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Buying a camera slider
I’m an upper-level film student and I’m considering buying a modestly-priced camera slider for my own productions. I’m having a little bit of a hard time justifying the cost, however, as I won’t really be making money with it.
However, I had the thought that I could rent it out (via Craigslist probably) to smaller productions/other students to recoup some of the cost. Do you guys think that’s a viable idea? I feel like I would rent a slider locally if the price was right.
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5 Replies
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I am a big fan of renting but I am not sure I would rent out any equipment I really cared out. As nice as people can be, too often they don’t take care of rented equipment with the same dedication as they might their own gear.
If you go this route, definitely make sure you get insurance on the slider and it would also be a great thing to offer insurance against damage for your renters at an extra cost.
The other challenge I would see would be the constant work needed to package and ship the slider unless you would only let people pick it up in person. I do a little equipment selling from time to time and I must say shipping is the biggest pain in the process!
Sliders are a limited market so I am not sure how much you can charge and still make it worthwhile, also you wouldn’t be renting tripods or other gear related to DSLR Video production. I suggest checking out sites like BorrowLenses.com to get a feel for what rates might be reasonable for you.
Let us know what you decide, all the best
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I thought about the fact that renters could damage the slider, but I figure the risk is relatively low and a slider is a lot less susceptible to damage than a camera or lens.
In live in a large metro area and so I would seek to rent it out locally only.
Looks like borrowlenses has a kessler pocket dolly coming Mar. 2; $77 for 3 day rental.
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The top two slider’s I would recommend are the DP Slider and GlideTrak’s new Hybrid Slider. Both start around $400 and go up to around $800.
Simple, easy to use, travel with, lockable slide head, vertical and horizontal sliding capabilities.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
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The company I work for has a Glide Track Sliderand it works great with light cameras. It is light enough that I’ve hiked with it in the middle of no-where. Here is a link to a PSA video where all of the moving shots where done with the Glide Track. Best of luck.
Stephen Smith
Utah Video ProductionsCheck out my Motion Training DVD
Check out my Motion Tutorials
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I ended up going with the PB Pocket dolly and am very happy with it, however the Atlas 10 looks really cool too.
Check out this run down of all the sliders on the market…I can imagine it being very useful for anyone trying to decide which slider to get:
https://thedslrjourney.com/blog/equipment/slider-dslr-video
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