BUILDING A STEADYCAM

We needed to shoot a sequence where the camera had to move among a
group of people. Just walking with the camera by itself would have given
a pretty shaky performane. So we decided to build us a "Steadycam", they
are very expensive to buy commercially and there is really not much in them,
that a handyman cannot do.

The secret is the counter weight which needs to be the same or slightly
more than the camera complete with battery and tape and any other accessories.



Fig. 1
We bought a 400mm long aluminium tubing of 25mm diameter from our local
hardware store.You could use any other material but it gets pretty heavy using
anything heavier than aluminium. And aluminium tubing is easily available.
Fig. 2
We had an old mini tripod which was no longer being used. We disassembled
the head and fitted it into the aluminium tubing and secured it with a couple of
screws through the side of the tubing. Next we needed a 1kg weight as our
TRV-900 digital camera weighs exactly 1 kg with the battery and a tape.
Fig. 3
We thought long and hard about that and eventually called on our local
sheetmetal company and got them to make a 100 X 100 X 100mm cube
which we filled with scrap sheetmetal until we had a 1kg counter
weight which we secured to the aluminium tubing trough the bottom
of the cube. We now have our own home-made steadycam and very
importantly IT WORKS VERY WELL
Fig. 4
We rapped the aluminium tubing with tape purchased from a sports
store which is normally used to wrap the handle of a tennis racket, it
is important to do that above the gravity point of the tube so that
the weight will work properly.