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How to make a DIY smartphone gimbal with just a mop, paint roller and tin cans

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Motorised smartphone gimbals have gotten pretty inexpensive over the last couple of years. Something like the Zhiyun Smooth 4 only costs $120, and you can find ones that are even cheaper if you shop around. But there’s something to be said for the humble gravity stabiliser, especially when you can make one yourself.

In this video, the guys from COOPH show us how we can make a DIY smartphone stabiliser using just a mop head, a paint roller and a few tin cans. It’s a super simple project, and the results look pretty good.

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This guy built a high speed DIY LED flash and put the plans online so you can make your own

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LED flash still hasn’t really hit the mainstream yet. There are a couple of products out there, of course, like the Rotolite Neo, but for the most part, there’s still not very good for general use. They’re just not powerful enough. But sometimes they can be perfect for the intended use. In particular, high-speed events. This is because you can get an extremely fast flash duration.

You can buy these sorts of light, but they aren’t common and they aren’t cheap. So, tinkerer Tyler Gerritsen thought he’d have a go at making his own. And the results it produces are pretty outstanding.

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How to make a cheap DIY bullet time rig with a lazy susan and some drawer slides

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It’s 20 years since The Matrix was released (don’t you feel old?), but the bullet time effect is still incredibly popular. I don’t know what the deal is with the title they gave for this video, but The King of Random just put up this video covering how they made their bullet time slow motion camera rig using a handful of off-the-shelf components. It’s a simple design, but very effective, producing some fantastic final results.

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How to to make your own DIY LED panel for only $13

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You know what it’s like, you’re walking through the local dollar store (or pound shop, for those in the UK) and you see some interesting looking cheap LED lights. So, you buy a bunch of them and turn them into a DIY LED panel. At least, what’s what Dave Knop (AKA, Knoptop) did, and it only cost him $13.

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Here are two budget DIY ways to get the black light look without using actual black lights

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If you want to achieve the black light look in your photos or videos, buying a bunch of black light bulbs can be quite pricey. But, you can DIY it for only $7. In this video, Jakob Owens of TheBuffNerds shows you two super simple ways to get the black light look without exceeding your budget.

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This guy gave the Blackmagic Pocket 4K a flippy up LCD and he’s planning to sell DIY kits

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The only thing that really stopped the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K from becoming the vlogging camera of choice is the lack of flippy up or flippy out articulating LCD. In order to be able to see yourself, you’d need to use an external monitor, which increases the weight, making it somewhat impractical.

Sure, the Pocket 4K was never intended to be a vlogging camera, but that hasn’t stopped Power_cheung over on Filmmaker.cn from taking matters into his own hands and figuring out how to modify his Pocket 4K to give it that flippy up LCD.

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Lithophanes – How to 3D print your photographs

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When I was first told “Hey, you should 3D print some of your photos” a couple of years, I thought they were mad. 3D print a photo? Then I did a little digging and found out that you can actually 3D print photographs. Sort of.

They’re called lithophanes, a pretty old technique that’s been around since the early 1800s. Of course, they didn’t have 3D printers back then, they made them out of porcelain. These days, though, we do, which makes them much easier to create. So, I finally got around to making some.

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How to make a quality DIY video light using LED strips and a cake pan for only $40

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There are many continuous light options out there these days for video that produce a fantastic quality of light. One such light that’s become very popular is the Aputure Light Storm COB 120D. But at $500, it’s not really an option for many newer filmmakers.

In this video, filmmaker Daniel Shiffer looks at making a $40 DIY alternative. For this project, Daniel wanted something large, circular and reflective, so he used  a 14″ cake pan along with some flexible LED strips, and a piece of diffusion material to produce some great results.

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Pine cones are the perfect, free, natural DIY SD card holder

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Every year, a pine tree close to our house produces the most perfect cones, and I often pick up a handful of them on my way home. The cones are undeniably beautiful, but not of much practical use. Or so I thought, until one day it hit me that a cone would make a rather nifty SD card holder. Besides the SD cards designated for regular use with my camera that are stored in a proper holder, I also have a bunch of cards that I use only occasionally. These cards are all over the place, ad keeping tabs on them is an impossible task.

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How to make large prints using flour, water and laser printer

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Printing images is a great way to keep them forever, but also to decorate the interior. I believe that many of us have prints in our home or office, and Alastair Bird has an amazing idea how to make them from some basic materials. In this video, he shows you how to turn photos into large prints using nothing but some flour, water, paper, and a laser printer.

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