fbpx

DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

Submit A Story

How to build a low budget cinema rig (and an expensive one) around the Canon EOS M50

Building up a proper rig for shooting video isn’t that difficult, it’s just expensive. Well, usually. Fully geared cinema rigs can run into the tens of thousands of dollars depending on what you’re putting into them. But what if you could build something for around $2,000, including the cost of the camera itself?

In this video, Chadwin Smith takes a look at the humble Canon EOS M50. At its launch, the EOS M50 looked like a very promising camera except for the fact that there was a substantial crop when shooting 4K video, but if you can live with that, then it makes for an ideal inexpensive camera for shooting video.

[Read More…]

Is this the perfect camera rig for video shooters?

by 1 Comment

When it comes to shooting video, we all have our favourite rig setups that we like to use for different tasks. I have three Panasonics here that I use for different things and they’re all set up differently so that I can just grab one and go whenever I need each. But is it possible to build the perfect camera rig on a single perfect camera that meets 99% of your shooting needs?

That’s the topic Caleb Pike explores in this video, and he believes that he’s found it. At least, he has for his needs. There are so many different ways of setting up a camera and everybody has their own personal preferences but Caleb’s setup offers a lot of versatility and options for different shooting demands.

[Read More…]

This guy built his own SSD side handle for the Z Cam E2 so he wouldn’t have to buy a cage rig

by 1 Comment

Sometimes, you have a camera rig and you need a thing, and there’s just no real commercially available solution out there to give you exactly what you need. So, you make your own. And that’s exactly what filmmaker Maximillian Wasinger did for his Z Cam E2 rig, with this rather fetching looking wooden side handle that also acts as SSD storage.

And when we make such things, sometimes we document the process to share with others. And, thankfully, Maximillian did that, too. DIYP spoke with Maximillian to find out more information on his process to design and build this handle, and he was more than happy to share it with us.

[Read More…]

How to build a massive DIY orbital spinning camera rig

by Leave a Comment

Making cameras move in ways that are different can be a challenge, especially as cameras and all their associated bits seem to keep getting bigger and heavier. In a recent short film release, Skywatch, filmmaker Jason Levy needed to produce a camera rig which orbited around an object in a scene, early on in the film. There was no commercial solution available, so he made his own.

It’s called the Spin Rig and we’ve seen similar such rigs before, although mostly on a much smaller scale or designed for lighter weight cameras like GoPros. The Spin Rig, however, is much more substantial. If you don’t want spoilers, watch the short film first (it’s at the bottom of this post).

[Read More…]

Here are five hilarious DIY rigs for filming on a tight budget

How many times did you have a great idea for a video, but then you realized you don’t have the budget high enough to get all the gear you need for it? Well, the DIY approach always comes to the rescue in these situations. In this video, Dan Mace shares five of these DIY ideas he calls “sh*tty rigs.” Some of them are just hilarious, but hey – they work!

[Read More…]

How to set up a complete YouTube studio on a single desk

by Leave a Comment

Recently, Caleb Pike showed us his studio on a stand. Now, he’s back with a new video, showing us how we can set up something a little more permanent for YouTube or other content creation by setting up a complete studio on a desk. If you’re regularly shooting at the same location, perhaps doing tutorials, or even just spoken pieces to camera, having a more permanent, efficient setup often makes more sense than one you can wheel around.

[Read More…]

How to build a full YouTube studio on a single light stand

by 4 Comments

One of the big excuses I hear for people who want to do YouTube but don’t is that they don’t have the room. There’s just not enough space where they live to be able to set up lights and cameras and microphones and everything else. Well, Caleb Pike to the rescue!

In this video, Caleb shows us how we can create a complete recording setup for YouTube which includes the camera, light, microphone and other doohickies on just a single light stand in order to be able to shoot whenever we want, wherever we want, and have it take up as little space as possible.

[Read More…]

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

by Leave a Comment

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.

[Read More…]

This robotic camera rig creates 3D light painting animations

We’ve seen and featured some awesome light painting projects so far. But Josh Sheldon has taken light painting to a whole new level. He has combined a camera rig with 3D animation software. So, with some light and long exposures, he creates trippy 3D animations painted with light.

[Read More…]

This wooden DIY camera rig is about as frugal as it gets

by 2 Comments

When push comes to shove, the kinds of DIY solutions people come up with to solve photography and filmmaking problems really can be amazing. Take camera rigs, for example. DSLRs aren’t exactly the most ergonomic of devices when it comes to shooting video. But camera rigs can be very expensive, even relatively modest ones. So what can you do?

For Ghana-based filmmaker Abass Safian, the answer was obvious. Make his own. And that’s exactly what he did with a few pieces of wood, some basic tools, and a little time. It’s a great looking DIY rig and probably does the job as well as some of the commercial options.

[Read More…]

Recent Posts