WASTED MONEY | Rhino Arc II Slider System 

Thanks for the support and good luck finding something else!

Good luck with another company!

Same here!

Glad I could help!

Glad i can help 👍🏽

You’re welcome!

Hai Tran from everything I’ve read, the way, way, way less expensive Neewer motorized slider (the new one that is apparently very quiet) is the way to go if you can live with it’s lesser functionality. It doesn’t have all the features of something like the Arc II but when you look at what you get for the price (and far fewer hassles) it seems like a good deal. That’s the way I’m tempted to go right now.

I'm holding out for the Edelkrone system but I'll have to wait until there's a good sale!

Glad I could help. Hopefully, you’ll be able to find something that works for you.

Glad I could help!

I’ve used the HeadPlus, SliderPlus Pro V5, Slide Module V3 and the system is leaps and bounds ahead of the Rhino.

When making big investments, customer service really comes into play. Sure, mistakes can be made but if I'm spending big money with you, make the situation right 👍🏽

You're welcome!

Yeah, the hardware seems to be mostly there. If only they can get the firmware at a place that works for everyone. You’d think a few years on the market would be enough.

You’re welcome! Good luck with something else 👍🏽

Glad I could help 👍🏽

You’re welcome and good luck with something else 👍🏽

I have not. I use edelkrone products now.

Good luck elsewhere!

Best of luck! Do thorough research as it's a lot of money to be messing with 👍🏽

That may be the case. I’m not the only non-sponsored reviewer that had some major problems and had to return everything.

Hai Tran i always told myself electronics like these will fail but Rhino was the exception guess I was wrong. Seeing all those RU-vids review it no problem. Even the Gerled undone guy.

Who knows, maybe quality control has gone down since all the other reviews. The system has been around for awhile now.

Ultimately, it just comes down to the user. You yourself have had issues and had to do multiple exchanges. But, you’re willing to wait for and are hopeful for the day when the system delivers everything promised. However, there are plenty of people who are not willing to wait for that day. It’s a lot to suggest for someone to invest thousands of dollars into what may or may not come. For example, more than two key frames were promised before the product even officially released. This was something advertised during Kickstarter. How many years ago was that? Will Rhino sort their issues out? Maybe. I’m just worried that by the time that they do, the system will be outdated and they’d be left in the dust. There are some pretty apparent issues with the system. Rhino needs to work FAST to sort things out to not only make their current customers happy but to also attract potential customers. I wish you the best with your purchase. Hopefully, those updates will be coming soon.

