DIY Stabilizer

Post by **kendoman** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 2:52 am

Can anyone help me with the plans and parts needed to create a steady cam device? I am looking to build something simple that works. Thanks in advance for the help.

Post by **hedfrodady** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 1:10 pm

check this : http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

Post by **Matthew Buick** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 9:56 pm

Can anyone tel me how good that thing is?

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 10:18 pm

Perhaps better than handheld. Not great, though, as there is not a real gimbal. The effectiveness of any of these devices without the articulated arm is questionable. I have a homemade one from aluminum angle stock with a decent ball gimbal and for cameras under 3 lbs it's not bad. 16mm doesn't work well on it, though.

Post by **keagan** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:55 am

I built one like that, out of an old tripod that I riped the legs off of, and like Evan said, it's not great but better than hand held. I had about 10 lbs of weights hanging 2 feet down from the camera, and I used the pan/tilt handle to hold onto. I shot with an R8.

I have no experience with other types of devices, but I find that since super8 has such shitty registration to begin with, any camera movement is just multiplied.

Keagan

Post by **johnnhud** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:24 pm

I have built the exact steady cam that is linked above. It was really easy to do and the results were quite dramatic over shooting hand held. However it does not hold a candle to my steadicam jr that I got off Ebay for $300.

I have mounted my Canon 814e on the Jr but have not actually shot any footage. In order to do so would require two people I'm sure. It takes both hands to run the steadicam and another person would have to follow you around to run the remote plunger to activate the camera.

That does not even allow for you to see what you are shooting. If you could do a video tap on the 8mm camera you could display your image on the Jr video screen, but I haven't got that far into it yet. Otherwise your just shooting blind, so you would want to be as wide as possible on your subject.

Just go to Lowes and build that little steadicam that is linked to above, I think I spent about $20 on it total and still have it in my arsenal of tools. It is pretty sweet because you can flip it upside down and shoot extremely low angles just a few inches from the ground. That is something that my steadicam jr can not do...

Post by **Angus** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 8:05 pm

I tend to hand hold a camera while its attached to a tripod...that works as a rudimentary stedicam...especially if the tripod is fairly heavy...

Post by **Super8rules** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 5:49 am

There is a book out called "DV Camera Rigs" (http://www.dvcamerarigs.com) that I highly recommend.

All sorts of plans.

A must for all indie filmmakers.