Effective home made blimp for camera?

[Patrick]

I'm interested in getting involved in shooting production stills on film sets. And Ive learned that in order to shoot quietly during a take and keep the sound recordist happy is to use a blimp. However, I was really taken aback by the retail prices of these blimps - they are around about $1000. Used blimps can sell for $650 or $700 but that is still incredibly expensive.

Have many people here successfully quitened cameras with home made blimps? Of course I plan to use the blimp with a stills camera rather than a movie camera but the basic principle remains the same. What's the best material to use? Rubber? I notice some blimps have 'lens tubes' but I'm puzzled as to how you can still manually focus, and zoom, with such a tube concealing the lens. Ideally, I'd prefer the lens mount, viewfinder and shutter release uncovered but would that allow sound to escape?

[Mr Blackstock]

G'day,

Awhile back I looked at camera blimps and designs, and I thought they were way too expensive. I built two blimps for my cameras that were around 90% effective, of course this depends entirely on the microphone, environment etc.
I have some pics online at:
http://mishpics.yolasite.com/super8-blimp-designs.php

Of course I designed the blimp around the camera, I imagine with a bit of imagination a blimp could be designed for any Super8 camera...

cheers

[gianni1]

I would like a Leica camera with a quiet shutter. To short tele lenses though.

I've used leather hand bags and purses for camera bags and blimps.

G 8)