This is a follow up video showing how I mounted the heavy 4 pound weight I purchased to the Gini Shoulder Rig. With a spare dog bone clamp, a straight hole through both items, I was able to run a bolt and a clamp knob to hold it steadily in place. The original article can be found here: http://cheesycam.com/diy-counter-weight-solution-for-shoulder-rigs/
Aqua Black Vinyl Coated Lace Thru Style Hard Weights - Black
Here's a shameless plug on my own blog in hopes to raise funds for more camera gear. LOL. I just listed my 16GB iPhone 3Gs with Mophie Juice Pack Battery Case
The Gini Rig I posted about in this article is an awesome piece of gear. Definitely something you should look into if you're looking for a solid DSLR shoulder rig. I suggest doing some research on what your options are and compare prices with other gear. Like many others out there, I didn't pay the asking price for the Gini. On a good day the Gini Rig can be had for rock bottom prices, so it's all about patience and just making an offer you feel you would be comfortable with. More on the Gini can be found here: http://cheesycam.com/the-gini-rig-arrives-from-korea/
There was one piece of gear I wasn't so lucky to have with my DSLR shoulder rig package, and that's a good Shoulder rig Counter weight system. Having a balanced rig is definitely going to help stabilize footage and take lots of weight off the hands. I got this DSLR shoulder rig for cheap, so i'm looking for something just as cheap. Aside from the Gini Rig here, there's a million different DIY shoulder rig solutions that could use a good counter weight. Many DIY solutions are even built around PVC pipes, and I don't think you're ready to throw down $100 bucks on a weight. So I began my quest to locate a good solid, cheap, yet professional looking substitute for a counter weight.
Vinyl Coated Lead Diving Scuba Belt Weights
I placed this order about a week ago, and wanted to have it in my hands before talking about it, just to make sure it's worth the pennies. It's definitely the solution I was looking for. Very small and compact, with a chemically bonded heavy duty Vinyl coating, and a flat black finish to match your video gear. These scuba weights were designed to withstand ocean salt and hard reef bumps. Simply dropping these weights on hard gravel wouldn't do damage to the coating, it's that tough. There are slits on each side to allow me some mounting options, but as dense as Lead is, it's probably not difficult to drill through either.
[Update] Took a drill to it, it literally drills through like butter. Lead is a very very soft material to drill through. Keep in mind that this is a Lead weight product known to be hazardous if not handled correctly. You should read information about safely handling Lead Metals.
The rounded edge design ensure you're not going to scratch or gauge yourself. The vinyl coating is very smooth and comfortable to handle in the hands and keep the system very clean. These weights are available from 1 pound and increments to 12 lbs. 4-6 lbs is probably a comfortable weight for most DSLR rigs. Now that i've had the chance to handle this product, there's plenty more ideas that come to mind. If you're rocking a super lightweight tripod system but need some extra stability at times, these are much more compact than your typical sand bag to hang. If you're working on that DIY DSLR crane and need to add some weights to the rear, these are much more compact and have a nicer finish than normal lifting weights. The possibilities are endless. So if you're looking to DIY a shoulder rig and are in need of a good cheap solution to a counter weight system, meet your new best friend.
Some bit of news going out to all the iPhone Fanboys (and FanGirls). It's been a long long time since the annoucement of the Tiffen Smoothee. The 'Smoothee' is a Steadicam Merlin like device originally designed as a stabilizer for the iPhone, but it doesn't look too difficult to port something like that to support other cameras as well. The handle on the Smoothee looks like the exact same design from the Steadicam Merlin, which is very effective in stabilizing movement from walking or running. I originally posted about this stabilizer way back in May. Looks like Tiffen just missed the boat on the iPhone 4 launch, but better late than never.
They just opened up a form you can submit if you want to register for some spam as someone interested in the Tiffen Smoothee, that should be released in limited quantities around December. If you decide to drop your name down on the form, do me a favor and leave this website address in the comments, i'm hoping they'll send me something for a test drive LOL!. Here's the link: https://www.tiffen.com/steadicam_smoothee_signup_form.html.
More information about the Tiffen Smoothee Video Stabilizer for the iPhone can be found here: https://www.tiffen.com/smoothee_home.html
DIY Car mount from www.enriquerodben.com
Double and Quad Head Suction Cup Mounts on eBay
Ready for your next camera movement? How about strapping your camera to the hood of your car and taking a drive. There's a ton of DIY's for mounting a camera to a car and the 'safest ones' all stem from these popular suction cups. In fact you'll find plenty of the same mounts being sold as 'Camera Car Mounts' for several times the price of making your own. These suction handles are designed to carry heavy glass windows and doors with the smallest Double Head suction capacity rated at 125 lbs. The quad suction head rates at a 330 lbs capacity. Whether you trust those ratings or not, I can guarantee it will be more than sufficient to carry a sub 5 pound DSLR. There's plenty of creative ways to mount up your camera but the most simplest is to drill a hole straight through the Quad Head's handle and place a small Tripod Ball Head. The hollow handle can act as a pass through for a tie down strap if you're looking for an extra bit of stability too.
Also available via Amazon:
4 Head Suction Cup
Rokinon 14mm Fisheye lens for Canon and Nikon
As of late, i've been pointed several times to the Rokinon 14mm Fisheye lens as a great cheap alternative for those looking to get super duper wide. It's old news in the Photography space, but with video on the DSLR's this bad boy is gaining a bit of steam. You can find positive feedback on many of the photography forums about how sharp of an image it can provide, especially for the money. Of course, by not having auto focus features in it's design definitely makes it easier to manufacture a sharper lens at a cheaper price.