@@HaiTran I agree that it comes down to the user and what they're willing to put up with. Had Edelkrone been the clear winner, a lot of reviewers wouldn't have switched to Rhino. Both companies and systems have their issues. Neither is perfect. This is from an email that Kyle Hart of Rhino sent out about a month ago: "... I've been primarily communicating on our Storytellers Facebook Group (facebook.com/groups/RhinoStoryTellers). For those of you that aren't on there I wanted to share the post I made back in June to get you up to speed on where we're at as a company. The good news is that we've made a lot of progress since then and have hired up a new embedded systems team and are making good progress on firmware. If you want to follow that, head over to the Storytellers Group. If you want to hear the story on Arc II, feel free to read below." Hey guys, once again I’m sorry I haven’t been very active on here. I tend to put my head down working on issues and only communicate when I find a resolution but that leaves you guys in the dust. I hear you guys. You feel left out and abandoned and want to know what’s going on. I’m going to change that starting with this post. To properly answer all of your questions you need some of the backstory to understand where we’re at and why. This might be a bit of an overshare but here’s the story. We officially started work on Arc II back in the fall of 2017. I set an overly ambitious deadline to have it complete by the Summer of 2018. Along with that, I decided that Arc II should replace our current EVO system and we would run out of stock of EVO products in early 2019. Those were my first mis-steps. Have they invented time machines yet? When the summer of 18’ deadline came and went I pushed the team hard to get something presentable that we could use to show on Kickstarter by the holiday season of 18’. This is a terrible way to develop a product as you cut corners in code and don’t do quality work when you’re just trying to show a proof of concept. We ended up getting something together that we could use to film and crowdfunded Arc II on Kickstarter. The problem here is that we already committed to ending EVO in early 19’ so there was immense pressure to get something “out the door” so we could continue selling products. We’re a small company (around 10 people) so if you don’t sell products, you don’t have a business. My decision to end EVO too early still haunts me. It put undue pressure on us to rush Arc II to market. To make matters worse, after we launched the Kickstarter campaign, our electrical engineer got offered his dream job designing truck parts and left mid-project. We were able to contract with him to finish things up but as the project progressed we ran into a lot of issues not having a full time electrical engineer on the team. So, here we are in early 2019 with a one-man engineering team (Trevor), a $350K Kickstarter campaign to fulfill and no sales to run the company on since I canned our EVO system. Then, we get an email from our primary machine shop that our parts are going to be delayed by 3-4 months. These were dark days. The next 9 months were a blur. I regret the amount of pressure I put on Trevor. We just needed to get something out the door. Something that worked that we could sell to bring things back to life. So in October of 19’, we finally got the majority of our hardware issues resolved (excessive power drain and EMI stuff) and had firmware (the code that runs everything) in a decent place. We decided to ship even though we only had the ability to do 2 keyframes instead of 5. Also, due to some of the compromises we had to make with the electronics, we increased our charge time to 4 hours instead of 2. It’s my goal to underpromise and overdeliver on everything we do at Rhino but we failed epically in this regard. Trust me when I say this: It killed me to launch with something that wasn’t perfect. But honestly, it was the only option we had at that point. After we started shipping, there was immense pressure to add the 5 keyframes that we promised (rightfully so). Trevor recommended that we take some time and restructure and clean up the code so that it’d be easier to work in. At this point it was fairly messy due to the rush to get to market. I decided that we should try to add the 5 keyframes and work around the messy code instead of restructuring it. However, as we were working on the multiple keyframe feature, we didn’t make much progress due to limitations and bugs within the code. In Q1 I realized that he was right and that we needed to put some serious effort into restructuring the code before adding new features. From the outside, it looks like we’ve done nothing for 6 months, but we’ve been paying off what we call “technical debt” that we incurred by rushing things to market. We’ve been laying a foundation for future features and prioritizing system stability and bug fixes over everything else. A couple weeks ago Trevor resigned to join a super cool company in Seattle. It’s definitely a short term blow to our progress but we’re bringing on 2 new engineers (one senior firmware, and one electrical) and potentially a third to speed things up. I’ll introduce you to them on video once they’re onboarded. Before Trevor exits, we’re working on releasing a firmware update that incorporates many of the structure changes and bug fixes we’ve been working on this year. So, where does that leave you, the Rhino customer? One thing I can say is that we are in this for the long haul. You are not going to be left out in the cold. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to make this system great. I’m investing heavily into our team so that we can serve you well like you deserve. My products are a reflection of who I am and my values and it kills me they’re not working perfectly right now. I’ve done a terrible job at communicating here because I’ve been hoping to fix everything and let you know when it’s done, but that’s taken longer than expected. So what are your options? If you want out, shoot us a message at support@rhinocg.com and we’ll take care of you. If you want to continue on this journey with us, I promise to fill you in weekly on our progress, good or bad. There are a lot of things that I would do differently if I could redo the last 2 years. I’m sorry that you’ve been on the receiving end of my mistakes and deeply apologize for any issues it has caused your productions. I hope that I can rebuild our relationship and move forward telling great stories together. Kyle

After trying all the latest Edelkrone products that would be the most direct competitor to what I had with Rhino, Edelkrone is the clear winner. It just works for me. This is where being able to try something is so important. Had I been able to use the Edelkrone products beforehand, I would've never purchased the Rhino. But of course, the Edelkrone isn't going to work for everyone. Nothing's perfect. As for that email, all I can say is wow. Kyle knew that there were multiple issues with the system and had ample opportunity to just postpone things, but because he shot himself in the foot by ending the previous generation and wanted to rush the project, he went ahead and put something together that works well enough to show off on Kickstarter and get people to back it. Because of all of this, the company now has to backtrack and fix issues that should've never been there, ask for the people who invested in the system to take the apology, and patiently wait while things are figured out. Yeah, that's a company and business plan I'd gladly follow behind.

​@@HaiTran I bought the Rhino Slider system at the release date, but still waiting on those key frames. I really need those key frames to go up to 5 now that I'm ready to shoot video in that fashion. I'm checking for an update on key frames right now, so that's how I stumbled on your video

I hope you get those additional keyframes soon, but if you absolutely need more, then selling off your Rhino system and buying something else may be the way to go. There's no telling when that update will release. I mean, it's been years of promising so who knows.

Glad to hear that the system is working out for you. As for me, I’ve already returned everything and do not plan on giving Rhino another chance due to how they handled this situation and poor customer service.

@@HaiTran Man, completely understandable!

Thanks a lot for watching!

Nope. They probably don't care about this kind of stuff. They still make money so business as usual.

You’re welcome.

Why are there generally few people who have issues with products in any market? Major issues like these are generally far in between or else the product would completely get pulled, but that doesn't mean that the issues aren't a possibility. I bought direct from Rhino.

