Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
What’s a quick way to liven up a boring looking video? Use a slider for stabilized motion! I just bought the Neewer ER-1 motorized camera slider so I’ll be testing it out and providing my honest review.
Neewer ER-1 Slider Details
This review and tutorial will focus on the 80 cm length but the Neewer ER1 slider also comes in 100cm (39.4″) and 120cm (47.2″) lengths. One thing to note is that the 80 and 100cm sliders don’t come with a remote, but the 120 does. You can buy the remote separately though, which I chose to do and will cover in a next section.
For all lengths, the slider has a horizontal load capacity of 5 kg / 11 lbs. If the slider is tilted at a 45 degree angle, then the load capacity is reduced to 2.5 kg / 5.5 lbs.
As for the weight of the slider, the 80 cm slider comes in at 5.3 lbs or 2.4 kilograms while the 100cm is 5.9 lbs/2.7 kg and the 120 cm is 6.1 pounds/2.76 kilograms.
What’s Included
The ER1-80 comes with a nice padded bag. It has a carrying strap but no shoulder straps. It’s not the most rugged of bags.
The case includes padded foam and 2 straps to keep the slider in place.
The case even has a cut out for the optional remote. Let me do an overview of the remote really quick in case you’re wondering about it.
It’s really simple with the screen, 4 way joystick, enter button, back button, power button, and take a photo button. It also has a USB-C port to charge.
The slider comes with 6 shutter release cables: C1, C3, N1, N3, S1, S2 for different types of cameras. The cables connect the slider to the camera so that you can do things like timelapses with the slider.
The slider also includes a standard ball head. However, it doesn’t have a quick release plate since loosening and tightening the plate to the ballhead requires some time. Another thing I didn’t like about the plate is that you need a tool to tighten the plate to the camera. As a comparison, I have another quick release plate that just quickly and easily pops out, and there’s a ring at the bottom of the plate to easily hand tighten the connection between the plate and camera without extra tools. So you might want to use your own tripod head with the slider.
Also included is a USB-C Battery Charger and a NP-F550 Battery. I do like that the battery charger has a nice graphical display to indicate the status of the battery.
There’s also extra screws and a hex key.
And of course we have the main attraction which is the slider.
There are adjustable feet if you want to set the slider on the ground. Each foot is also height adjustable. There’s also multiple connection points to attach to different mounts. This model of the slider was prebuilt. I did not have to thread the belt through the motor. You can adjust the tension of the belt by twisting knobs on the slider.
Pairing
Let’s start off with pairing the slider to the Neewer iPhone app. The process is to make sure Bluetooth is enabled on the phone. Then go into the Neewer app and tap the plus button.
I did have some trouble with initial pairing to the iphone. And the direction are sparse. The circle would keep swirling.
But a reboot of the slider fixed the issue. I was a little apprehensive because some of the reviews say the app keeps disconnecting. But after the initial connection. I didn’t have any problems with the slider disconnecting.
Next, I tried pairing the slider to the optional remote control. To pair to the remote control hold down the Power and photo buttons together and turn on the slider. Pairing to the remote also didn’t work on the first try but again. Rebooting the slider and attempting again was successful.
Slider Performance:
Now, let’s talk about the slider performance. The slider is made of carbon fiber and aluminum alloy. The carbon fiber allows the slider to be more lightweight and absorb vibrations. While the aluminum alloy adds structural integrity and strength.
The slider does seem sturdy. I tested the slider mounted on a tripod. There is a slight tilt due to weight shift but it performed better than I expected. There wasn’t too much off a wobble as the camera reached the ends of the slider. But if you do get the 100 or 120 cm length sliders and intend to use it on a tripod, then you’ll definitely need to get the slider support arms to stabilize the slide. Or you can of course mount the slider between two tripods.
Speed test
The slider gives you a range between 0 to 100. Watch the above video to see what the slider is like at different speeds.
Noise test
Off the bat I have to say that the motor is quiet. At 100 percent speed there is a definite audible sound. But lower it down to 90 percent and it is absolutely buttery smooth silent.
