[ad_1]
In this review, I’m going to take a look at the Accsoon Toprig S60 slider ($339.00). It’s a compact, motorized slider that may seem a little minimal compared to some of the other offerings. That said, it is 100% self-sustained, and packs a real punch when it comes to value.
My history with video sliders
Many years ago when I was starting out, the landscape of filmmaking equipment was very different.
There were no affordable motorized gimbals, and autofocus on large sensor cameras was basically non-existent. If you wanted to level up, you needed a slider!
And if you were particularly fancy, you got a motorized slider…. And I did!
For years I used it on everything, (often regardless of wether the shot needed it or not).
But after a few years, sliders became a cliche, and the world moved onto drones and gimbals.
More recently, I have used all kinds of different sliders, not in a scattergun fashion but as tools to execute specific shots. These have been from a selection of manufacturers, and to be honest, I have found most to be frustrating.
Complex vs. self-contained sliders
Many have opted for a very app-centric control method, and the pairing of Bluetooth, sometimes between different motor modules on the same slider. This has killed the flow of an otherwise straightforward shot on a number of shoots.
Internal batteries that aren’t replaceable and seem to be flat whenever you get it out, extra cables and fiddly proprietary quick releases….
Some models now have a modularity that permeates them, offering configurable length but also adding points of failure, introducing tiny jitters or confusing assistants trying to build it under pressure.
This is to say that I was intrigued when I came across the Acssoon TopRig S60 ($339.00) and S40 ($296.00) at the BSC expo this year.
Here was a slider that is self-contained, relatively small, has simple controls built in, has a couple of powering options, including an NPF battery plate, and has a mechanical panning mechanism!! This seemed to tick all the boxes, although sliders can be something of a cliche I have missed being able to reliably add some simple, controlled movement to certain shots.
For example, interviews with the internal panning mechanism that incidentally is purely mechanical, so it requires no extra motors, cables, or batteries. You can keep your subject in the same place within the frame, but still create a parallax shift between them and the background. (check out our full interview angle tutorial)
And I really do like the subtle effect you get from this, it’s something I’ve done in the past with a far more convoluted (and pricer) Kessler system that in the end became too unreliable and clunky to take out on shoots.
But the Toprig is a breeze, it automatically ‘ping-pongs’ back and forth so you don’t need to keep an eye on it and constantly be changing settings etc. which is perfect for interviews.
Accsoon Toprig S60 slider setup and control
Let’s take a moment to look over some of the setup and controls.
Attaching an NPF battery and powering up is easy, you can then calibrate it by pressing the play button. Once this auto calibration is complete you can just press play and the unit will do a complete move returning to the start position.
There is a speed control knob that you can use during a move to dial in the movement speed that suits the shot.
For slightly more involved moves you can set A and B points which allows you to use only a portion of the length is that is what the shot requires, and also by using this section you can set the slider on an infinite loop going back and forth until you press stop or run out of battery…
Which may take a while as I’ve found it is incredibly economical, barely making a dent on this small NPF battery even after a few days shooting!
Aside from the controls on the panel, you also have the two knobs to change the position of the mechanical pan bar. In principle, you can do three things with this –
Moves with no panning movement – straight side to side.
Moves that stay locked on a point in between the two ends.
Moves that pan outwards of the two endpoints.
Getting used to where to position these takes a little trial and error but is fairly intuitive. It does also depend on how far away your subject is and what focal length of lens you are using. So, some experimentation is key to building up your understanding of this process.
Accsoon Toprig S60: Types of shots with the slider
However, this is not the full picture, as you could have your camera oriented, pointing down the length of the slider, changing the style of the shot quite dramatically to a push / dolly in or out. This could also be combined with the panning movement, of course.
Even more exciting, this slider has enough power to pull off vertical movements with cameras up to a reasonable size and weight!
The only caveat here is that you need to figure out how you are rigging the slider securely in that vertical position, but it does have a plethora of 1/4 20 mounting points at either end and underneath.
This again change the moves that are possible, and again with the mechanical panning it changes to something that is reminiscent of a motion control robot or mini techno crane!
Very cool for product shots!
The ability to have repeatable controlled moves for products is again something I’ve missed, and it is smooth enough to stand up even with macro shots.
In my experience it has also been accurate enough to create comp shots with several passes allowing for some creative options in post.
Accsoon Toprig S60 for timelapse videos
Something else I used sliders for a lot in the past is Timelapse. Adding a slow move to a Timelapse shot is incredibly satisfying.
While it is possible to use the slowest movement speed, (taking around five minutes to travel the length of the slider once) to create a reasonable Timelapse to get the full feature set you are going to need a couple of other things.
First, the app… I know I railed against Bluetooth apps at the start! However I think this is a reasonable implementation of app control, as it genuinely does try and give you all of the bread and butter features as hardware buttons, but with the expanded feature set in the app.
Bonding it up has actually been painless and worked first time on my iPhone whenever I tried it.
Alongside the Timelapse setting, you can also control all the other functions and they work well enough if that is of interest to you.
On the hardware side, you will need a shutter release cable that to let the slider and camera communicate. Each camera uses a different cable so make sure to pick the right one.
For those who haven’t done a lot of motion control Timelapse I’ll give a run down of the rational for this.
move-shoot-move: a slider timelapse crash course
In Timelapse, you will often use long shutter speeds.
If the slider is moving constantly from one side to the other it will induce a certain amount of motion blur into the shot. Now, some motion blur could be aesthetically pleasing in a timelapse– that’s a style choice…
However, as we’ve seen, there is a limit to how slow the slide can go. It caps at about 5 minutes which is not long for a dreamy Timelapse!
To avoid this in timelapse mode, the slider will move a tiny amount, then stop, then move, then stop, and so on. This sequence is based on how long you want it to take to get from one side to the other, and it is easy to dial in the settings on the app. Luckily, it does all the calculations for you.
The issue is that if the camera is not synchronized with the slider, this jerky movement can result in more random motion blur, with some shots having it and others not. So, instead, you connect the camera and slider with a shutter release cable. Now, the slider can execute a Move, Shoot, Move style of motion control Timelapse.
As the name suggests, the slider now controls the camera trigger and will be perfectly synced with the movement.
This allows for long shutter speeds and flawless movement. Even for something like Astro Timelapse!
If you wanted to be very technical you could create a Timelapse, and match the move in realtime then combine them both in post for more impact.
Accsoon sent me the S60 version of this slider which has 60cm of travel. And I’ve found that it is compact enough that I don’t really worry about it taking up space. There is smaller version S40 with 40cm of travel, which to me feels like it would be too small, maybe if you need absolute portability above all else it could fit that niche.
Pricing and value
At the time of publication, the Acssoon TopRig S60 sells for $339.00 and the Accsoon Toprig S40 sells for $296.00. Add in a couple of NPF batteries, and it is a very reasonable package. This includes a very practical carry case with some pockets to hold batteries and cables. (but not big enough for a tripod head)
The only thing you’ll need to add is some tripod head and, thoughtfully, the mounting point on the carriage as a spring-loaded screw which can take either standard 1/4-20 or 3/8, which is more common on fluid heads, etc.
Overall I’ve really enjoyed the S60 and I can confidently say it’s going to be a staple bit of kit on shoots for me.
The short size is perhaps a limitation where other systems allow for extensions or have models up to 4, 5 or 6 feet. But I think that my actual need for those lengths is rare and I’d rather have a useful compact version than something so large or complex I struggle to set it up in some locations and have to really consider if I have space to bring it.
Full disclosure: Accsoon has sent this slider out for review free of charge but they don’t have any input on the review.
[ad_2]
