We all want the one size fits all but when it comes to motion one motor to suit all is a tough one particularly on a budget be it for financial or power consumption savings..
Speed, efficiency, strength & accuracy, these are the tasks at hand to make the shot happen. Speed being the most influential of the lot. Unfortunately the automatic gear boxes we enjoy while driving are not readily available for small scale inexpensive motors, not to mention the size, expense and weight this would add. Therefor to get a revolution per month timelapse vs feet traveled in second highspeed there will need to be some gear changes in-between..
DC Motors Available and what they do best
1 RPM EZ Swap DC Motor
(top R rotation: 120deg/minute - top 0/1 speed: 3inch/minute)
This is a Super-Slow and Super-Strong specialty motor that can be used for Stage R rotary and Stage Zero & One sliders, it's particularly good at moving heavy loads 20+ pounds for timelapse film projects. It would only be good for extreme macro video work as the movement is very subtle at top speeds.
3 RPM EZ Swap DC Motor
(top R rotation: 360deg/minute - top 0/1 speed: 9inch/minute)
This is a good middle of the road motor for Stage R rotary units, it can do timelapse well and get up to 90 degrees of rotation in 15 seconds which is a nice controlled real-time pan/tilt particularly for longer focal lengths. On the slider side it's a bit of an odd duck, it would be excellent for timelapse and macro video but the 8 RMP makes more sense as it can hit real-time speeds better than the 3 and still produce timelapse speeds.
8 RPM EZ Swap DC Motor
(top R rotation: 16deg/second - top 0/1 speed: 24inch/minute)
This is a good middle of the road motor for the Stage Zero and One slider systems, it can do timelapse well and produce a controlled slower real-time slide particularly for longer focal lengths. It also makes a great real-time motor for the Stage R units with good rotational speed for many situations.
21 RPM EZ Swap DC Motor
(top R rotation: 40deg/second - top 0/1 speed: 63 inch/minute)
This is a good real-time motor for Stage Zero and One slider systems and a faster real-time motor for Stage R rotary units. This motor can do timelapse okay on a slider but ONLY in SMS mode and it will be difficult to get very fine resolution moves. It won't work at all for Stage R timelapse, but if speedy pans are what you need this would be the right match at 40 degrees per second!
42 RPM EZ Swap DC Motor
(top R rotation: 80deg/second - top 0/1 speed: 126 inch/minute)
This is an excellent speedier real-time motor for Stage Zero and One slider systems, it's really too fast for Stage R rotary.. One would have to be shooting at a higher frame rate to get smooth pans at these speeds.
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