DIY steadicam

So, I'm not allowed to do any work in the garage that involves flying debris for a week or so and I have a new Flip video camera on the way. A coworker did a walkaround video of a customer's car with a Flip the other day and it's a masterpiece of shakycam.

So I decided to make my own steadicam. Because I could. It's basically a setup that appeared in Make magazine a while back, but with the addition of manly tools like a welder and appropriately sized wrenches instead of adjustable pipe wrenches and bolts. Total cost was about $15, and it could have been cheaper if I'd used black pipe instead of galvy. Didn't feel like getting my hands dirty every time I touched it though.

The pipes, caps and tee are 12" sections of 1/2" galvanized pipe from Home Depot. I drilled a 1/4" hole in the top and stuck a 1 1/2" long, 1/4" coarse bolt through it, held on by a nut and with the bulk of the bolt threads left exposed. There's a fender washer backed by a wing nut on the end of the bolt. 1/4" coarse is standard tripod mount thread. Camera screws on to the bolt, wing nut tightens it down. I could have used a shorter bolt, I might cut it down.

The base is a 7 lb chunk of steel with a black pipe union sloppily welded to it. The handles are some extra mountain bike grips I had handy.

Test video with my crappycam (possibly the only video camera that takes shakier video with the image stabilization on than with it off) showed a dramatic difference in smoothness on a quick test. Big thumbs up, definitely worth the massive investment of time and money.

The only problem was that it only took about 15 minutes to build, and I had the rest of the day to kill. Sigh...

Keith wrote: The only problem was that it only took about 15 minutes to build, and I had the rest of the day to kill. Sigh...

But you now had 12 hours to annoy the wife making ultra smooth videos around the house.

Yes, be ready for cat chasing scenes reminiscent of the forest shots in The Empire Strikes Back.

hackaday has a couple posts on steadicams, my favorite being the PVC gimbal stabilizer: http://hackaday.com/2009/07/15/gimbal-camera-stabilizer/

That one would have kept me busy longer A little more limited in camera movement (you don't have any control on the angle of the camera) but I can see how it would work really well.

What about a small spinning gyro? It may be a bit heavy, but it should smooth things out.

Joey

Umm... where's the "steadi" part? Looks like a compact stand with no height adjustment and handles... Besides keeping the camera level, the other idea behind a steadicam is it doesn't change elevation very much as the operator moves.

The PVC one looks like it would do a pretty good job of keeping the camera level with the counter-weight hanging down.

Well, the one I built helps me take smoother video. "Steadier", one might say. The CG is well below the handles, adding stability to the whole thing and making it easier to avoid the usual shaky video with a light handheld. Yes, it is possible to place it down on the ground but it's not meant to be a tripod replacement.

Might not be as cool as a gimbal-mounted setup, but I figured it would be fun to try. It worked, and I'm going to keep it around the office for the next time someone wants to take some hand-held video of a car.

Cool, I saw that on Make's PBS show a ways back. Been thinking about making one for the upcoming Rallycross season.

Hey! I made one of those! It does help smooth out the video. Practice helps - a lot.