hello,

well..this question may have been asked to dead, but..what's a good starter slider?
i will have about 400$ to purchase one.

i'v heard mixed reviews..and glidetrack seems to be the best, but what about ingus?
are there any others that i should be considering?

Hi Alejandro,

If you want to build your own DIY slider, check out this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/dolly-track-cable/142611-diy-39-slider.html

(Basically, you buy parts from IGUS, tap a hole in the middle, mount your camera on the carriage, and slide into the rail dolly.)

But if you don't want to build, there are many options, including Glidetrack:

http://www.glidetrack.com/products.html

Or these, from Olof:

Sliders (http://www.westsideavstore.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=4&pg=1)

Good luck,

We have the Glidetrack, the DP Slider, and the Atlas. You get what you pay for. The GT is not very smooth, but is the cheapest. The Atlas is incredibly smooth, but heavy and expensive. I like the DP best, very smooth and portable enough. Then you need to decide on the length...

Hello,

You want to be economical I put a link below: it will slide right down a 2x6 plank, or youo can make yourself some nice rails any length you want out of aluminum or steel (the cheaper route).

Rail camera dolly (http://www.merlindolly.com/29-rail-dolly-only.html)

Check out konovacamera on ebay.
50KG Tele lens Camera Camcord slider dolly

I have the EZ Slider from Westside AV. They are great there and will help you decide. Olof is a user of sliders so the experience is helpful.

Maybe I am a perfectionist but I can't get a perfectly smooth move if I have to move my feet. Whatever I try, moving my feet results in a small unevenness. I therefore don't use the full 36" so something smaller would have been better. ALso, a 36" cannot be held on a single tripod....it needs two. Also, you need a halfway decent head with pan drag for moves where you want to keep the camera on the same point throughout the glide. THere are few heads that even mount on a flat-top let alone ones with adjustable pan drag. Other than the inexpensive Manfrotto heads, the only decent head I found that works as both a ball head for normal tripod use and on a flat top is the Sacthler heads. YMMV

i'm thinking of the ingus slider and do a motorized move.

been reading a lot about motorizing the slide with step motors.
i might go that route

the good thing about igus it is not expensive, but that's about it, even with updated friction rollers it is not smooth enough, atlas 30 is probably the best, but it's pretty large, and i need something smaller, something that I can mount on a single tripod, thinking pocket dolly, but is it a bearings based sliding block, or the same drylyn as igus?