Tag Archives: DSLR Cage

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fig-rig-stabilizer-iphone
click image to jump to Flickr

An iPhone is a small device, and so far many of the stabilizers have been short handles. Earlier this week Tate Nations showed us his version of the DSLR Cage Fig Rig painted Red. Tate probably had a lot of left over strut rail to come up with this other use. This has to be the first Fig Rig i've seen for use with the iPhone. Some might think it's overkill, but remember there is an iPhone Cinema Kit out there that will run you about $900 bucks.....now that's 'overkill'. Overkill or not, it's DIY, pure fun, and i'm sure it provides excellent stabilization. Very cool DIY which would be interesting to see people's reactions when this hits those events.

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DIY-Fig-Rig diy-fig-rig-red
Click Images for Flickr

Posted by Tate Nations found in the comments section of this DIY DSLR Cage Fig Rig Stabilizer article. Wow I must admit, the black camera on red rig, with grey handles looks pretty sweet. Great job on this design Tate! You can find Tate's Flickr image here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shockingbird/4911513235/in/photostream/

If you're looking to build your own, you can find that article I posted a while back here: http://cheesycam.com/cheesycam-exclusive-diy-dslr-cage-stabilizer/

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I always admit how poorly some of my DIY videos are. Many times I just show beginning, skip middle, straight to the end results. I don't explain clearly how it's all put together. Well if you plan on building that Cheesycam DSLR Cage Fig Rig Stabilizer, you may want to take a look at the video above regarding a few important steps I forgot to provide.

Before you begin your DIY, you'll have to work completely shirtless because that's how Real Men DIY. You need to play some heavy metal rock music in a foreign language, cut steel in a boiler room environment, and grind metal while allowing hot sparks to hit bare skin. That's right 'bare skin'. Yeah that's exactly how I was working on my cage too but I didn't have time to edit that in to my video. Thanks Videonik Pictures, that's the coolest DIY Cage video ever!

Next up, Carlo Zappella caught the article I posted about the DIY Variable ND Filter for about $10 bucks, and whipped up his own. Using a Canon T2i and sticking to 'double the framerate' rule with his Shutter speed around 1/50th, he was still able to maintain excellet DOF without overexposing on this uber cheap DIY Variable ND Fader Filter. They say it's possible to lose some sharpness depending on the filters you buy, but I didn't notice anything. It looks much better than without a variable ND that's for sure. They also say it could change color tone depending on the filters you use, but Carlo threw in the Magic Bullet Looks and it came out great. He's also using a DIY Slider for the slow sliding shots, similar to mine here.

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Just happened upon a couple of videos that linked back to the blog. Here's the original articles they were referencing.
http://cheesycam.com/test-diy-dslr-cage-fig-rig-stabilizer/
http://cheesycam.com/20-00-diy-offset-shoulder-rig-cheesyrig/

Wow, these guys really know how to DIY! I'm glad the videos they shot are much more creative than my forte 'on the floor of a bedroom with a carpet background'. I really hate to post this up right now, Vimeo is having issues with their Play Stats. It would be great for these guys to see how many plays they get for their hard work.

I very much appreciate these guys linking back to the blog, and I ask as much as possible that everyone does, so that we can point others to all of this information for budget film makers. Most importantly thanks again to these guys for taking the time to inspire others to try DIY equipment too. Details of their videos are pulled from Vimeo.

DIY Shoulder Mount

Inspired by www.cheesycam.com I decided to save myself a few bob and build my own shoulder rig for some stabilization action. Works pretty well, and am pleased with it. I have a few long screws on it....but i can cut them to length later.
Looking forward to getting some use from it now!

DIY Fig Rig

Here is our very first attempt at a DIY rig. The plans came from CheesyCam and we thought we take the rig to our good friends at Rustworks for some metal cutting and assembling. Enjoy the video. We had a good time putting this Fig Rig together.

RUSTWORKS
830 Bransten Road
San Carlos, CA
(650) 593-2276

Big thanks to: www.cheesycam.com

Shot with the Canon 5D Mark II

Visit our website: www.calixteworks.com

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First of all, I want to apologize if i'm not very responsive to many of the comments or emails that come in. I'm pretty overwhelmed with the response this blog has, and being a one man show, i'm trying my best! I'm an average guy, with an 80 mile commute (one way) in the mornings, I get home late at night, hang out with the kids & family, but still try to take time responding to questions, posting informative information, and sharing my most random DIY ideas.

Don't worry though, my eyes are open to the work you do, and I enjoy sharing everyone's hard work, especially those who always link back. Case in point, I just ran into this DIY DSLR support rig video. He never contacted me asking to share this video, but by linking back to the blog, I get alerted by these pingbacks.

I keep saying how I run though my DIY build videos so quickly sometimes, and I may not be as informative about how it all comes together. (sorry!). I'm not that fortunate to have another person interested enough to hold the camera for me. In any case, enjoy some of these recent videos that produced the DIY information better than I could. Thanks for taking the time to clear up things i've missed, and for sharing your work with the rest of the DSLR community. Make sure to leave them some nice comments, thanks guys.

How to Make a DSLR Cage
how-to-make-a-dslr-cage

Another great video I wanted to share is this one by JCN. Using the IndiSlider (see i'm still plugging you IndiSystems), and the Reverse Macro trick, referenced to this blog, JCN pulled off some very nice footage from the Canon 550D / T2i.

A Day at the Beach
jcn-day-at-the-beach