The SliderOne is somewhat limiting because of its length. I needed something with more travel. I ended up with various products from edelkrone.

@@HaiTran thanks! I bought a Rhino Slider for Black Friday. Took forever to get b/c they had an issue with their site. Anyhow, it just came in today and unfortunately, the software/app is really limiting. I think I'm going to return it and get an Edelkrone motorized one. I just need to be able to set customer start and end points. The Rhino one I got won't let you do that with the app.

Good luck! Hopefully, an edelkrone setup will work out better for you 👍🏽

You can, just be careful.

I haven't had the need to buy another system but did try all the new Edelkrone stuff and they seem to work really well.

@@HaiTran I saw a Gerald Undone review where he told he had very BAD time with edelkrone. Do you mean a new series of producst??

He also said that Rhino was good but as you can see, I had the opposite experience with Rhino so his opinion on the topic of electronic sliders isn't one that I personally align with. This is something that you really have to try for yourself to see what works for you. Buy a system that you're interested in but make sure they have a good return policy just in case something goes wrong.

Good luck with your purchase!

How did that go?

You can thank my parents 👍🏽

I’ve had the chance to try a few of the newer Edelkrone products and can highly recommend them.

You’re welcome!

You’re welcome!

Yeah, it's a really unfortunate situation. Customer service was also no help for me so I'll be taking my business elsewhere.

Still digging the rhino?

I’m being running edelkrone products and I love them 👍🏽

@@HaiTran have you ever tried the DJI Ronin SC Gimbal with active track? Take it you take advantage of sliders with tracking? And thank you for your video. Hate the Hype videos, honest experience is the best 👍

I used to be a big gimbal person but eventually sold them all off. They just don’t work for my style of shooting as I typically do everything by myself. A gimbal is pretty useless for this type of person.

Have you tried contacting Rhino about this issue?

@@HaiTran Thanks for getting back to me : ) Ive been contacting them but with no reply so I was getting desperate. Ive just worked out the problem and its all my fault! I wasn't pressing the button on the front. The action is briefly seen in the instruction video but not mentioned. Thankfully another guy on youtube had the same problem.

Glad you were able to figure it out. I hope it works for you otherwise👍🏽

You're welcome!

I mentioned that you can do whatever you’d like with your money. It doesn’t effect me. People depend too much on what people on the internet say. Buy the stuff and try it out for yourself. It may or may not work out for you. It’s better to figure out for yourself. There’s a return policy.

Go for it! The Rhino system definitely provides better value, hence why I went with it in the first place. My situation is definitely different than what most people portray but most of the recommended reviewers of this system also got their units for free. There is going to be some bias to their opinions. I purchased this system with my own money so I can say whatever I want about it without fear of falling out of the graces of a major manufacturer. If you do decide to invest in this system, I would highly suggest to purchase the various parts individually and not buy everything at once. Buy the Arc II first. See if its build quality and function is up to your standard. This is a major part of the system and for me, was a point of failure. Then move on to the slider and slide motor. Make sure these things work. Again, just purchase in small chunks. This may take more time but if you buy all at once like I did and something goes wrong, the return process is a much bigger headache and there will be more money on the line. Good luck with your purchase and I really hope it works out for you!

@@HaiTran yea im trying to find the smaller channels, and asking people in comments to see the peoples opinions who hadnt gotten there gear supplied to them for free. thanks again for your input and sorry again

At the end of the day, they do offer returns. Just realize that you'll be out the shipping fees but if you're good with that, you'll be able to try the system out for yourself. Opinions are great but nothing is going to beat your own personal experience.

@@TymekStolarz did you end up getting this? Thanks

I talked about refunds in the video. In short, I lost money buying from Rhino and they even broke the slider that I sent them, costing me even more.

I’ve been using Edelkrone products since.

@@HaiTran You ever plan on doing an update video/review of their system?

Edelkrone? I was going to but then newer versions of what I have came out so it’s not exactly applicable to anyone. So, no.

Good luck with another brand 👍🏽

Nope. Rhino does not seem to be the type of company to even try and make things right.

Considering that this happened quite awhile ago and I’ve never heard anything from them, I doubt it.

Really bums me out because I tell everyone about them and sing their praises. They really need to get ahead of this.

It's unfortunate but companies sometimes get ahead of themselves and forget the individuals that help to make them who they are.

I hear ya and am sorry you dealt with this. Very frustrating. I'm gonna contact them and try to talk with them. They were so excited and made very real attempts to help me at first. I haven't messed with it because I'm a deep sky Astrophotographer, but was getting ready to go play with it. That's why I found your video. They really should respond to this. I'm gonna give them the benefit of doubt and will let you know. Mine works flawlessly, but it was the first one with motion they built. Let's see

Good luck 👍🏽

Who knows, it is what it is.

