Comments for colvins.ca

Comment on Easy To Build Stepper Controller from Recycled Materials by Robert E.

Robert E. — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 05:59:07 +0000

Is the pin assignment correct on the X axis? It looks like it is connected to pins 1-14-16-17 on the DB-25. Should it be 14-15-16-17.

Comment on DIY Camera Crane by How to film this smooth

How to film this smooth — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 22:59:51 +0000

[...] There are lots of DIY steadicam techniques out there. Here's one example. And here's a crane. ____________________________ Reply With Quote + Reply to Thread [...]

Comment on DIY Camera Crane by Roberto

Roberto — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:02:44 +0000

what camera do you use?

Comment on DIY Cable Cam by Mark

Mark — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:27:27 +0000

Try and upgrade to Dyneema wires. Dyneema is “The world’s strongest fiber” and is used in bullet-proof vests, fishing lines, kite flying, sailing, rock climbing …

How do you move the camera along the wire?

Be careful with motors on the camera platform as the noise might be heard on the recording.

Comment on DIY Camera Crane by Free Standing Awning Pit

Free Standing Awning Pit — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:21:02 +0000

Wow, finally I found a solution for our low budget vidcasts. We have to achieve exactly this effects, but have no budget to rent a camera crane – but this is the proof we can do it – and thanks for the video !

Comment on DIY Camera Crane Update. by rafeeq

rafeeq — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:01:53 +0000

thanks for share this cam crane …..this crane is very intersted to me because last year vacation i direct one movie using n73 nokia camera i thing this crane easy to build for n73..thanks…….

Comment on DIY Camera Crane by Connecting Bloggers » Blog Archive » 3 camera booms for your Wednesday afternoon

Sat, 17 Jul 2010 04:36:24 +0000

[...] accidentally linked us to his other Camera Crane, taking the same ‘cheap yet effective’ approach as his Cable Cam. Once again, just some [...]

Comment on DIY Cable Cam by James

James — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:56:40 +0000

Too cool. I’ll have to try this out.

Comment on DIY Cable Cam by Jerry

Jerry — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:38:54 +0000

Why don’t you just tie a trucker’s hitch or butterfly knot in lieu of the ratchet strap? I would think you could get more efficient tension with just knots than with the added hardware.

The safety is a nice touch, but I would recommend using the same parachute cord for your safety that you use for the main line. It looks like you are using polypropylene twine. Good for packages, not so good for overhead rigging.

Comment on DIY Cable Cam by Rob

Rob — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:11:36 +0000

How about using a pair of winches on one of the trees? tie one end of the rope directly to a tree, and tie a pair of pulleys to the other tree a foot or two higher than the end that’s “dead tied”. Then have a winch connected to the main cable, and another connected to a “haul rope” tied to the carriage. This way, by varying the tension on the main support rope, you can control the height of the camera, and the other rope will control the movement of the camera along the support rope using gravity to move it out and tension on the rope to pull it back. Or use a closed loop to move it back and forth if that makes more sense.

I would also suggest using servos on the camera mount connected to an Arduino (or other micro-controller) to control the pan and tilt, and maybe the zoom. For the zoom, there’s multiple ways to do this, if the lens has to be manually turned, connect a servo or stepper motor to an elastic band wrapped around the lens barrel to turn it. If it’s already motorized, you could crack the camera open and either wire in a relay control for the T/W buttons, or even control the motor directly from the Arduino. Or even just have solenoids that push the T/W buttons without modifying the camera itself.

This whole system could be done using JeeNodes (Arduino clones with a built in RF serial link). This way you could have one to control winches for the two ropes, and another mounted on the camera carriage to control pan/tilt/zoom, a solenoid to press the record button, and maybe even LED lighting and/or external microphone direction.

With this system, you could have the whole rig controlled by a computer, say you’re making a movie and you think you’re going to want to do the same shot multiple times, or for multiple takes, you could program the rig to take the shot you like, save the programming, and run the same shot as many times as you want. If you like the way the shot came out but would like to modify it just slightly, just change one or two values in your programming.

With automation, you’ll get incredibly smooth movements, you won’t have to worry about the rope jerking with hand-over-hand movements. This whole idea may sound expensive, but believe me, it could be done entirely for less than 100 bucks. If you’re not familiar with micro-controllers, the Arduino is a great entry-level one, I had no experience with them whatsoever, and within a week of buying one, I was already building a CNC machine, they’re incredibly easy to pick up on.