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This crazy looking DIY camera gives the full frame FOV and DOF equivalent of a 35mm f/0.4

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You can’t beat a good DIY crazy camera and they don’t get much crazier than this. Built by Matt at DIY Perks, this particular camera features a 432mm f/5 episcope lens with an image projection circle of around 500mm in diameter. To give you some idea of scale, your average full-frame lens has an image projection circle with a diameter of at least 43mm. That’s an area of 0.015 square meters. This lens has an image circle of 0.785 square metres (~50x the size).

And with this huge projection also comes a big advantage when it comes to depth of field. Despite being a 432mm f/5 lens, it offers the equivalent field of view and depth of field as a 35mm lens would on a full-frame camera if it had a maximum aperture of f/0.4. The closest lens to this designed for the relatively small full-frame format is the Zeiss 50mm f/0.7, and the last one of those to sell was rumoured to fetch around $200,000.

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Five simple but effective camera moves you can make with a power drill

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A power drill isn’t usually on the list when it comes to packing our camera bags to head out on a shoot, but as this video from Luke Edwin shows, a power drill can be an extremely versatile filmmaking tool! Ok, so, maybe “filmmaking tool” is a bit of an exaggeration, especially if you’re using a heavy camera like a tricked-out mirrorless rig in a cage. But they can let you get some pretty unique shots.

Luke shows off five different shots that were created with the assistance of a power tool and some DIY rigs. Some are designed for smaller cameras like action cameras, 360 cameras or specifically the teeny tiny Insta360 GO 2 (review here), but a couple of these tricks can be used with larger camera systems, too!

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This guy bought five broken ARRI Alexas to see if he could make one working camera

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Almost everybody who’s into video dreams of one day shooting on an ARRI Alexa. But actually owning one is pure fantasy for most of us. Not for Adam Harig, though, who spotted an eBay auction for five ARRI Alexa cameras on eBay one day and put in an offer. There was only one snag, these ARRI Alexa cameras weren’t working and were in various states of… deconstruction, with a part missing here and there.

After chatting with the seller and feeling reasonably confident that he might get a single working camera together between them, the seller accepted his offer of $1,250. It was a big gamble if he couldn’t get one to work. And even if he did, this wasn’t going to be his only expense, as he later found out. Owning an ARRI Alexa is not cheap!

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This $30 DIY Shure SM7B alternative sounds almost as good as the real thing

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So, that title deserves some qualifiers. It doesn’t sound as good as the Shure SM7B, but almost as good? Yeah, sure, it’s pretty good, especially considering what it costs – and assuming you already own a 3D printer. It’s not a totally DIY project from scratch, more a modification of an existing microphone to put it into a new housing. A bit like modifying old film photography lenses with a new housing to turn them into cinema lenses – they’re not really cinema lenses, but they’re close.

The Shure SM7B is a staple amongst podcasters, vloggers and live streamers but at around $400, it’s not exactly an inexpensive microphone. In this video, Caleb Pike shows us how we can take an inexpensive $20 Behringer microphone and a couple of bits and turn it into something that gives a very similar sound to the vastly more expensive microphone.

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This 3D printed DIY teleprompter has a built-in screen and can be used anywhere

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Anybody who’s ever had to sit (or stand) and do a spoken piece to camera will know the struggle of trying to learn and memorise a script. Even if we think we’ve got it nailed down pretty well, we’ll often find ourselves doing two or three (or twelve) takes for some lines that just don’t seem to come out right, especially if they’re pretty long ones. This is where teleprompters step in and this one’s pretty awesome.

Designed by Modern Hobbyist (MH), this is the second iteration of his teleprompter design and features a built-in Raspberry Pi 3B+ and 3.5″ touchscreen so you don’t need to mess around trying to slot your phone into it each time you need it and thanks to running a Linux web server you get external button control thanks to an Arduino Pro Micro pretending to be a standard USB keyboard.

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Here’s how to build a complete portable podcasting setup into a single case for easy travel

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Now that the world has spent the last couple of years stocking up on microphones, lights, new cameras and a mountain of other bits to be able to stream from home or just make our Zoom calls look and sound a bit better than our co-workers, what do we do with it now that the world has (mostly) opened back up and we’re able to start travelling again? Well, we take it with us, of course!

In this video, the team at Syrp Lab build an entire podcasting studio in a single box that lets you record or broadcast from pretty much anywhere. Based on (in?) the Manfrotto ProLight Reloader Tough-55 roller case, it’s rugged enough to deal with the usual rough handling of travel and it also fits within carry-on restrictions (although do double-check before you book) when you need to fly!

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Arducam announces new 108-megapixel USB camera module for IoT and Machine Vision application

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For those developing their own DIY cameras, the various modules that pop up on the market can be a lot of fun to experiment with. And one of the biggest names in camera modules for experimenting with is Arducam. Only a couple of months after releasing their 64-megapixel camera module for the Raspberry Pi, they’ve now announced a new 108-megapixel camera module and this one runs on USB 3.0.

The new 108-megapixel camera development kit is designed primarily for use with IoT and Machine Vision applications, hence the USB 3.0 connection, which provides a lot more versatility than being locked into a Raspberry Pi. So, you can use it on just about any system you can add a USB 3.0 port to – including your desktop computer!

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How to make two DIY foldable V-flats for $150

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I’ve used poly-boards, bounce-boards, and even white sheets and white walls as lighting modifiers to soften the light in the past, but arguably the quickest and most efficient way to instantly achieve beautifully soft light, is the V-Flat.

What is a V-Flat?

In its simplest form, a V-Flat is 2 large sheets of white board joined together on the long edge. Imagine two regular white doors hinged together at the sides and it’s this resulting ‘V’ shape that allows them to stand by themselves without the need for further stands and supports. Fancy V-Flats are even black on the other side and the ultra-supremo ones are even foldable for storage too!

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The complete guide – How to turn any lens into an “anamorfake”

Anamorphic lenses seemed to disappear in popularity for a while but there is no doubt now that they’re back in a big way. And while there are some moderately low-budget options out there from companies like Sirui, Samyang and Great Joy, they’re still above the budgets of many who just want to play around and experiment. And playing around and experimenting happens to be Tito Ferradans’ speciality.

Over on his YouTube channel, Anamorphic on a Budget, he’s experimented with a lot of DIY “anamorfake” options and he’s put together a complete guide on how you can do it yourself to pretty much any lens you already own. At least, he’s put together the first part of it, which is the video above.

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This ESP32-based DIY camera slider offers multi-axis motion control over wifi

There are as many different camera sliders out there on the market as there are cameras. If not more so and you can spend an absolute fortune getting every possible feature you could think of. But nothing beats building your own, and this DIY camera slider from Sasa Karanovic is probably one of the more compact and feature-packed builds we’ve seen here on DIYP because it supports multiple axes.

As well as just moving your camera down the length of the slider, it will also rotate the camera. It’ll even let you control the two simultaneously for some nice orbit-style slider shots. It’s based around an ESP32 microcontroller and the whole thing is controlled over WiFi using a web interface from your phone – or your tablet, computer, whatever.

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