DIY Fluid Head

[Dreadylocks]

Following this fantastic tutorial, I made myself a fluid head yesterday.

Here's the tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf9B79bnJkE

Here's my test footage. The joints move very smoothly. Almost too smooth in fact, I'm not sure if I need to add some weight or just figure out a way to get everything tightened up a bunch more. What shakyness there is was entirely from my own hands. I think a more skilled person could follow the tutorial and have a GREAT fluid head. Mine just turned out a bit sloppy :/

All-in-all it's a huge improvement on my cheap $20 tripod that I have now, even if it isn't perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfm9pYSradM

So that's it. Any advice for tweaking would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Utopia]

Cool!

I'd make the stand out of heavier material or weigh it down with sandbags or something - it still looks hand-held a bit to me. But that's just me.

It's a vast improvement over Blair-Witch, however.

 

[FrostBlue]

Hi ,
This is a good idea...thanks for sharing.
I understand you have a camcorder with an adaptor , did you make the parts out of metal or PVC. Does the design hold the weight allright?

Am not sure if I am going to put my camera on that thing , but might be a good experiment to try.

Thanks again.

 

[Dreadylocks]

Haven't tried it with the adapter yet, but at this point, I need to find a way to make the mount much more sturdy. All it has now is a bolt like a tripod, but that bolt gets loose and sometimes the camera spins (it doesn't fall off, but still makes me nervous). I think it should be good if I can find a way to add that second little 'tab' like a normal tripod mount.

Mines made out of PVC and a sheet of aluminum. I might go with aluminum if I decide to make another, but my drill is weak so I wanted something softer. It's pretty sturdy actually, I think I just need to read up on the proper order of metal nuts bolts and washers. I'm not sure if I got the right kind of bolts.

One problem I'm having is that it's proving difficult to completely lock down one axis so I can more easily move in just the other. This is probably the same 'tightness' problem though...

Right now the monster is bolted to my tripod itself, so that's sturdy, but I wonder if more weight at the top front would help the smoothness?

I think the design on this is 90% great, if I can get my construction skills up to snuff, and with a little design tweaking to the camera mount, this should work really well (I hope).

 

[FrostBlue]

Cool,
I am always pleasantly surprised what people will figure out if they go the DIY way...

I don't know if this is feasible with your rig , but if do make a metal one , you could weld a bolt permanently to the head and then attach a quick release plate to it...so the cam can be taken of easily and quickly...

Or maybe this could go well with your current rig...

http://redemptionfilm.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/my-15-camera-mount/img_0008/

I dunno much about rigs and constructing things in general,these are just suggestions...

peace...