I decided to go searching for ways to make a home-made steadycam and found this website. According to the directions on the site you can build a Steadycam for $14. Pretty impressive if it works as well as it claims. The directions are very straight forward and easy to follow.
Steadycams are used to smooth out handheld video/film camera footage, smoothing out all the little bumps and sways that would otherwise be recorded. Usually when you are using a video/film camera to try and record smooth footage you have to either use a dolly (a kind of track for the tripod/camera to run along) or invest in an expensive commercial Steadycam attachment. A home-made Steadycam would be an ideal way to have the advantages of a commercial Steadycam without the large cost.
I checked out some of the sample footage and was most impressed. I’m definitely going to have to build myself one of these. I’ve got some great ideas for some interesting things to shoot with my new camera but lots of them require nice smooth movements so this would be ideal.
HI,
I saw this add and was wondering how did you find the steadycam? I am looking at making one myself and was wondering if you found anyways to improve upon the design?#
Many thanks
Giles
Hi Giles,
I ended up making the steadycam last December. It works really well, incredible how something so simple can make the footage look so much better.
I used the following improvements on this page:
http://www.cartala.com/diy.html
I ended up finding all perfectly fitting pipe segments with thread on the ends. This made the process really easy and makes it easy to assemble and disassemble when traveling.
The pipes also made it really easy to create the invert option for the steadycam – so that the camera is on the bottom and the weight on the top. Great for low angle shots!
I definitely suggest making one. It’s good fun anyway!
I will try and take some photos of the finished steadycam sometime and post them on the blog.