This huge DIY camera crane built with metal tubes and 3D printing has a very cool trick up its sleeve

There are a lot of great tools out there for moving your camera these days, and there are plenty of more affordable options out there for most of them, too. Including camera cranes. So, why did Ivan Miranda decide to build his own? Well, when you break your tripod, need to replace it and have a whole bunch of large 3D printers at your disposal… Why not?

This is a pretty large build, as you can see from the thumbnail above and it’s very different to the one we saw from Alex Chappel a few months ago. Ivan’s is more of a traditional style crane, rather than the stand Alex built, but like Alex, Ivan utilised some metal tubes and 3D printing to turn his vision into a reality. And I think he pulled it off quite nicely.

It’s got some very smart construction in there, particularly with the way the arm itself moves and maintains a level camera. But what’s really interesting about Ivan’s crane design vs almost every commercial solution out there that’s in the budget realm of non-Hollywood mortals is that it actually has a pan lock feature. And it’s optional.

The pan movement has two methods of operation. Either the camera can rotate with the arm, meaning that as you rotate the crane arm the camera follows with it to continue pointing in the direction of the arm. Or, you can configure it so that as the arm rotates, the camera does not, and always fixed and pointing in the same direction, regardless of the angle of the arm.

Very handy if you want to try to pan and track a sideways-moving subject, especially while tilting the arm up or down at the same time. I don’t know if Ivan is making the plans available for this to build your own – he often does make plans available to purchase – but even if not, it has a lot of great ideas for those of you who might want to have a go at building your own.