Home      Vegas Tutorials     DIY Camcorder Rigs     Hints and Tips     User Rigs         DIY Props     Essential Camcorder  Secrets     Free Monthly Resources      Forums

Our User DIY Projects

 We have now also moved our submissions of DIY products that users have built to the more appropriate user page. We will gladly give you a write up and post photos of any camera rigs you have built or great DIY ideas you can share with others. Just email us a quick description with some photos HERE

USER DIY RIGS AND PROJECTS

USER DIY RIGS AND PROJECTS
DIY TRIPOD STAND Here is a brilliant idea and a practical project from Carl Enslin from Empangeni South Africa.

"I often take videos at places where the public can walk in front of the camera while I am busy video tapping. Places like sporting events, car shows, fashion shows etc. This can be very frustrating. A solution to the problem is to use a very large/high tripod, but this can be very expensive, specially if you are not a professional videographer. I designed and built myself a tripod stand for less than R150.00 (+/- $20 US) It raises the tripod by 500mm. The tripod is made out of 10mm. mild steel round bar as well as some 20mm.x 6mm. flat bar. It is very simple to make as can be seen from the photos. It breaks-up into 3 pieces  which is necessary for transportation. It can be assembled in about 3 minutes with the tripod mounted.  Although the stand is only made out of 10mm. round bar, it is very rigid, because of the way it is constructed.  I did not include all construction measurements, as it is custom made for my tripod. The tripod mount onto the stand by unscrewing the rubber feet (I have removed the unscrewing locking clips) from the tripod legs and pushing it through the holes in the stand, and then secure it by screwing back the rubber feet. For tripods that do not have the rubber feet that can unscrew, a person can weld short pieces of pipe (+/- 50mm.) onto the stand where the tripod legs can be placed into. I have also made a stool to stand on. The size of the timber is 650x350x25mm. The legs (25mm square tubing) can be removed for ease of transportation"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a solution for getting good audio from your domestic camcorder. As you all know only professional camcorders allow you to switch to a manual audio level setting and the majority of camcorder owners have to put up with audio that has AGC attached to it (Automatic Gain Control). When the camcorder doesn't "hear" anything it simply turns up the volume so live audio tends to have noisy backgrounds whenever the talent being filmed stops talking or talks softly!!

This annoying feature can be overcome by recording your audio on a separate device and most MiniDisk recorders are cheap to buy as they have been "phased out" by MP3 recorders/players. The problem here also is that a lot also have no mike input ..only a line input.

My solution here works like a charm!!! I have my standard shotgun mike on a boom pole and plugged into a standard UHF radio mike body pack. The receiver is mounted on the framework as seen, and it's headphone output plugs into a portable mixer which then feeds the Minidosk recorder. The MiniDisk unit has a manual record setting AND it can be controlled with the mixer too!!!

The rig on the left was submitted again by my good friend Brian who built it from our rig tutorials By using an old tripod head, you can not only use the rig to mount your camcorder on a vehicle door but also use it as an instant "rock-steady" mount in the vertical position just by tilting the head to suit.

Here is a "just completed" camcorder rig made by my good friend Brian Lemin. With camcorders getting smaller and smaller a rig like this is becoming essential for handheld shots. Brian has added enough mountings for 2 video lights and a RODE shotgun mike too. The grips are cleverly made from 2 really cheap garden trowel handles.

This can only be described as the "Ultimate DIY Project"

Jonas Kroyer has sent this info to us of a COMPLETE HOMEMADE CAMCORDER...a really stirling effort from him indeed!!!

You can get more details from the link below

http://www.c-h-a-o-s.com/2007/06/12/diy-how-to-build-a-camcorder/

 

 Another Dolly Design from Bryan Roberts

Materials

2- 8 foot 2x3's
4- 8 foot 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe
2- wooden dowels
3- computer chair wheels

I made cuts in the 2x3's to hold the pvc in place and then cut the pvc into 8' sections to make it portable. and I used the wooden dowel to hold each of the peices together so there was not a big seam the wheels had to jump over.I glued one side of the dowel onto the PVC and the other side just slide into another pipe kinda like hotwheel's tracks. Then i bought a  Camera dolly I saw in new york at B&H

Bryan's New Camera Boom

Bryan Roberts has sent us his latest idea for a camera boom.

 

The construction details look fairly self-explanatory so why not give it a try ??

Brennan's Camera Crane

This is a really great camera crane and railed dolly as an all-in-one rig with some outstanding range of height too!!

He also has a cool video to watch on you tube of the crane and dolly in action  at :

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4033809565348456243

 

If you want to get some more details from Brennan you can email him at this email address  :  heldtbt@gmail.com

 

 

Making a Lens Hood for your Camcorder

For some unknown reason I could NOT buy a simple lens hood for my camcorder and decided that I would be charged a small fortune for it if I eventually found one!! Heres how to make one for almost nothing!!!

  • Find yourself a small plastic bottle with a top that is around the size of your camera's UV filter

 

  • Now figure out how long you want your hood to be and simply cut off the base of the bottle with a sharp hobby knife and then trim the top section as well to eliminate all but a few millimetres of the original top of the bottle.

