The kick-start campaign for the Axibo camera slider from the Canadian company of the same name has almost twice exceeded its target. No wonder, because it is no ordinary slider: with its help a camera can not only be moved horizontally on the slider rail, but can also be panned and tilted by means of appropriate motors.
The clou, however, is his intelligence: via AI (a neural network) he should be able to automatically follow defined objects such as people or cars with the camera. It is the world's first AI-powered camera slider on the market and is intended to function as a kind of personal camera assistant and make moving one-man photo or video shoots possible. With a payload of up to 9kg, the Axibo also works with larger cameras - it works with most modern cameras from Nikon, Sony and Canon, the Panasonic GH5, Canons Cams from the C-Series and new models from Blackmagic.
Axibo Pan/Tilt/Slide
Similar motif tracking functionality for cameras is only available for some current Gimbals including apps like the Active Tracking of the 
DJI Ronin SC One-handed Gimbals, but then of course without the horizontal camera movement.
The advantage of the Axibos over these is that it does not need an external app (including smartphone) for intelligent control during shooting, as it has a built-in camera with controller intelligence. The setup, however, is done via special iOS, Android, macOS or Windows App. In order to use certain lenses, the Axibo can also use the camera feed for tracking.
According to Axibo, the tracker should also be able to follow motifs correctly when light situations change and when objects are partially hidden. It should also be able to distinguish the person defined as the subject from others and thus only track them.
The special pan/tilt/slide capabilities of the Axibo are of course also interesting for time-lapse shots, e.g. of sky objects. The Axibo's integrated camera can automatically adjust the exposure to changing lighting conditions. The complete Axibo consists of several components: the Z1 Pan and Tilt Unit, the 1 metre long S10 camera rail, the C1 Controller and the associated cables.
The campaign still runs for 30 days. The Axibo is available in versions with different capabilities: as a pure Pan and Tilt model (Early Bird price: 903 Euro), as a pure Slider (Early Bird price: 818 Euro) and as a model with all three functions (Pan, Tilt and Slide) at the Super Early Bird price of 1445 Euro. Delivery is scheduled for April 2020.
As always, however, our general warning against kickstart projects: it can happen that a project does not come to a successful end and the (already paid for) product is not delivered - in the worst case the money of the crowdfunder is gone.
Bild zur Newsmeldung:
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