By day, the MOZA Slypod Pro is a regular monopod. By night, it becomes a powerful motorised camera slider and jib arm…
(Image credit: MOZA)
Actually, we’ve seen the MOZA Slypod design already – it’s in our guide to the best camera sliders – but the Slypod Pro is something new. It’s a much more advanced version that combines an electronic slider and fully adjustable jib arm for controlled camera movements while filming at any angle, including horizontal, vertical (or even diagonal, by the look of it) panning movements.
And when you’re not carrying out any fancy camera movements and you just need a bit of support, the Slypod Pro can also be used as a regular monopod with a powered upper section for height adjustment.
It comes with a mini tripod base for vertical monopod style filming, but it can be attached to the side of the Slypod Pro for slider movements. More likely, you’ll attach the Slypod Pro horizontally to the head of a full size video tripod, especially if you need to work at normal heights with heavier cine gear.
The motorised ‘slider’ section is controlled electronically with smooth internal gearing, and extends up to a maximum of 530mm for a total length of 1,460mm. As a slider, it gives you (we guess) half a meter of camera movement, but used as a jib arm mounted on a tripod it offers a much greater total extension for filming at all sorts of awkward angles.
MOZA says the Slypod Pro can be controlled with one hand, or remotely via its companion smartphone app. Camera movements can be programmed in and you can perform precise movements at variable speeds.
The Slypod Pro is made from carbon fibre and folds down to a size designed to fit in a backpack. It looks like a very useful multi-function device for videographers who need to travel light and adapt quickly to different filming situations.
MOZA already makes a whole range of stabilising gimbals and video camera supports, but it’s launching the Slypod Pro as a kickstarter project. We already have an early sample for testing and will bring you a review shortly.
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In the meantime, you can find out more on MOZA’s Slypod Pro Kickstarter page, where there will be special pricing for early birds.
UPDATE: We're told that the Slypod Pro has been fully funded five minutes from launch!
The Slypod Pro is currently being offered to backers at a price of $499, which is $100 off the full retail price when the kickstarter campaign ends, 29 days from launch.
Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com
