Ever since I saw Timescapes by Tom Lowe, I have been in love with timelapse photography. My latest timelapse film was roughly 500 gigabytes of raw photos taken with my Canon 7D of the mountains and forest fires in Colorado, which you can watch here.
Konova recently announced their Smart Motion Controller, a motorized system that bolts onto any Konova slider. If you’ve seen my review of the Konova K3B2 slider, you’ll know I consider it better than the Kessler and Cinevate options at that price.
Konova sent me the Smart Motion Pan Tilt Controller Bundle B to try out and review. I’m not being paid by them for any of this. The full review is coming, but first, here’s what actually comes in the box.
Fair warning: I had genuinely not looked inside before hitting record, so this is an adventure for both of us. Consider it Christmas.
The Motor
First thing out is the geared DC motor, which is the piece that actually drives the slider.
Check the box label, because the gear ratio is printed there with a checkbox next to it. Mine is 264:1, which is the standard ratio Konova ships. The higher ratios trade speed for torque and finer steps, so 264:1 is a good general purpose choice and should be great for timelapses.
The Crank Handle And Belt Kit
Next box is the crank handle and belt kit, which is going to be incredibly useful. I’m not going through any of this in a sensible order, by the way.
A tip on opening these: everything is heavily wrapped, which is good, but it does mean you’re cutting through a lot of packaging. Cut away from yourself, and cut shallow, because the objective is to not slice the thing you just paid for. That is frowned upon.
Cables, Adapters, And Stoppers
This bag is where the small parts live, and it’s the part of an unboxing where nobody knows what anything is yet. In here:
- Stoppers, which tell the controller where to stop at each end of the rail
- A camera adapter
- A camera trigger wire, in my case one that fits the Canon 7D
- An extension wire, presumably for the camera cable
- A belt adjustment piece
- Assorted mounting hardware
There’s also a length of bungee rope in here that I could not identify at all on camera, and something that looks like a speed ramping part. Both of those get figured out in the setup video.
The Belts
Konova sent two belts in different lengths, one for an 80 centimeter slider and one for a 150 centimeter slider. My plan is the 150 for timelapses, where I want the longest possible move across a long exposure sequence, and the 80 for regular shoots where I’m carrying less and moving faster.
I did not expect the belt to be gray. That’s kind of cool.
Power
The battery pack comes in its own little bag with a carry strap, which I like.
Open it up and it takes 12 AA batteries. So I’ll be putting in an order for approximately eight hundred of them. But I’m genuinely glad it’s AAs and not some proprietary cell, because on location you can buy AAs anywhere in the world and you cannot buy a discontinued Konova battery anywhere at all. It also has a belt clip, so I can walk around looking trendy with it if I want.
There’s also a proper power adapter in the kit, complete with an international travel adapter. That’s a bigger deal than it sounds: it means that whenever there’s an outlet nearby I don’t have to burn through batteries and hope they hold out for a two hour sequence. That will save me real money over time.
The Controller Itself
And here’s the actual Smart Pan Tilt Controller, with a setup guide, which who reads instructions these days. (I will absolutely be reading it later.)
It’s a little smaller than I expected, which is a good thing. The grip feels genuinely nice, form fitted padding, and they clearly put some work into it. It is metal on the sides with plastic on the top, so it doesn’t feel like a toy.
And that is an Xbox thumbstick. I don’t care who you are, that is exactly what that is, and it’s exactly what I want to be steering a pan and tilt head with. The buttons are up to increase, down to decrease, plus left and right. There’s a tripod screw on it, and it doesn’t take batteries of its own, so it’s all running off the pack.
What’s Next
Now I get to assemble the whole thing, which is its own video: here’s the full Smart Motion Controller setup and review, where all the mystery parts from that little bag finally get identified.
The rest of my Konova coverage, if you’re deciding on a motion system:
- The Konova K3B2 slider review, which is the rail all of this bolts onto
- The Konova Smart Head setup tutorial and review
- The Konova Master Pan unboxing
- The Konova Radial Dolly review, the best tabletop dolly I have used
And here’s what this rig is for: the Colorado wildfire timelapses that started this whole obsession.
You can see the full kit contents on Konova’s product page for Bundle B.
Interested in having me film a review of your company’s gear? Please get in touch.
This unboxing is from August 2013, so the Bundle B contents and Konova’s product line have both changed since, and the Amazon listing may point at a newer revision. Treat this as a record of what the original bundle shipped with rather than a current packing list.
Ethics statement: Konova sent me this bundle to review and did not pay me for the video or this post. Some of the links above are affiliate links.