Fstoppers Reviews the Edelkrone Slider Plus, the Ultimate Travel Slider

If you shoot video, you know that sliders make all the difference. I personally love the cinematic production value you can get out of a slider; the kind of shots you can produce are those that really elevate the end product. However, sliders can be large and obtrusive, not to mention difficult to travel with. When I saw that Edelkrone's SliderPlus promised to deliver that quality I was looking for but remain compact, I couldn't wait to try it out.

Edelkrone advertises their SliderPlus as "the first slider you can fit in your life," and for my life, that's 100% accurate. When traveling, I do my best to fit my entire kit into one small rolling bag and a backpack. Before I had the SliderPlus, that meant I wasn't bringing a slider with me. Bringing one of any decent sliding distance meant either carrying it on in a separate bag or increasing the size of my roller (which means no more carry-on). That was not something I was willing to do. But now I no longer have to make that sacrifice, and my slider comes with me everywhere.

Edelkrone has three sizes: small which gives 40cm, medium which gives 60cm and large which gives 80cm of travel. For this review, I had the small.

If you visit Edelkrone.com, you'll notice that the SliderPlus is a V2. I spoke to some folks who played with the V1, and it had an unfortunate crippling flaw. The original belt used on the sliding mechanism was made of rubber and had the unfortunate problem of remembering the resting phase, denting the rubber at a certain point and causing the slider to stick and jump in two places along the sliding path. This made for a curious product, but in the end unusable.

Edelkrone fixed this problem in the V2 by ditching the rubber belt in favor of a woven cloth design. The cloth has no sticking issue, is no less effective than the original rubber and results in a stellar finished product.

The build quality is outstanding. Made of 100% CNC machined aluminum parts, uses temperature treated aluminum rods and rides on a frictionless system of steel ball bearings, the SliderPlus V2 is light weight while remaining sturdy and reliable. I'm never afraid of breaking the slider and I feel like it can take whatever I throw at it.

Something cool you can do with the SliderPlus that you can't do with many other sliders is shoot at a downward angle while sliding with the rails. Because the SliderPlus rails move with you as you slide, the back end of the slider actually falls behind the front of the lens. This is a sweet bonus for those already enamored with the design.

If you want to motorize the SliderPlus, you can but you'll have to use Edelkrone's Wizard Module. There are other mechanisms out there that motorize most other sliders, but due to the unusual design those are likely incompatible with Edelkrone's SliderPlus.

The only thing I can really knock the SliderPlus for is the limitation of use: you can't really expect to use this on anything other than a tripod. Because of the design, the slider won't give you that beautiful double-distance unless the middle base is secured to something, otherwise you only get the actual length of the slider. For me, this wasn't a big deal. I nearly always tripod my slider. But I know many folks really like the ability to pop a slider off a tripod and plop it on a table, especially if you're shooting in compact environments. I also will miss the ability to get right down on the floor, having instead to be limited to as low as my tripod will go down to.

This is one of those products that really doesn't require much else said... it really sells itself. If keeping a compact kit while retaining the same quality of gear you would expect in the largest of studios is important to you, then getting a SliderPlus is a no brainer.

What I liked:
Build quality is great
Excellent and ingenious design
Packs down small
Light weight
Beautifully smooth sliding action

What could use improvement:
Sliding distance is only maximized when slider is on a tripod

The Edelkrone SliderPlus V2 is a solid home run, and a great improvement over the original design's ground roll double. Because of the improved pulley system using cloth instead of rubber, there are few downsides to this slider for the traveling cinematographer. Small, light weight, sturdy and smooth, the SliderPlus is one of my new favorite pieces of gear, and one that I see living in my travel kit for a long time.

The SliderPlus V2 is available from B&H for $499 for the small, $599 for the medium, and $699 for the large.