Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Proaim Linear Camera Slider Review


Only $200 AUS to buy a 3 foot slider and have it sent to my door, via ebay. Too good to be true?

The price, service and packaging were excellent, but what about the product?

Sadly the Proaim 3' Linear Camera Slider performs like it costs. Despite the good packaging the product arrived bent. Bends can cause different amounts of force to be needed in moving your camera along the rails, as the 4 separate sliding interfaces hit small humps or slumps and grab, particularly if you are using a weightier lens. This can result in jerky motion. The lack of sturdy design means the slider is vulnerable to further bending.

Most annoying for me is the fit of the base plate to rails. The tolerances are big enough to allow a measure of rocking which can cause camera jolt, particularly when you have a heavy lens. If you tighten the 4 grub screws provided you can reduce rock, but then you are stuck with a stiff and non-slidey experience.

This piece of equipment may be fine for hobbyists but pros will get frustrated...(and they will spend more on an alternative product anyway!) Despite this I would not write off other products from Proaim, but will check the reviews first.

2 comments:

  1. if only you found the same thing from its original maker in Amazon where it is only 79$ :)

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044DUCVG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=A10ZKKXNUBLUI3

    ReplyDelete
  2. ...maybe the word is out and a year later the price had to drop?

    ReplyDelete

Search This Blog

Followers