Step 2: Add panning ring and universal joint to the handle.As described by wsclater, I fixed a ring to the vertical shaft of the gimbal between the bearing and the universal joint. This allows the system to be panned without upsetting the level of the camera. The panning ring is just a big ol' 1.5" fender washer.
My u-joint (Traxxas model 1951) arrived in the mail today, so I set about putting it together. This turned out to be more difficult than I expected, and I had to build a special tool for the job (google search to the rescue!). Attaching the u-joint to the handle turned out to be pretty easy - just screw it on to the 8x35mm bolt which forms the vertical shaft of the gimbal.
I'm rethinking the arc portion of my steadicam... I'm now planning to use a round tube instead of a flat bar. I returned the steel bar to Lowe's and bought a 10-foot section of 1/2" metal conduit (cheap at about $1.75!). It's galvanized steel and seems stiff and strong enough, and is easy to manipulate with my friend Eric's pipe bender. I've already started shaping it but haven't yet achieved the desired contour.
Notes and resources:
- DIY Steadicam by Videopia on vimeo
- pan, tilt and cant (camera terminology) are analogous to yaw, pitch and roll (airplane piloting terminology)
- The Homebuilt Stabilizer Group discussion board
3 comments:
Will be interested to see how your stabilizer works out with your GoPro. I've used a monopod for some shots and it's worked ok. You can see an example here:
http://vimeo.com/9364857
I've also just hand held the camera and had some good luck:
http://vimeo.com/17358224
But what I would really like to figure out is a stabilizer that would work when I am wearing the camera. Still haven't got that figured out.
Thanks for sending those links!
Riding one-handed with a monopod? I kept waiting for the part where you crash; you must have edited that out. :-)
It's a little annoying and distracting to see the monopod itself in the video. But that kinda thing is hard to avoid without a viewfinder and without the LCD "Bakpac" that I'm still waiting to become available.
Have they started banning helmet-cams in any of your local cyclocross races? It seems to be at the discretion of each head official up here.
Luckily no crashes one handed. But I don't want to roll the dice too much. Although, it would make for some good footage.
The only talk of banning was when USAC/UCI brought it up. Luckily that was shot down in flames because of what ridiculous idea it was. How is it any different then mounting a light on your helmet? And if they did ban mounting anything to a helmet there would be a lot of 24hr races that would be a mess.
Oh, something I thought about regarding your stabilizer design. Adding more weight can actually help. I found that with the monopod, if I added a little weight along with the GoPro, it helped remove small movements. So it might be worthwhile to allow for weights to be added. Steel washers are an easy an inexpensive way to add weight. Just a thought.
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