Hi guys, new to this and have some specific questions

[Alex Mason]

hey ho!

 

my names Alex and I'm a 4th year mechanical engineering student at loughborough university. I'm a bit of an aspiring photographer myself, and that got me interested in video and pretty much decided what Part C project i undertook this year.

 

my project for the year is to design and build a hand held steadicam device. its for consumer/pro-sumer video cameras so i suspect its going to similar to what the Tiffen Steadicam Merlin can do....thought obviously I'll be looking to improve it.

 

as an added bonus, i have taken part in formula student this year completely by accident. you see they actually want to have a steadicam system made so that they can walk and film the race course at the drivers eye level, so that he can get acquainted with the track before even setting foot on it. as a result i expect my budget for this project to increase somewhat so i can probably make use of some more exotic materials. (yeah i know they could just buy one, but wheres the fun in that?)

 

i know these things work primarily by increasing the inertia of the camera set up and increasing the size of the moment required to make the camera rotate, but are there any good sites which detail the mechanics behind them?

 

cheers for taking the time to read all that! thanks!

 

Alex

[David Hughes]

hey ho!

 

my names Alex and I'm a 4th year mechanical engineering student at loughborough university. I'm a bit of an aspiring photographer myself, and that got me interested in video and pretty much decided what Part C project i undertook this year.

 

my project for the year is to design and build a hand held steadicam device. its for consumer/pro-sumer video cameras so i suspect its going to similar to what the Tiffen Steadicam Merlin can do....thought obviously I'll be looking to improve it.

 

as an added bonus, i have taken part in formula student this year completely by accident. you see they actually want to have a steadicam system made so that they can walk and film the race course at the drivers eye level, so that he can get acquainted with the track before even setting foot on it. as a result i expect my budget for this project to increase somewhat so i can probably make use of some more exotic materials. (yeah i know they could just buy one, but wheres the fun in that?)

 

i know these things work primarily by increasing the inertia of the camera set up and increasing the size of the moment required to make the camera rotate, but are there any good sites which detail the mechanics behind them?

 

cheers for taking the time to read all that! thanks!

 

Alex

Hi Alex.

This forum for you is.

http://homebuiltstabilizers.com/

This is exactly what you are after it is a very good site with a lot of information from people who have done what you want to do and of course there is a wealth of information here. Check it out.

If you haven't had a chance yet you should really have a go at a proper rig first just to get a feel for what you are trying to achieve, If you are ever in London let me know and if I have time I can give you a quick run through of what a real rig is like to set up and fly.

Also on this forum you have to use your real name as a login or people will get upset, we just like to know exactly who we are speaking to.

Good luck.

Dave.

thedave82 (at) hotmail.com

[Alex Mason]

Hi my names alex, im a part C Mechanical Engineer at loughborough university and my individual project for the year is to design and manufacture a hand held steadicam.

 

 

from what i have seen so far, the cameras im looking to support range from around 300g to nearly 3kg in weight, so i think a hand held device is probably going to be the best choice to pursue, though i have tried holding a 5Kg dumbbell at around arms length and it is quite tiring so maybe an option for some kind of body mounted support might be necessary.

 

 

what i wanna ask really is

 

 

1) what do guys like yourselves, who are seasoned in the use of such devices, look for in a hand held steadicam device? what type of features are a must? what features do want but are so far missing from currently available devices?

 

 

2) what are the current short comings with such devices in your experience? ( i can kinda see that weight might be an issue for heavier pro-sumer cameras like those canon make)

 

3) am i correct in heading down the hand held road for these relatively light cameras? should i be thinking about having some way of supporting the device when the users arms get tired?

 

 

those are the main questions i think, im pretty sure i'll have more but cant really put my finger on them just yet

 

 

thanks for reading

 

alex

[Alex Mason]

hey ho!

 

my names Alex and I'm a 4th year mechanical engineering student at loughborough university. I'm a bit of an aspiring photographer myself, and that got me interested in video and pretty much decided what Part C project i undertook this year.

 

my project for the year is to design and build a hand held steadicam device. its for consumer/pro-sumer video cameras so i suspect its going to similar to what the Tiffen Steadicam Merlin can do....thought obviously I'll be looking to improve it.

 

as an added bonus, i have taken part in formula student this year completely by accident. you see they actually want to have a steadicam system made so that they can walk and film the race course at the drivers eye level, so that he can get acquainted with the track before even setting foot on it. as a result i expect my budget for this project to increase somewhat so i can probably make use of some more exotic materials. (yeah i know they could just buy one, but wheres the fun in that?)

 

i know these things work primarily by increasing the inertia of the camera set up and increasing the size of the moment required to make the camera rotate, but are there any good sites which detail the mechanics behind them?

 

cheers for taking the time to read all that! thanks!

 

Alex

Hi Alex.

This forum for you is.

<a href="http://homebuiltstabilizers.com/" target="_blank">http://homebuiltstabilizers.com/</a>

This is exactly what you are after it is a very good site with a lot of information from people who have done what you want to do and of course there is a wealth of information here. Check it out.

If you haven't had a chance yet you should really have a go at a proper rig first just to get a feel for what you are trying to achieve, If you are ever in London let me know and if I have time I can give you a quick run through of what a real rig is like to set up and fly.

Also on this forum you have to use your real name as a login or people will get upset, we just like to know exactly who we are speaking to.

Good luck.

Dave.

thedave82 (at) hotmail.com

 

 

thanks dave!

 

i hear you, i will go change my name... log in or display name or both?

 

also, thanks for the offer about sampling a steadicam, i may take you up on that if i cannot get the media department here at uni to let me have a go with theirs. i should be able to use it though, best get on them about it actually!

 

thanks again

Edited October 15, 2007 by Oitspunkmeyer

[Lukas Franz]

Hi Alex,

 

I think, it's not quite the right place here on this forum to ask for hand held stabilizers.

 

But try the forum on: http://homebuiltstabilizers.com/

 

I think you get answers from people who are more into construction and have more experience with that. We are mostly more the users (of the big rigs).

 

Well, maybe you get some feedback from operators here, but I definitely recommend you the homebuilt community.

 

Good luck with your project.

 

Lukas

[Ken Underwood]

Hey Alex, personally I think a Fig Rig is the best option for smaller cameras like you're talking about. Plus it is extremely affordable at around $350. Anyway, google it and I'm sure you'll come up with something.