Page under construction.

Videocamera Stabilizer

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allmost finished, still need to find a better way to fix the camera to the stabilizer

idea

Every camcorder hobbyist dreams of the smooth flowy camera movement seen in movies and tv all the time. So what are the options?

handheld == shaky picture
tripod == limited to pan & tilt
Steadicam® == waaay too expensive for a non-professional

So what is a poor student to do... build an inertial camera stabilizer himself!

The idea behind inertial camera stabilizing is to move the camera's center of mass outside the camera to allow access to it. If the camera can be moved with a force applied directly to the center of mass there will be no rotation. With the total mass distributed in a big area you also get increased moment of inertia, which reduces the tendency to rotate in reaction to forces applied slightly off the center of mass.

The basic principle of construction is to have a relatively long stick with the camera on one end and a counterweight at the other. Somewhere in the middle where the center of mass is we want to have a gimbal that allows free rotation into any direction. The gimbal is attached to the actual handle that is used to move the camera, so any movement of the cameraman's hand won't affect the rotation of the camera since the handle is free to rotate thanks to the gimbal.

Videocameras can be a bit heavy especially in shoots that last many hours. So to not have the weight of the camera on the hand only the pro-solution is to have a robotic arm attached to the cameraman's upper body with a vest with a carefully balanced spring system to counter even the cameraman's up and down movement resulting from walking. My Sony DCR-HC96 weighs less than 1 kg so I didn't think that even trying to make something like that would be woth it.

parts

  • hollow metallic broom stick - taken from the cleaning closet
  • 2 rollerscate bearings - bought new ones for the scates a while ago so had plenty of old leftovers
  • bicycle handle - 7 €
  • assortment of M6 & M5 nuts and bolts ~ 5 €
  • small ring of PVC-pipe - a bigger piece around 4 €
  • 1 m threaded rod - 4 €

assembly

Fan for external HD

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up & running cool

parts

  • some basic electronic components ~ 5 €

Small Soft Light

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working surprisingly well

parts

  • living room lamp - had it allready :)
  • roll of tin foil - found in kitchen but let's say 3 € give or take a few
  • 100W bulb with reflective top half - 5 €
  • total: 8 €

Studio Lighting

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todo

Fluorescent Lighting

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todo