Rhino Slider

[Kyle Root]

Has anyone here tried one/own one?

I've been thinking about getting one, and doing a lot of looking around, and to me, this looks like a really nice unit. Especially the Pro model.

Camera Sliders

Thanks.

[Warren Kawamoto]

I've never heard of Rhino. After looking at the specs though, I would have no doubts in this product. The thing that I really liked was that it's made in the US, not China or India.

[Kyle Root]

Yeah they do look nice.

Hey you're in Honolulu? My wife and daugther are there this week on a school field trip. Fun times.

Anyways, I'd like to have one of these, but I'd also like to take advantage of the Nikon lens sale that expires in 5 days... so much nice gear... not enough money. LOL

[Trevor Dennis]

It's a shame about the poor pictures on the Rhino website. It has a decent span between the slider mount, which is a good thing. My slider (I can't remember the make) has much narrower rails, which lead to rocking with anything more than a light DSLR.

[Annen James]

Great company, great slider. Used the Pro model for a History Channel shoot deep in the jungle of Hawaii with a Sachtler Video20, 100mm ball adapter, Canon C300 with L glass, on a Shape rig. Probably around 40 lbs! Center mounted the rails on a 100mm half ball on Sachtler sticks, dropped 2 monopods down on either end and slid away. Smooth as a babies butt. Very portable, durable and well made. Much faster to set up than speed rails.

[Nathan Moody]

I have one, too: I got the 4' carbon rails, the foot kit, the aluminum travel rails, and the pulley option. They're an extremely small group, but they are very responsive and professional. I hope they stay in business, because their v1 products are pretty strong and a 2nd or 3rd gen suite of products across multiple price points would be extremely compelling.

The slider itself is very well made. It is extremely smooth, as Annen also can attest. The price is right. Dual brakes provide confidence. The modularity is really compelling, as is the size. I just did my first real shoot with it on a single tripod with the 2' travel rails. Performed very well. There was some dip at the ends of the slide, but the AL rails are super stiff and I could tell that it was the tripod ball in its socket, not the slider, that was the source of the lean. But absolutely usable for production. Almost all my work is done on location so I'm not sure how much use I'll get out of the 4' rails.

You don't get everything you'd ever want for <$1,000, though. No variable drag (the brakes create sticktion rather than drag), which makes simultaneous sliding and panning hard if your head has ANY significant drag to it (if it doesn't, and pans very freely, you very well may get great results - the drag of the head really wants to match the drag on the slider). I had a weird issue because I'm using a crappy Manfrotto 503HDV head: Its flat base was too wide and it hit the knobs on each side of the slider truck/platform. Rhino responded to an email from me and said they sell 3/8" and 1/4" spacer disks - since for some reason they're not on their site and no one they knew had used the 503HDV head on the Rhino Slider before, they didn't charge me for shipping. They raise the center of gravity by about half an inch but work great. Problem solved. I do wish the screw that holds the camera/head on the tripod had a screwdriver slot, but that can be replaced; would make it easier to tighten. There's also no motorization option...yet.

The pulley system is just OK; you need to use is a certain way or the cable comes out of its guide. But having that option at all at this price point is fantastic. It comes attached to its own bag, so the bag can be a counterweight, but I think a separate weight system is more flexible...hard to get enough heavy bits in the small provided bag for it to really make it useful. Rad idea, though.

For the price, I think it's a great value and I'm happy with my purchase. The only way it could be better is if my budget was 2x what it was, and I bought something different. Nothing makes you appreciate how much technique matters until you get a buttery smooth slider...most problems are with the operator, not the slider...