You’re welcome!

I thought about that and asked Rhino if there was such a thing on the screen and they couldn't answer me. Either way, I can guarantee that the gouge went through it the second time around. I can feel the gouge destroying the plastic.

@@HaiTran I ordered the arc II and love it so far. Never had any of this issues, and i am using it on a daily basis :) I also had scratches on the screen and called them, and they told me there is a foil on it, which is realy good hidden. I removed it and everything was clean! Love rhino so far, and had realy bad experiences with edelkrone!

Whatever works for you is all that matters 👍🏽

Good luck somewhere else 👍🏽

@@HaiTran I bought a Zeapon Motorized Micro 2 several months ago and even that developed problems.. A mysterious bump. I'll see how it goes as I will primarily be using it for Time Lapse. edelkrone may be an option down the track

I recently tested out all the newest Edelkrone stuff and would have to say that it's the best I've tried.

@@HaiTran Thanks for the heads up.. Cheers

You're welcome!

Nope, I’ve moved to Edelkrone.

I wouldn't say that that final statement is outright true but I do believe that some people can be paid off. There's something to be said about doing things for yourself and coming to your own conclusions.

Invest in something else!

Hai Tran looking at other rival makes and see if any ofvthese other companies have issues regarding, build quality and repair issues

I think that I'll be going with the Edelkrone system. What I want is just never in stock so I haven't been able to buy it yet.

Hai Tran That appears to have a good review on quality and durability compared to others.

From what I've seen, Edelkrone seems to be the standard in terms of innovation. They're just typically the most expensive option.

That’s great!

To this day mine has a ton of jitter that I can't always take out in post. I with I never bought mine

That sucks to hear. Rhino supposedly fixed hardware and firmware over the last year to get rid of all the problems so you may want to contact them about this.

Glad I was able to help! I would highly recommend looking into the Edelkrone system. That’s likely going to be my next purchase.

I purchased this system a year ago and had so many of the same problems off the bat. There wasn't a lot of information at that time to assist in troubleshooting and I couldn't get the Rhino to consistently perform. Ultimately, I returned it and bought into Edelkrone. The headone and slider have worked perfectly. Edelkrone has an upgrade program too so if the company comes out with a new version, you can buy it at a solid discount without having to return your gear which you can then flip on eBay to cover your purchase. Definitely check out Edelkrone.

To me, Edelkrone has some of the best customer service that I've seen. From their warranties to the trade up program, really no other camera company can match.

@@HaiTran Agreed their customer service is stellar. Had the Edelkrone medium v2 and needed some maintenance, they just asked me to send it in. Too bad DHL lost it but still. Even then they wanted to help me out. Amazing bunch of people. Rhino is quite open on their private FB page, they've recently hired a new programmer and are fixing a lot of the issues. But customers who feel this product in the beta phase kinda do have a point. Went for the iFootage Shark S1 slider and for motion I use my Zhiyun crane 2 in combination with the BMPC6k, I'm absolutely loving this combination. Especially with 2 support rods on the ends of the slider. Just my 2 cents. :)

Glad you found something that works for you 👍🏽

The cost of poor customer service and not standing behind the products they sell.

@@HaiTran 100% agree. B&H screwed us out of shipping after they sent the wrong (expensive) item. I told the guy he was about to loose out on tens of thousands of dollars just because he refused to refund me $40. That was 7 years ago and we have spent, like I said, tens of thousands of dollars with everyone but B&H.

I myself have had some bad experiences with B&H and have been doing my own personal boycott over the past few years.

@@HaiTran Being in Hawaii we have limited options so we use either Amazon or Adorama. By dealing with a rep at Adorama we are usually able to get a discount and free shipping. Thanks for this review.

You're welcome!

I didn't back the Kickstarter and those things were not promised to me, so there was no need for me to complain about them. I highlighted things that were troubling about my situation, not anyone else's.

@@HaiTran I totally understand. The “you forgot” was just an expression. Sorry. I mentioned it because it was the main reasons I purchased it

No problem. The entire situation around the Arc II Kickstarter is very unfortunate. I remember seeing the campaign and was very interested but had my doubts so held off on it. This video, of course, takes place years after the Kickstarter and it's sad to see that many of the issues from day 1 are still present.

Glad it works for someone 👍🏾

Maybe…

Yes, it is.

From my personal experience with those 3 brands, Edelkrone has given me the least amount of issues.

Can’t beat personal experience.

Hope you find something that works for you 👍🏽

@@HaiTran something more quiet as well...it makes alot of noise