Smooth Moves: Bright Devices ShotShifter Camera Slider Excels in Tight Spots

Reviews

Sometimes I feel like that elderly uncle who grumbles in the corner about the old days. "In my time, we didn't have…"

In the near-decade of my career as a cinematographer, and indeed in the decade leading up to that point, I had never heard of a slider. Dollies galore. Steadicam? Sure. We fashioned our own low-budget stabilizer eons ago. I had worked with crème de la crème dollies like J.L. Fisher and Chapman/Leonard; I had worked with cranes and jibs, doorway dollies, wheelchairs, shopping carts, furniture moving carts, office chairs—pretty much anything with wheels that could move a camera.

Once upon a time I even experimented with strapping a camera to my Big Track Fully Programmable Electronic Vehicle toy—to, more or less, mediocre results.

But … camera sliders? Suddenly, in the last four or five years—just like those little burgers that are showing up in every other restaurant—camera sliders are all the rage. I immediately saw some limited applications, but I wondered how useful these tools might be in real-world settings.


	(L-R) Cinematographer Jayson Crothers, actress Becka Adams and 1st assistant camera David Levine with RED MX on the 36" ShotShifter in a small bathroom.

I was surprised at the ShotShifter's simplicity of design. It's merely two aluminum curved rails mounted to a flat platform on which a carriage rides, guided by nylon fittings riding right on the aluminum; there are no bearings and no wheels. The carriage has a single threaded bolt that tightens down to lock it in place. There is no way to adjust the sliding tension or drag, which is unfortunate. If I tried to do a quick move, the drag fought me the whole way. It seems to be designed for very slow to medium-slow moves. At that speed, ShotShifter is very smooth.

The ShotShifter has several mounting options. It comes with a set of threaded bolts that screw into one of three positions in the base of the Shifter and then slip right into the head of your tripod and can be tightened down by the tripod's threaded lock-down. The head on the carrier is designed to accept a 100mm bowl fluid head, and the head's threading goes right into the carrier. I had difficulty with my Manfrotto 519 head as the threads—even with a 100mm to 75mm bowl adapter—were too long. I found that if I turned the bowl adapter upside down I could get a tight fit and work with the head.


	From Jay Holben's shoot, a Canon EOS 7D on the ShotShifter

The second mounting choice comes from end caps that attach to the Shifter track and have 5/8" holes with lock-down nuts to attach to the spuds of light stands or C-stands. This is certainly helpful; when the camera gets to the extreme edges of the slider track, even with the 36" model, the weight can tip a tripod over, especially when you are exerting the force necessary to slide the carriage on its nylon "bearings."

Although the ShotShifter—or any slider—won't replace a traditional dolly, I was able to use the ShotShifter in some very tight situations to get camera moves where a traditional dolly, jib or even a Steadicam would never work. Shooting a scene in a residential bathroom, cinematographer Jayson Crothers and I found ourselves in very tight quarters, but I was looking for camera movement that would go from an over-the-shoulder of actress Becka Adams to a profile shot. Even handheld was difficult within the confines of the bathroom, but the slider worked beautifully. We pushed the limits of the slider by mounting a RED MX camera for that shot. I wouldn't recommend using the ShotShifter with such a heavy camera, but it did work for us for several similar shots. Impressive.

There are some issues, especially with only nylon to ride against aluminum. If the track gets dusty or dirty, it can clog the action very quickly. There's no easy way to clean it, and the nylon picks up any dirt or dust along the way.

It would be great to have rubber stops at the end of the track for a softer landing. As with any slider system—or really any camera moving device—the carriage takes a portion of the travel space, so you get about 30" of travel from the 36" track and about 14" of travel from the 20" track.

If I were selecting a slider system, I would prefer one with more elegant design that doesn't rely solely on nylon friction for the sliding. A bearing or wheel system would be best—and one on which I can adjust the drag and tension.

The most disappointing aspect of the ShotShifter is the price. The 36" Shifter is $990—about four times more than I would be comfortable paying, and more than double the closest competition.

Bright Devices ShotShifter

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