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How to build this heavy duty DIY camera car rig for only $30

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Mounting cameras to cars is a lot of fun. It can allow us to get some unique and unusual perspectives in photos and videos. But how do you attach a camera to a car? There are a bunch of different ways from inexpensive triple suction cup mounts (that work surprisingly well) to extremely expensive commercial solutions.

But what if you have a big load to carry that the little triple suction mount can’t handle, and you don’t have the budget for a high-end mounting system? Well, you can make your own. And you can do it for $30 or less, too. In this video from filmmaker Rob Wayne at PremiumBeat, we see how.

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How to make a DIY Scrim Jim for less than $80

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Scrim jims, butterflies, overheads, 4×4 frames, whatever you want to call them, are a staple on most film sets – and for good reason. They can be used to turn almost any light into a large soft light source; they can be used to even out the light during outdoor shoots; and you can use them, with a dark fabric, as large flags. They’re versatile, they’re sturdy, they’re portable, and by building them ourselves, they’re certainly worth having one or two in your kit. Matthews and Westcott, among others, make these that you can pick up for $150 – 200, but today we’re going to make our own for around $80.

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How to 3D print your own DIY motorised tracking 2-axis camera slider

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I’ve been getting into 3D printing quite a bit this year. Mostly with regard to how it can help me with my own photography and video challenges. One of the first things I did was to motorise my camera slider. Now, my own efforts in this realm are still quite basic, but while researching how others have overcome certain issues in this area, I came across this tutorial recently posted to Instructables by jjRobots.

It’s a tracking 2-axis motorised, mostly 3D printed camera slider. This means that it doesn’t just move the camera from one end of the slider to the other, but it also turns the camera. This way, your camera can move while remaining fixed on a specific target. And it’s all controlled from your smartphone – that app’s available for free, too.

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This is how you build a USCSS Nostromo (Alien ’79) inspired battery charging station

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Organizing all sorts of batteries and chargers is always a big problem among photographers. We’ve seen quite a few crafty people tackle this problem by creating their own charging stations. However, none of them could ever be as remarkable as the Nostromo-inspired version that Eric Strebel built. In this video he shows you exactly how he did it.

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How to construct the world’s most well built and best looking DIY light box

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It’s always interesting to see how those who have some kind of actual construction skill tackle photography related projects. For example, if any of us needed a lightbox for a small product shoot, we may typically venture off toward Amazon. Or we might be impatient and want to build our own, so we grab a cardboard box, and start hacking away at it with a knife.

For a woodworker, though, like Glenn Scott at DIY Creators, a cardboard box just isn’t enough. After recently requiring a lightbox to shoot some small products, Glen decided to build his own. He uses common woodworking techniques to construct it, and the result is just magnificent. A purpose-built wooden lightbox that looks like it fits right in with your furniture.

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How to make 3 great practical effects for your videos

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Filmmaker Daniel DeArco is big fan of DIY. If you follow his social media, you’ll see that he comes up with all kinds of self-built solutions to overcome the challenges he faces in his productions. Not all of these projects are to solve a technical problem, though. Sometimes it’s for visual effect. And in this video, he talks about three of the practical effects he made for a recent video.

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Here’s how to hack a Polaroid camera to print on thermal paper instead of film

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Building an instant camera that prints images on thermal paper isn’t exactly a new concept. Just a couple of years, ago, we even encountered a Gameboy pocket camera from 1998 that uses the same principle. But hacking a Polaroid camera so it could use receipt paper instead of film? That’s definitely something we haven’t seen before, and Tim Alex Jones shows you exactly how he did it in this Youtube video.

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How to make your own DIY wireless follow focus rig out of LEGO

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Other than being the greatest toy ever, LEGO bricks have been proven useful in photography and filmmaking. Some creatives use them as subjects, and some make sliders or stabilizers out of them. In this video, Jacob Kassnoff of Indy Mogul demonstrates how he made a DIY follow focus rig using LEGO bricks and a single 3D-printed piece. So if your stash of LEGO is gathering dust somewhere in the attic, here’s a chance to play with it again in this super-geeky project.

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DIY Options for Charging Drone Batteries Off-Grid

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If you have a drone, sooner or later you’re going to want to charge your drone battery off-grid.

The problem is that drones use big batteries, so to charge a big battery you need an even bigger battery – a simple solar panel USB charger might be good enough to charge your phone, but it isn’t going to provide enough current to charge a drone battery.

There are a few commercial options available that can charge your drone batteries without an AC outlet, but I decided to build my own…(spoiler – don’t bother!)

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