Walking with the poor man's steadicam

[Ernie]

Ok, this is a question for those of you that have or know about the homemade $14 steadicam (the poor man's steadicam)...I don't think I'm the only one that has one of them. Check out this site if you've never heard of it...

http://www.student.virginia.edu/~fms-uva/steadycam/

I want to know if there is any special way your supposed to walk with it or hold it while using it. See, I haven't really used it yet but I want to make sure I know what I'm doing when I do use it, of course. I don't wanna make a fool of myself. I mean, I know it's not going to look perfect but there's no reason for it to look awful. So, just give me any pointers you can for walking with and holding this thing. I do have the inverting bracket add-on on mine if that makes any difference. Thank you guys. I hope I'm not the only one that has this.

[Ghostboy]

You really just need to go out and try it and learn how to do it yourself; the guy gives a decent enough explanation on how to use it on that page, but it's the kinda thing where practice makes perfect, so you're going to have to practice. You won't look like a fool as long as you take the time to get to figure out how to use it, which shouldn't be too long. I had the Steadicam JR, and I figured it out pretty fast, and this is way simpler than that.

Incidentally, the creator of this page mentions that pro steadicams cost about 1500. They're actually more in the range of 60,000 or more.

[Ernie]

You really just need to go out and try it and learn how to do it yourself; the guy gives a decent enough explanation on how to use it on that page, but it's the kinda thing where practice makes perfect, so you're going to have to practice. You won't look like a fool as long as you take the time to get to figure out how to use it, which shouldn't be too long. I had the Steadicam JR, and I figured it out pretty fast, and this is way simpler than that.

Incidentally, the creator of this page mentions that pro steadicams cost about 1500. They're actually more in the range of 60,000 or more.

Alright, thanks. I'll do that. I just wondered if there was anything I definitely should or definitely shouldn't do before I practiced that wasn't mentioned on the site.

[ReelHotGames]

The problem with this device is it does not have a free floating gimble which is the lynch pin of a steadicam.

Basically the poor man's steadicam as pictured on that page is a way to control the camera with a cleaner motion thatn your hand held would allow, but it will not give you the smooth float that a steadicam or glidecam allows - and this is because of the gimble.

You can get videocamera steadicam jrs for $1000ish and glidecams for $200-500

While this poor mans steadicam is better than going purely hand held, as it will buffer the motion, but I doubt it will give you a truly floating, sliding motion.

[snaporaz]

wierd, i was just looking on ebay for some steadicams. after seeing this guy's test video, i think i'll look into making one myself.



not too shabby, if you ask me.

[sphinx]

it's possible to get that kind of motion, and i have done some stuff with the poor man's steadycam; it does pay off when you're sprinting down a hallway chasing the subject of your shot, there really wasn't much of a problem with that.  it does get a bit annoying after a while, though

[Xixax]

It looks to me as if a poor man's steadicam is basically a monopod with an arm and some weights on the bottom.

I'm guessing that I could get similar results by bolting weights on the bottom feet of my tripod... Sort of.

[SHAFTR]

You could always use a tripod.  Mount the camera on the tripod and don't open the legs up of the tripod.  Hold the tripod rather than the camera...it allows for rather smooth movements.

Camera
  I
  I  <<<<<<<<hold
  I
 III
 III

[Xixax]

Yep, that's what I was thinking. I think I'll play with that some and see how it works.

[sphinx]

I'm guessing that I could get similar results by bolting weights on the bottom feet of my tripod... Sort of.

you would only get vertical support, but your camera would still tip side to side.  that's the point of having the t-shaped bar

[snaporaz]

i just went to home depot today and built myself the poor-man's steadicam. i even rigged it with the inverted bracket. the only thing that could pose a major problem is that i don't have a stationary vise or a power-drill, so instead of metal screw-on end-caps, i just used the plastic ones that come off quite easily - so i fastened them on the ends of the pipes using some industrial strength adhesive. gonna leave them to dry over-night. even longer, probably. even after that, imma try to find some bungee cords to keep the counter-weight and the camera from being pulled down by gravity and crash to the ground, in case the glue isn't strong enough.

results later...

[Pastor Parsley]

The cheap $18 tripods at Wal-Mart have a hook on the bottom that you could hang a weight from, and a handle on the shaft to hold.  In this way it could be converted to a cheap steadicam.

[mutinyco]

You could always do what the Coens and Sam Raimi used to to -- attach the camera to a base plate of some kind, then rig that to two parallel rods. The rods could be anything from sawed off broom sticks to 2-by-4 planks, depending on the camera's weight. You wind up with a tool in the shape of an H.

This is how all of those crazy tracking shots were done in The Evil Dead and Blood Simple.