original questions it would be much appreciated.
 
Calm down guys... it's all good! :happy:

Noah, If you're getting that much noise, something is wrong. You could go through the entire thread and only find a couple posts that seemed to have a noise problem. Most of these were carriage alignment problems or off-balance loads.

In an effort to help, please allow me to ask some questions. Have you realigned your carriage? Is your rig centered on the carriage? Is the rail clean? (you can spray a little pledge on a cloth and wipe down the rail, then wipe with a clean dry cloth)

Lets see if we can figure this one out....
 
I'm with Noah. The carriage sliding on the rail doesn't make a LOT of noise, but it definitely makes noise. My carriage is aligned perfectly and I've cleaned with Pledge. Slide movement is wonderful in appearance, but with any sensitive microphone it still picks up the sound. Noah, I can think of two options:

1) if you have access to any audio editing software, even something like Cubase, and have a bit of time to work on it (something I haven't done yet), you should be able to filter this sound out. It is a consistent frequency that shouldn't have any impact on your interview audio. I've done it in other circumstances, just don't have any details to share on these frequencies yet.

2) you say you're recording audio externally. Can you simply plan for enough distance between your recording source and the rail? This is the approach I've used. For interview situations I'm using the Zoom H4N and a lapel or condensor on a boom...proximity being the key...then getting some distance and using a longer lens for tighter shots. Haven't had any slide noise yet.

Hope this helps a bit at least in brainstorming. I think the noise is just something to deal with. Are the rest of you actually experiencing silent movement? or is it that you're just not using the audio from your video record or something like i've described in point 2?

I'm not at all unhappy with my slider...it's just something to work around.
 
Noah, believe me, some microphones are so sensitive they pick up me rotating the darn focus ring with my follow-focus if I am not careful.

This is why people use really good shotgun mics. It allows you to get the noisy parts away from the sounds of interest. Imagine how bad film cameras are with the film passing through them!

Some people like to use a small shotgun mic on the shoe of the camera, but if you really want to eliminate problems, I'd start with trying a different micing solution.

What are you doing now?

The only reason I ask all this is I am newer to cinematography than I am to audio. I got into cinematography scoring films, foley and general post production for people. (And it came out of the pain that most people that shoot video think of audio as an afterthought and it is so painful to clean up). I feel your pain.

We've been using the rode NG-2 and have been pretty happy with it.

Another problem with keeping the mic on a moving camera is that the dynamics of your recording audio will change. The closer you are to the subject, clearer and if too close the proximity effect which enhances low frequency, the farther, more echoey in a room and less base, plus, if you move out of the response area as you slide across, you can even get frequency differences in how the voices are recorded. You probably know all this, but just more the reason to get the mic off the camera, more directional, (or use a lapel system or what have you)
 
So... let me get this straight...you guys have the mic ON the camera as you slide? If so, I'm sure you get a ton of noise then. Unless your camera is isolated, any vibration through the carriage will be transmitted right up through the camera...just like if you have a mic on the end of a boom without a shockmount, any movement of your hands will come right through the mic.

Like Grimepoch says...get the mic off the camera! I've been in REALLY tight rooms with the slider, but use a mic on a boom and have never heard the slider in the audio.
 
I know...funny, eh? It's those of us, myself included, that got into video primarily through HDDSLRs like the 5D that often start out using in camera audio. We're on a learning curve to pick up what you guys knew from the beginning. Many of us have learned, including Noah, it seems, since he already stated that he records audio externally. So, like I told Noah, I'm using the Zoom to record and either a lapel mic, a condensor on a boom or, as Grimepoch mentioned, a shotgun. I've got the NTG-1 from Rode and it's wonderful...especially if you're on a tight budget to make it all happen. In any case he's still getting the sound issues even recording externally.

ZazaCast said:
So... let me get this straight...you guys have the mic ON the camera as you slide?
Click to expand...
 
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