Gadgetory

hey everyone this is Jimmy with James Revere room the some of you may have recently asked or stated how do I get such smooth panning and sliding shots well let me tell you a little secret it's the genie from syrup it's another Kickstarter company that I'm reviewing that's been very successful in its funding and I love working with startup companies with genius ideas that are practical priced at 889 dollars retail from syrup code that's NZ or obtainable from BH photo comm here in the States this is one of those tools for the beginners to the advanced pros so without further ado let's go over its pros and cons first things first what you have on the screen is what comes in the box and before really starting to review when doing research on the genie I noticed a lot of videos were promoting time lapses which the genie looks great at doing but my review is based on what I personally use this for and uses for real-time videography specifically reviews on consumer electronics now in the box they do provide a painting mount which I use extensively which pans the camera left to right and vice versa and what makes this even more unique is its ability to transfer to a linear mount for a rail or slider shots right on the fly the unit itself I gotta admit does feel quite hefty I don't have a digital scale but I feel like it weighs about three pounds or so and because it's built in such a nice tight box here the weights concentrated making it feel quite heavy that's something very important to account for when you do have to consider weight load limits on either your tripod or video head especially the small tripods and video heads that are available now let's outer shell is all metal with a fixed 3/8 thread to mount your video head to and there's a silicone like material to prevent whatever you attach from sliding with a balance and bubble on top that conveniently lights up when the unit isn't use now starting with the side you do have connections for your time-lapse a USB port for firmware updates unless is a 3 and 1/2 millimeter input for unfortunately unknown purposes it wasn't disclosed in the instructions now the charging port is on the other side and serve does send all the input power adapters for your country or region and it takes approximately three hours to charge from a dead battery and the battery lasts up to seven hours per serie now from mine usage I recorded video every other day or every three days at maximum and on a full charge using it for the past month I've been only able to drain it just half its battery so it's been very impressive for my use now on the very back is the locking and quick release button to change from a painting mount to a linear mount the mounts themselves I literally just leave on my tripods just by screwing them down with the built-in handle and it's so easy to unclick and move to the next location again just by unclicking and snapping it into place now the panning plate can connect to a 3/8 or 1/4 inch thread however the linear plate is only 3/8 in size now going over its menu features again the genie is really made for the most basic videographers to providing enough versatility for advanced professionals now when powering on the first option is time-lapse clicking okay on the right reveals new recording that you can perform and at the very bottom are three presets already made for you but showing the new recording since it's identical to the saved ones here you set the total time you want to record the interval of when you camera will take a picture which I have here set at every five seconds and last is how many degrees will this rotate and you can save this as a preset and name it to your choosing for future use and in the Advanced Settings you can fine-tune the shot delay and have features like taking HDR photos again I don't use the time-lapse feature for my business but here's a clip from syrups website on what it can do though now moving to real-time video capturing specifically panning you can fully customize this in a new recording you select how long in time you want to record for and in that given time how many degrees do you need your camera to rotate now save it as a preset and it's as simple as that you'll get shots like this as you see on your screen and like I said I'd use this mainly for reviews for consumer electronics you can see how slow it goes in a perfect smooth movement even previously using a fluid head with resistance my men frodo 5:02 HD which is priced at $200 apiece without the tripod legs achieved almost near perfection in Japan's but again obviously not as precise as a genie and for my testing and review the penny each and every time has been perfect and with the flexibility of speed all penny needs that you or I may have will be met though but where you see the biggest bang for your buck and that only does pans but also slides as well it's based on this linear plate that you attach right onto your slider system the play consists of a three meter or 9.8 linear feet of rope that's supplied in the Box a Velcro attachment goes on either end of the slider and the rope is then tied to each side again the same concept with setting how long in time you want to capture and how far in distance you want the genie to travel now with these two inputs this fully controls the speed in what you want but a slider is just the beginning and I personally don't do this stuff but if you're handy enough you can build these amazing at home rigs that you can do over the air shots or what's also featured on their website you can install a 3/8 thread onto a board with wheels or a skateboard in this matter and you can have nearly an unlimited amount of distance depending on how much rope you can tie off now with the test and review of the linear feature I noticed once in a while there wouldn't be enough tension on the ropes in turn the motor would spin freely and can't pull itself to either side now at first this would happen once in a while but eventually over time you'll develop a better technique to make sure the ropes are tight not a true issue as it pertains to user error but again the concept or design does rely heavily on ensuring those ropes are set up just right though now for all features time-lapse panning and linear movements you can set up auto start now for me it's ideal to set up everything press Start and then run into the camera shot and after a few seconds this will start the movement you can either set up a countdown timer or you can set up a time and date of when the movements are to occur almost like a self timer but of course the ideas are limitless the only thing that I would could really see that stood out and was a bothersome was the buttons and it's software isn't as fast as I'd like i press a menu button and then I move on to the next screen to fast it will become unresponsive but if I move at a slower pace than it responds and instead of showing my settings and then to edit I have to go to a different menu I wish I could just select the info right then and there and change it if need be and one big question that people ask me can it do both pan and linear movements and unfortunately it cannot do that but to be honest those are just suggestions on a machine that does very very well at its current build version the genie has more features that a standalone motor that sold by other motorized companies has it's cheaper and the versatility is much greater in my opinion it's only limited by what you can imagine so that's it be sure to LIKE subscribe and comment below as every little bit helps and bring you more content and be sure to find me on Facebook Twitter and Google+ for behind-the-scenes stuff and for more information on this product you can contact syrup with the link below in the video description this is Jimmy with Jim's review room take everyone by