D.I.Y. Steadicam Vest/System

Michael Rogers · Oct 9, 2011

Hey guys,
I made this video over the weekend of the steadicam system I crafted for $110.

It works pretty well. I kind of rushed on this video, but I will be using this tool in projects ahead!

Let me hear your thoughts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_87nFik8-w

Ernest Worthing · Oct 10, 2011

At that price it's a great result.

Good job!

harmonica44 · Oct 10, 2011

Cool. It looks better than the steadicam I built. Mine has a bar sticking out of the side though, so I imagine that one might be harder to pan more smoothly, but not sure.

knightly · Oct 10, 2011

I would think it would be easy enough to replace the static arm with an isostatic arm to separate the sled's motion from your body.

Michael Rogers · Oct 10, 2011

Thanks guys!

knightly said:
I would think it would be easy enough to replace the static arm with an isostatic arm to separate the sled's motion from your body.

I'm not quite sure what you mean here... what is the difference between isostatic/static? Is that like free moving vs. still?

wheatgrinder · Oct 10, 2011

I think your rig is working great!

if you look at some of the pictures here..
http://www.steadyrig.com/

youll see that the only thing separating your rig from a true steadycam is the isostatic arm. it isolates the camera from your body movement.

knightly · Oct 10, 2011

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/steadicam2.htm
http://content.officemax.com/catalog/images/397x353/22362033i_01.jpg

The simplest way to describe the arm is a of parallelogram with springs pulling it closed diagonally from within the parallelogram. The weight of the sled and camera keep it open. The two opposing forces maintain the position of the camera.

Pivoting two of them together also separates the camera from the rotation of your torso.

These account for planar directional changes in the camera.

The sled (correctly balanced) then uses a gimbal to separate the tendency for any smaller changes to be transferred to the camera. The gimbal also accounts for the planes of rotation.

Michael Rogers · Oct 10, 2011

Gotcha. I should look into this and try to improve my gettup...