Jitter test
The slider allows you to track or pan shots by adjusting the middle bar.
The below one star review by ocean says “The camera slider is just about perfect if you don’t need it to track or pan. Thats when the jittery camera motion kicks in.” So that made me a little worried.
But I did not find this to be the case in my tests. I’m not a professional and don’t know what I’m doing but I still managed to get nice smooth shots. It’s best if you’re tracking large objects because the area of view does drift.
Functions of the Slider
Now lets take a deeper looking into what the app and remote allow the slider to do. Both the app and remote functions are essentially broken into 3 categories: Video, Timelapse, and Manual.
Manual Mode:
In Manual mode for both the remote and app, you can set the gradient and speed. Gradient (or “movement selection” in the app) refers to if you want the slide to ease in and out at the start/end of the movement. Gradient set to N or Movement selection set to Constant means that the slider will go from 0 to your set speed immediately and potentially abruptly. Gradient set to Y or Movement selection set to Slow means that the slider will gradually get up to the set speed when starting and will gradually slow down when ending the slide, providing for a nice smooth motion.
Once you’re ready to begin the slide, select start and press the remote joystick right once (or tap the right arrow on the app) to start the slider moving to the right. Press the remote joystick right again (or tap the right arrow on the app again) to pause the right motion. Press the remote joystick left (or tap the left arrow on the app) to start the slider moving to the left. Press the remote joystick left again (or tap the left arrow on the app again) to pause the left movement.
Video Mode
Before I start with the video mode, there’s one thing I need to mention. You can set 2 positions on the slider, called Points A and B. What’s odd is that you can set the A and B points via the app but not with the remote. Based on the remote instruction manual, it seems like you may be able to for the older VS80/VS100WS 2.4G sliders, but for this ER-1 slider, I couldn’t find a way to do that. It may be user error though so please comment below if you know how to set the A and B points via the remote!
Alright so let’s start with Video mode on the phone app so that I can set my A and B points. Tap on the Customize button to set the A and B points. Once the points have been set, you can specify on the app or remote whether you want the movement to go from point A to point B or point B to point A. Using the remote will abide by the points that were set in app.
For both the app and remote, you can set whether the slider’s motion will loop or not. If it doesn’t loop then the slider will just stop after it completes is movement to point A or B.
You can set the gradient/movement selection, as described in the manual mode above.
In video mode, you don’t set the slider speed directly like as in manual mode. Instead, you set the duration of how long you want the one way movement of the slide to last. The slider will then calculate the speed at which it needs to go to get between the A and B points based on the duration you specified.
To start, press the Start button in the app or select start on the remote and then push the enter button.
With the app, you can save your current positions and settings as a favorite by tapping on the heart icon. You can rename your favorites for better organization. To access and reload your favorite settings tap the folder icon.
Timelapse Mode
A timelapse is a video technique where photos or frames are captured at set intervals and played back quickly to make slow events appear to happen much faster.
In the timelapse mode, you can set the following:
- Move to (remote) or Point A/B settings (app): Set where the slider moves to either point A or B. In the app, you can customize the positions of point A or B.
- FPS: frames per second. For the resulting video, how many pictures should make up one second of video? 30, 60, or 120 fps seem to be the options.
- Film duration: How long do you want your final video to be?
- Exposure (remote) or Shutter speed (app): Set the shutter speed of the camera when the camera’s shutter speed is set to “Bulb”.
- Interval: The amount of time that passes between each photo taken. Make sure this is longer than your shutter speed.
Based on your inputs, the slider will perform calculations to let you know how many pictures will need to be taken and how long the whole process will take. Once you get your images, it’ll be up to you to put them all together into a timelapse video.
Conclusion
In my testing, everything seemed to run smoothly. I didn’t notice any jitter and the motor noise was negligible. For the price, the Neewer ER-1 slider is hard to beat. As a solo creator, the motorized feature will help me to step up my product reviews and to create more cinematic shots.
