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Helicopter Parts Make For Amazing DIY Camera Stabilization

Iddo Genuth writes "Videographer Tom Antos developed an advanced DIY camera stabilizer which can hold almost any DSLR or mirrorless camera steady for video photography. Although this surely isn't as sophisticated (and super expensive) as the professional MVI M10 handheld 3-axis digital stabilized camera gimbal, its still quite impressive especially when you consider it only costs a few hundred dollars rather then tens of thousands — that is if you feel like building it yourself." Antos' design takes advantage of stabilized gimbal systems made for hanging cameras on remote-controlled helicopters, and does a very impressive job for its price.

13 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why isn't this done digitally? by Goaway · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because then you lose a lot of the picture. Plus it doesn't help you if you're using longer shutter times that blur the image.

  2. Or mount it on an owl. by wvmarle · · Score: 3, Insightful
    1. Re:Or mount it on an owl. by wvmarle · · Score: 4, Funny

      Get a smaller camera... or a bigger owl.

  3. The point of a steady cam is to be steady. by 605dave · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I like this man's ingenuity, and DIY ethic. But the final video is obviously jerky and unusable, which he explains by saying you need to balance the camera better than he did in an earlier step. Perhaps reshooting a better example with the camera balanced would have been better approach to get people interested. Because after watching the video, we have to take his word for it that this will actually work. Which doesn't really make me want to run out and try it.

    --
    Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
    1. Re:The point of a steady cam is to be steady. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I disagree. Look at the terrain he's going over. That is a pretty extreme use of a handheld camera and the stabilization is quite impressive. On more more typical (flatter) terrain, where you are tracking a subject, not randomly panning up/down I think it would be quite usable. Certainly as good or better than the mini-steady cam setups that most of us could afford.

  4. Re:yes because of course labor is free by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Some of us *gasp* LIKE building projects like this in our spare time.

    There's the door, please hand in your geek card on the way out.

  5. Re:get a new word for what they describe by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gimbal my arse

    That shouldn't be a problem, I've managed to locate a suitable attachment point for the fixture right in the middle of it.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  6. Google "DIY Steadycam" by Fnord666 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Or you can just google "DIY steadycam" and find any number of projects for $30 or less and the demo videos are more stable than this rig.

    Examples:
    --
    'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
  7. Why [make it | fix it | climb it | run it | ...] ? by csumpi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you need to ask the question, you'll never understand the answer.

  8. Re:Why isn't this done digitally? by TheGavster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Mechanical stabilization has the advantage of keeping the focal center in the center of the image. If you're moving a crop box around a frame, you're going to get this weird effect where the point that parallel lines meet bounces around the frame.

    --
    "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
  9. Re:Tripod by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You can't make these sorts of shots with a tripod.

  10. Re:yes because of course labor is free by __aasqbs9791 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They might if they saw a bottle of honey in an odd place.

  11. Re: yes because of course labor is free by RobbieCrash · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But many people enjoy creating things in and of itself.

    The whole idea of "why build when I can buy" is why people are so much worse at making things that mostly work, fully work than they used to be. Building things is fun. If it's also significantly cheaper, and nearly as good, why not learn something on the way?

    --
    Keep on knockin'
    https://robbiecrash.me