DIY Equipment

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Arri Alexa 352 LED RING LITE


Arri Alexa LED RING LIGHT screen shot

Gustavo from www.o2lighting.com writes in and provides a few BTS images of the 352 LED Ring Light on an Arri Alexa! That's one fancy camera, and i'm glad to see this thing in use by these guys. It definitely is a kick-ass ENG Light. Traditionally most people want to use this light by putting the lens through the center, but it can also be mounted as a top light or off to the sides with a light stand. [Thanks Gustavo]

I used my 352 LED Ring light with my lens through the center when working on a Steadicam setup mainly to try to keep things balanced. When the light is used off camera this LED Ring throws a very soft even diffused light that can be still be controlled via Dimmer. I have to say that the bracket that comes with the item pretty much sucks. The unit itself is awesome and very very lightweight. I removed the brackets from my unit and just used a Friction Power Arm to the hot shoe of my DSLR. You might have caught that in my video here: http://cheesycam.com/last-minute-glidecam-mods/

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find-price-button 352 LED Ring Light with 12V AC Adapter

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With the Canon EOS T3i / 600D out in the marketplace, this marks Canon's second Vari-Angle LCD DSLR. Thinking of a different way to mount a View Finder to cameras similar to the Canon 60D's swivel out monitor, I tinkered around with the idea of using the some cheap hot shoe adapters.

In this configuration you'd be able to lock in a view finder while still maintaining a hot shoe to mount other accessories. By slotting the flat bar, you'd still have a quick release way of detaching the view finder without dismounting your hot shoe accessory 'i.e. Microphone'. By using Velcro to attach a View Finder, this type of adapter would pretty much be 'Universal'. Somebody needs to refine this idea....

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find-price-button Shoe Adapter 1/4 x 20 Threaded

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find-price-button Cold Shoe Adapter Threaded

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So it was very last minute for me to get a 14v battery pack thrown together for my 352 Ring Light Steadicam project here: http://cheesycam.com/last-minute-glidecam-mods/. Now that I have a bit of time, i'm going to get off these non-pro looking RC batteries and rig up my 2 year old LP-E6 generic non-decoded batteries.

Gutting out some dirt cheap battery chargers and using them as dummy plates, i'll be able to wire two of them together and get a 14.4V power source that looks pretty snazzy. Other people have done this with just one battery to power up LCD monitors that only require 7volts. As you can see my 183 LED light normally powered from a 12V source was easily lit up with just 7V. Now setting them up together for 14.4V should suffice for many of my small items.

Since the guts are ripped out, you can use OEM Canon batteries, no need for Generic stuff, but the Generics run super super cheap too. I think i'll purchase more generic battery chargers + non-decoded batteries and have like 20 of them on hand to power up all kinds of stuff including my Ring Light and Z96 LED's.

Battery Chargers found here:
batteries-charger
find-price-button Uber Cheap LP-E6 Generic Battery Chargers

This link has a decent deal for both a battery + charger: Both LP-E6 Generic Batteries + Charger

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Z96-Powered-RC-Batteries

Remember the batteries I threw together for my Flying Ring Light? Turns out the Z96 uses the same connector as my 352 LED Ring Light. I think i'll stop by Radio Shack to get an exact part number and size on the fitting that's being used so that other people can make a DIY battery pack that will probably run this light for a full day...

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Not sure if you can see the thumbnail in the video, but something about that slider doesn't look quite right. Oh yeah it's upside down! Vimeo member phoSumpro! shows a new way to use the Konova slider. Actually seems like a new way to use any camera slider. By mounting the slider upside down with the carrier Tripod, he's actually sliding the entire rail (not the carrier). I'll let the video explain why this was done, but that's one pretty cool trick. Sorry guys, but don't think this would work on a non Roller Bearing type slider. [Thanks phoSumpro!]

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find-price-button Konova video Camera Rolling Bearing DSLR Slider

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4.3lcd-monitor

Not long ago I toyed around with a 3.5" mini LCD for about $26 dollars. It also worked on the GoPro HD Cameras that (at the time) lacked any LCD viewing. Now that GoPro has released their LCD BacPac there's no need for this. It definitely would have helped the guys out while shooting testing the Korean Dolly out in this video: http://cheesycam.com/test-drive-spidertrax-clone-korean-dolly/

Reader Alex writes in and decides to go about .8 inches larger from the 3.5" to the 4.3" still at the same price. This little LCD also includes settings for adjustment, but would stepping up another inch provide better color, contrast, resolution? We'll just have to wait to hear back, but Alex says it's all working out and more robust than the previous. For cameras that lack a certain angle of viewing, $26 bucks sure would help on those low rotating dollies & sliders shots for framing.

4.3" LCD Monitor DSLR Framing
find-price-button 4.3" Mini LCD Monitor

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[Video and Audio are terrible. Shot with a cheap Point and Shoot]

Not sure if the post shows up, but it's about 1:00 a.m. (in the morning). I received a super last minute call to help out with some Glidecam work on an event. So I decided to hack something up which I think would be helpful. When flying on this Glidecam i'm closing down the aperture to keep things in focus. This means less light. So I decided to mod a few RC batteries together to power up the 352 LED Ring Light. It's bright, it's well diffused, and it's dimmable. It's the perfect light source for what i'm trying to achieve during this event. [BTW the light at the end of this video is turned all the way down - it gets brighter!]

In order to mount the large 352 LED Ring light, I needed to raise up the 60D with a battery grip and then place it on top of a Calumet quick release adapter. A few flexible power arms kept the LED Ring light mounted and also the Rode VideoMic Pro in place. With the 60D Manual Audio + Rode VideoMic Pro +20db, it sounds really good. Anyways, this rig might be overkill so I also balanced out my 7D on the Glidecam HD1000 for times I don't need lighting or audio. Ok, time to nap. Could be a long day...

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find-price-button 352 LED Ring Light with 12V AC Adapter

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Austin Wilson from DVRebellion puts the $30 dollar shoulder support 'offset' piece to a weight test. I've seen this piece crack twice on items I have, and it seemed to break in the same place. Have they fixed a possible mold issue? Not sure, but i'm personally not taking that chance. I'm pretty happy with the Express35 RigX setup on the main shoulder support and toss out the offset. Either way, it's a good test he's put it through that still shows the main shoulder support is extremely sturdy. [Thanks Austin]

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find-price-button Cheap Shoulder Support for Video Camera