How to make a (sort of) DIY JibONE camera jib

The recently announced Edelkrone JibONE looks like a fantastic bit of kit. It’s not terribly unreasonably priced at $999 for what it offers, but once you add the motorised head and other doohickies, it can quickly run into several thousand. Filmmaker and YouTuber Chadwin Smith decided to have a go at making his own version of the JibONE.

The video’s called I built my own Edelkrone JibONE for free! and, well, it sort of is, but not really. The setup uses a motorised camera gimbal, so if you don’t already own one of those, then it’s not free. But it’s an interesting option for those who already have the kit shown in the video, but don’t want to go to the expense of the JibONE.

Chadwin’s setup essentially involves a tripod, some claw clamps, a 3-axis motorised gimbal and a gimbal extension pole. You can also attach a monitor at the base for easy viewing when your camera’s at an odd angle you can’t quite see.

The way it’s mounted, the gimbal handle and extension pole basically act as the arm of the jib, and then you move the tripod head as you normally would to raise and lower the camera or pan it from side to side. The big difference between this setup and the JibONE, of course, is that here you’re moving the “jib” manually, it’s not motorised as it is with the JibONE.

But using the gimbal on the end means that your camera will always stay level, regardless of how much you lower or raise it, or pan. Just lock the axes and you’re good to go.

Depending on your setup, you might need to add a counterweight to the back, to balance things out a bit (you are moving things manually, after all), and you might want to go with some kind of collar rather than just relying on the 1/4-20″ thread to handle all that weight when the gimbal’s held horizontally. That could be a lot of strain on that little thread with a big heavy gimbal like the Ronin-S and a full-sized DSLR or another larger camera rig.

As I mentioned, this isn’t motorised around the base like the Edelkrone JibONE, so, yeah, it’s not quite a complete JibONE alternative, but still definitely a very useful setup, especially if you already own the gear used.

[via ISO1200]