Rokinon is not a lens manufacturer, but a brand of lens. So you'll find the same lens under popular names like Samyang. Don't go looking for Samyang though, that name alone adds a small hike to the price. The same lens found under Rokinon will yield cheaper results. If you're looking for the Canon 14mm Super Wide Angle F/2.8 you've better come with over 2K of change in the pocket. Going with an off brand manual focus lens will get you down cheaper, including the Bower 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle Manual Focus, but that's still over priced compared to the Rokinon. If you're doing any type of Photography, a Fisheye lens in the tool bag is a great addition. You'll get a super wide image captured and there are plenty of 'fisheye' correcting software that can stitch images into normal view or 360 degree image panoramics for Real Estate Virtual tours. If you're not using Photoshop, there's free ones available i've used like 'RectFish'. For correcting distortion in video, that's a different story.
Correcting image distortion with RectFish
The 'Fisheye Look' is mostly popular with extreme sports for the ability to get everything in frame and with it's super wide view can mask unsteady movements. If you don't mind the fisheye distortion, it will make Steadicam type shots look butter smooth. Will it work on a full frame without vignette? Don't hold me to it, but my initial research says yes. Of course you will find much more 'fisheye' distortion with a Full Frame camera than would be on a Canon T2i, 7D, or 60D. For Nikon or Pentax users, you're in luck because it runs even cheaper for some reasons. No adapters needed like the Peleng fisheye lenses, these Rokinon's are built to mount. Better yet, the Rokinon 14mm also gets you to an F/2.8 serving pretty well in low light situations. If you've got more news, videos, or comments on the Rokinon, drop a comment.
Anytime you slap the words Audio, Video, or Photo on a product the rule of thumb is to mark it up about 500%. This applies even to small pouches and travel cases, but for people on the move, it's a necessary evil. I've found my own ways of staying organized with all the bits and pieces in my rolling bags, by using transparent tackle boxes made by a company called Plano. I wrote an article about this back in May found here: http://cheesycam.com/diy-camera-gear-organizer-tackle-box/
The clear tackle boxes from Plano have taken my beatings and it's a solid product. Small items are separated and the transparency helps me find things quickly. A quick dry erase marker on the inside helps me determine used or unused CF cards and batteries.
Now looking to break all of my Audio gear into a seperate case, I find myself turning back to Plano. I have a number of shotgun microphones, lav microphones, Zoom H4n, Zoom H1's, shock mounts, clips, and cables. Putting all the audio gear together and laying them out for easy access will help me stay organized instead of throwing things in a bag. A trip to the local Walmart revealed a number of plastic hard cases with handles for Guns, complete with break away foam lining. Some single layer cases start at just around $9 dollars.
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Of the ones on display, my favorite one is a 4 gun case designed with 2 stages of foam and extra deep. Plenty of space to store all of my different microphones and audio recorders with room to spare, while the handle makes for easy transporting. The break away foam will help to protect, keep items from shifting, and provide a clear view of what needs to go back in the case.
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There's a number of different foam lined hard cases in the gun section and even more that can be found online. From plastic to aluminum, deep and shallow. Great for protecting a variety of small video, audio, and photo gear. The only suggestion I have is you stray away from the Logo branded cases like 'Glok' or 'Smith & Wesson' in case you plan on jumping on a plane, and if someone asks you what's in the case, you should probably say 'Microphone' and not 'Shotgun'.
Aluminum Foam Lined Gun Case
Once Eric received his Gini Rig, he went straight to work on designing a custom DIY Follow focus. Made from milled plumbing parts on his metal lathe, here's the build set and final product. Damn this looks better designed than some of the other Follow Focuses on the market. Check out Eric's Flickr page for more information, he's even included a few videos to see how it all comes together. Comments to Eric can be left at this article. Thanks Eric, so when do we see this for sale? LOL.
Sorry guys, another Canon G12 post, but I can't help it. The Canon Powershot G12 camera is not only fun, it's very functional. I decided to take a trip down to the local bart station to get some movement for an HDR Timelapse test. What's special about this video you see before you? There is only about 240 images in this timeline, but keep in mind that every single image of this Timelapse is actually 3 different photos, taken with 3 different exposures, that were automatically stitched together by the Canon G12 and saved as 1 single photo. It's not that overly posterized looking HDR we often see, but a more delicate balance of shadows and highlights for a more pleasing balance. The camera did all the work as I just sat nearby surfing the internet from my phone. From my results, it does an excellent job for something this small. Everything on the camera was left on default Auto including the ISO, and I even left the focus on Auto!
You can see the camera does a great job with exposing the highlights and shadows by using this built in HDR technique, but who knew you could Timelapse with this feature? Literally just grabbed all the images and dumped it into Sony Vegas. I've been asked several times to provide timelapse footage for client events, showing setups, breakdowns, and just crowd movement, but I never wanted to deal with the post image correction and especially having to leave one of my DSLR's behind. Now after testing the G12 with the built in HDR processing I can see this camera fitting perfectly into my workflow and offering client timelapse video footage. In fact if you had the funds, grab yourself a few G12's and setup timelapse in multiple angles. It's not the best, but it could definitely be incorporated into any video for additional creative footage that would make your production value stand out. This was my first run and I think it went well. With practice, i'm sure it can be refined and useful. I'm going to try it on some sliders and dollies next.
Click image for pricing on Canon Powershot G12 with Built in HDR
The remote i'm using for the Canon G12 can be found at this article: http://cheesycam.com/canon-g12-vs-nikon-p7000-real-time-hdr-timelapse/
