At Interbee 2019 I caught up with Ryan from Ronford Baker to talk about software and the motorization of their slider systems.
There are two differnt versions of the Ronford Baker motorized sliders available depending on your needs. The smaller motor which was released this year is mainly for horizontal slider moves, while the larger heavy duty motor can move camera packages of up to 30kg vertically.
Both Ronford Baker motors come with a zoom control-sized hand unit that you can program for feathered starts and stops. The company is currently working on new software so users will be able to set up and program complicated sequences and other moves.
The motor moves a 4-keyed Mitchell mount along the slider with a toothed belt at speeds from fast 1 ft/sec to slow 1 ft/min. You can add the Motorised Unit to existing Ronford Sliders, or order the complete set. It’s available in lengths from 25” to 96”, and custom lengths as well.
Key features
- Max Load: approx. 70 kg
- Top speed: 1 foot per second (1 meter in 3 seconds)
- Min speed: approx. 1 meter in 3 minutes
- Weight of Slider Motor unit: 6 kg
- Voltage: 24 – 36 V
- Programmable soft stops with adjustable
- feathered starts and stops
- Adjustable speed and direction
- Easily fitted onto any Ronford-Baker slider.
- Hand Controller can be fitted with rosette for pan bar mounting
- Precision ground stainless steel runners and rollers
- Slider SpecificationLengths: 25, 35, 42, 48, 72, 96 inches,
and custom sizes - Mount: Mitchell Flat Base, 150 mm or
- 100 mm Bowl
- Minimum height: 4 ¾” (12 cm).
- Overall width of slider: 10” (25 cm).
- Rotation: lockable rotation of 360 degrees
Image credit: Ronford Baker 
Image credit: Ronford Baker 
Image credit: Ronford Baker
The Ronford Baker system is being used extensively throughout the world. BBC Natural History unit utilizes these systems for a lot of their high end wildlife shoots.
These are certainly not sliders or systems for small cameras. The Ronford Baker motorized sliders are aimed at high-end productions where reliability and performance are paramount.
