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Build an easy DIY overhead camera rig with Open Source Hardware

Jul 13, 2016 by John Aldred 2 Comments

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Whether hardware or software, Open Source is a wonderful thing. Open Source doesn’t always mean free, though, especially when it comes to hardware.

While not necessarily cheap, the DIY solution presented in this video from Bent-Tronics does fall in line with other such overhead camera projects. The simple fact of the matter is that it’s not easy to do something like this ultra cheap unless you happen to have the perfect components just laying around doing nothing already.

If you already know why you need another camera rig, and the problems with existing solutions like tripods, then you can skip ahead to just before 6 minutes into the video and go straight to the build.

Building a rig this way out of a modular system like OpenBeam, means that it’s easily expandable in the future, or can be modified to suit other needs. Adding brackets for lights or an external monitor is only a couple of nuts and bolts away.

  • OpenBeam Starter Construction Kit – $49.99
  • OpenBeam Kossel Pro Extrusions – $64.99
  • Alpen Car Window Mount – $22.95

So, total cost will run you about $140 with these parts, but if you shop around, you can find alternatives for less. With OpenBeam being an open source product, the measurements are freely available for anybody to manufacture their own components if they have access to the suitable equipment to do so.

You can even dispense with the starter construction kit completely if you have your own 3D printer to make your own corner brackets, and M3 screws are the standard used for building PCs, so those are available in plentiful supply very inexpensively.

Using components like this also means that you can take it apart and reuse the pieces for something else when it’s no longer needed.

Do you use an overhead camera rig? Did you go with something like this? Or figure out something yourself from scratch? Let us know in the comments.

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Related posts:

This open-source DIY 6-axis motion control rig is almost entirely 3D printed How to build your own overhead camera rig Facebook posts its Open Source 3D 360 camera rig and software to GitHub This is the most well thought out DIY overhead camera rig I’ve ever seen

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: Bent-Tronics, open source, OpenBeam, Overhead Camera Rig

John Aldred: from diyphotography.net

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

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