Edelkrone SurfaceONE Robot - "Roomba" For Photographers

Turkish manufacturer Edelkrone just introduced a new and interesting addition to its lineup – a small, portable square little remote controlled robot which can carry your camera across any flat surface smoothly and controlled using an app to add motion to videos and movement in Timalapses.

Adding motion to your videos can help you elevate your work to a professional level. There are plenty of tools to do this – sliders, jibs, gimbals – all have some form of limitation and most are not super portable. Edelkrone decided to make a very versatile accessory which will be extremely portable but still give you a great deal of capability – at least when it comes to shooting on flat surfaces (floors, tables countertops etc.).

Edelkrone SurfaceONE – controlled with an app

The new SurfaceONE announced this week looks a little bit like a small version of the cleaning robot by iRobot but is actually designed especially for videographers who want a really small tool they can take with them that will add to their ability to create movement in their shots.

So what can the SurfaceONE do?

It can use a built in laser system to set up a target in move in a circle around it at a specific distance (to keep it in focus at all times).
You can set up a speed for the movement in a circle or straight line.
You can make the unit pan in 360 degrees.
You can use a cable to connect to your camera and shoot timelapses with motion across any distance (as long as you have a flat surface and enough battery life – the unit uses a single Canon LP-E6 battery to operate).

The unit is made from Aluminium uses BT and supports Andriod (version 5 and above) and iOS (with support for Apple smart watches coming in the future).

How the SurfaceONE laser system works

The SurfaceONE sells for about $690 – not exactly inexpensive (you need to add another $160 for the special Edelkrone FlexTilt head although you can use a normal ballhead if you have one). It is, however, a fairly unique product with its diverse capabilities.

You can check out more of our coverage of Edelkrone’s products as well as more new HDSLR related products on our HDSLR gear section.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.