31 Jan 2010, Posted by David Torcivia in Articles,Filmmaking, 0 Comments

Ingenious Micro-Steadicam

I am constantly impressed with the ingenuity of poor filmmakers. We couldn’t afford 16 or 35 but loved the depth so we invented the 35mm adapter. We can’t push in without renting an expensive dolly and tracks, pvc pipes and skateboard wheels come to the rescue, and of course we can’t glide so we build our own steadicams.

I’ve seen many a would-be filmmaker, including myself at one point, sporting the (in)famous $14 Steadycam. Little more than a heavy monopod, the device is only slightly superior to handholding a camera as it lacks a gimbal to isolate your motion from the camera. One enterprising DIYer has set out to remedy this problem with his own DIY Steadicam.

Now on version 5 of his device, YB2Normal offers an interesting look at how he creates a smoother, gimbal-ed design using only wood and pvc as opposed to true steadicam systems running in the many thousands of dollars.

Here you can see his Version 2, modeled after the relatively inexpensive Merlin design,  in action:

[YB2Normal Steadicam]