 

  • Mount your UV filter in the cut off top and fix it with a few drops of super glue. Before applying the glue, FIRST screw the UV Filter onto your camcorder and screw it up finger tight so when you glue on the lens hood and screw the whole fitting back on, the hood will be horizontal.
  • Before you rush out and make your new lens hood look pretty, use some sticky tape to fix it to the filter for now, turn on your camcorder and zoom out to the camcorder's full wide position. Take a peek in the viewfinder and ensure that the lens is not "seeing" the edge of the hood. If it is, then just trim it off until it's clear.

 

  • Finally you can give it a quick coat of matt black paint to make sure that there are no nasty internal reflections and you are done

 

  • Total Cost ?? Free!!! (if you happen to find a bottle in the kitchen and have some paint) Otherwise pretty minimal and you can make it in under 5 minutes!!!

 

 

 

Making a Simple Boom Jib for your Tripod

  • The project for this very economical jib was submitted to us from Keith Blakesley for the UK and is a simple idea make from timber and cost him a mere 5 quid !!!  Note the use of easy to find hardware components that your local hardware store is likely to stock (or you might even find the material at home.
  • Our thanks to Keith for submitting the photos to us and we look forward to seeing his Camera Stabiliser which he is busy making

 

  • If you have a few photos of some gear that you have made and that works well, why not send us a few photos and a short description and we will "put your name in lights" on our website

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Email us HERE if you have a project that we can feature on the website for others to share.

For more information please contact Robin below, indyra3@MW.net aka 3robin @ cloudynights

Old CRT glarescreens as ND / Polarised filter stock?

 

I've got a Celestron C90 Maksutov (90mm dia/ F:11), for which i'd like to construct a front-mounted filter. As you may know,typical astrophoto technique is to use small filters at eyepiece end, but this  give no 'scratch-protection' to objective. Local thrift stores sell glass glarefilters for old computer  CRT's cheaply; my notion is to cut out a disk or octagon to mount ahead of my 'scope-either

A)in a scrounged/DIY 90mm ring screwed to filter threads, or

B) pressfit around outer rim (likelier, if I find close fitting can/lid/pipefitting), or

C) Slipped into Aluminum-channel "U" , base affixed to bar projecting forward from 1/4-20 tripod pad=a DIY clone of commercial gel holder. Option C offers little scratch protection, and would need a lightshield (painted 2ltr soda bottle?) overlapping scope bbl (mine is older turnbarrel focus model, and I suspect my glarescreen is polarised)-but could allow broader selection of  filters...

Economical Camera Boom

If you already have a tripod (and you should) why not try out this simple camcorder boom idea from Bryan Roberts??

The whole rig cost him $6.81 and the camera mounting system in the second image allows for efficient self-leveling with just a few pieces of timber a a piece of threaded rod.

 

Bryan is using this to create cool angles for a horror movie he is making. For more details you can contact him at :

kerplunk1948@hotmail.com

 

 You can visit Bryan's Horror Movie Site by clicking on the link below

 www.untoldhorror.com

 

 

Economical Tripod Dolly

Here is another great tripod dolly idea from Bryan Roberts??

The dolly is created from timber, 2 skateboard trucks and a furniture castor. Simple design and it works too!!!

 

For more details you can contact him at :

kerplunk1948@hotmail.com

Cheapest Camcorder Stabilizer

Here is another great design from "Mr Budget" (Bryan Roberts) who can make camera gear for vitually nothing. All this uses is some lumber and an old coffee can. Bryan just uses rocks in the coffee can as counterbalance weight and this project actually cost him $0 !!!!

Bryan now has an upgraded model that uses standard water pipes and fittings and a training weight as the counterbalance!! See the photos below for details :

 

 Current Movies available for Download

 Right Click, Save Target As to download

TWO KNIGHTS AGO - Grant Meredith

Shot in the mid 90s this project was the first to involve sword play. The short film was designed for a Yellow Pages competition. It was a fun little project to work on. I actually nearly caught hyperthermia whilst doing the water scene.

The story is that of two knights duelling and the jolly little outcome. The short was publicly shown at the 7MAX2000 film festival. The editing, titling, sound and effects have been kept true to it's original format

Right Click, Save Target As to download

DANGEROUS DAN JONES - Grant Meredith

Shot in mid 2002, Dangerous Dan Jones was also a very challenging and exciting project for Sick Individual Productions to work on. All the scenes were shot in very difficult locations and the fear on the faces is sometimes real! This was especially true with having to act on a rocky mountain slope or having to slide down a very steep hill side!! A clever take-off of the unflappable action hero genre. The soundtrack was composed in full by the talented Leigh Achterbosch.

This is my homage to the great adventure movies. Our handsome hero is on a quest for a mighty treasure. In his  way are deadly traps, savage head hunters and Nazis! Will he complete his quest?

 CLICK HERE TO EMAIL US FOR ANY QUERIES OR INFORMATION ON OUR USER's MOVIES AND RIGS

Can't find the Resource that you want ? Try using our Search Box below to find similar Products

Google

 Copyright Softweigh Multimedia 1994 - 2008