Edelkrone have updated their revolutionary slider. The SliderPLUS v2 is now all black, smaller and lighter.

For anyone who hasn’t seen the Edelkrone in action, just watch the above video. It’s the first slider to utilize this type of technology, providing you with a slider that’s 2 thirds the physical size of it’s capable operating length.

Edelkrone call it a non friction ball bearing tracking system. Compromised of steel ball bearings, and heat treated aluminium.

The slider (as before) comes in two sizes; small & medium. Here are the specs of the two:

How does this compare to the old one? I’ll use the larger sized versions (both current and previous) for the sake of simplistic comparison. The previous SliderPlus XL came in at 2.2kg, 1.7 feet long in physical size and capable of 3 feet of slide when mounted on a tripod. As you can see above the SlidePLUS v2 medium is 0.5 kg lighter, 0.7 foot shorter in physical length, and a foot shorter in sliding length. Comparative savings are made on the smaller model also.

I’ve used the SliderPLUS XL (older mark) and I had a few issues with it, some I hope they’ve fixed, some I know they haven’t.

Firstly, one 3/8″ mounting screw on the bottom is simply not enough. No matter how tight you get that one screw, with the amount of leverage you have from a slider, it’s inevitable that any sideways movement will loosen this screw. Adding another screw point to the under carriage will fix this.

Secondly is an issue that occurs when you have the slider placed on the floor. Due to the design of the slider, the under carriage has to be able to move freely, which isn’t possible with a tripod plate mounted on the slider. This means that in order to use the slider on the floor, you have to remove the tripod plate. This is frustrating if you’re shooting fast, and want to switch between tripod and floor setups quickly.

The solution here would be for Edelkrone to supply longer feet bringing the device higher off the ground, thus freeing up more space for the under carriage to function with a plate on the bottom. The feet offer very little adjustment any way, so this would be a warmly welcomed modification. I can’t confirm that this hasn’t been addressed with the v2, but it’s not listed in the specification, as they don’t look any different in the pictures.

The lock switch has been re-designed. This is good news, the previous lock switch was tricky to access and activate.  It’s worth noting that the previous switch only enabled you to lock the carriage in the center position, not anywhere on the rail like conventional sliders. Not clear which way the v2 is inclined, but it looks as if it’s the same as the v1 in that it only locks in the center.

Lastly, I really struggled with getting smooth, straight, consistent slides with the SliderPLUS XL (v1).  It seemed the cogs on each end were offering additional friction that was reflected in footage in the ways of both stickiness and inconsistent speed. I don’t wish to dwell on this point too much, as I did not adjust the slider to attempt to fix this, which could have rectified the issue, (I did not have sufficient tools on me to carry out this task).

The v2 seems to have two cogs per side now (as appose to 1 per side on the v1) so this is hopefully a sign that the issue has been addressed and fixed. First hand experience will tell.

With a few more tweaks, this could be a killer slider.  It’s a shame they didn’t add an additional screw thread and longer feet. With this in mind I think it’s hard for v1 owners to justify the upgrade. Unless the dual cog design on the v2 fixes what is a fundamental flaw with the design of the v1, then I can see the point.

Edelkrone no longer lists the v1 in their store, so I can’t compare prices directly. From memory it hasn’t changed in price. The v2 is available from the Edelkrone store for $499 and $599, respective of the two sizes.