Vimeo member Jayhas couldn't wait for Konova to release a faster motor for it's motorized upgrade kit, so he took it upon himself to add his own. Here's a comparison of the original Konova Motorized Pulley System with slow motor and a 60rpm gear motor mounted to a DIY slider. Watch the top portion of the video to see how different the maximum speed is on both. [Thanks Jayhas]. You can find some additional information on the Konova Upgrade Kits here http://cheesycam.com/konova-motorized-upgrade-kit-now-available/
Konova Motorized Upgrade Kit for Konova Sliders
BEENE
Archie,
I too have been trying to gather some info on the smart controller but have found very little available. I am mainly wanting to do long exposure time lapse and was trying to decide on the basic time lapse kit or the smart time-lapse kit. Or something from kessler or ditogear$$$
I did receive this response from Konova a few minutes ago....so hopefully some helpful info here you can use.
Comment: Does the Basic Time Lapse Controller Kit have start stop feature for long exposure time lapse (30 sec exposures for astro photography)?
Thank You,
Darrell
Frank Shaw [email protected]
9:52 PM (34 minutes ago)
On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 10:30 AM, Frank Shaw wrote:
Dear Darrell
The basic one can't do that,while the smart one would be able to stop for 2 hours max
Thank u
Frank
Emm
Post author@Archie - Here's an insight to their controller
Archie
Me again. No updates from you about the smart controller. Opinions? I am thinking of ordering one finally. Is it worth compared to other solutions in the market? Cheers!
Emm
Post author@Archie - It supports more load, is a bit more stable (under heavy weights) but I feel they are equally as smooth. No difference in smoothness for myself. The bearings are adjustable which also changes the drag through the rail. Maybe some people have it looser than others, which is why the results are different.
Archie
Thanks for the reply Emm. Will wait for you to post about the Slidecam S. In the meantime if you could please elaborate on K3 v KS. does larger bearing & wideness help in increasing load capacity only or also in smoothness? Any experience with both? While on the Konova website it says K5 is smoother, the reviews by people suggest the opposite.
Emm
Post author@Archie - The K5 is a bit wider and has larger bearings than a K3. This translates to just a bit more weight, but not too much. There's another slider from Varavon called the 'Slidecam S', that I need to find out about pricing on. It's in the same range as a K3.
Archie
Emm,
K5 or K3? confused as the website says K5 is much stable but reviews on forums suggest the opposite. Willing to pay extra for the stability and smoothness (not load capacity as I don't need it)
Cameras to be used - T2i, 5DMarkII and maybe BlackMagic with decent lenses.
Tom
jigs, as far as I know, astronomy timelapses with really long exposures actually should have the camera rotate (to match the movement of the night sky), but maybe I'm off base. (of course, a slider would not help for this)
jigs
I guess it couldn't be used for astronomy timelapse either, because it's gradually moving? not good for long exposures, right?
Neil
Other than timelapse applications for which a slow speed would be better, I really don't see the need for a motorized slider - can anyone explain why/how it might be useful? To me it just seems like laziness and/or more time fiddling around with gear instead of just capturing the action and getting on with telling a good story.
Can these motors be set to reliably repeat the same move several times? (i.e. for motion control applications).
Jayhas
Thanks for the post Emm.
Just like to point that this 60-rpm gear motor is not powerful enough to pull the 60D with battery grip all the way up. Had to remove it then it was alright. A 40-45 rpm motor should do fine. No problem at all for the Konova motor but too slow unless you speed up footage by 800% in post, which looks good I must say.