Videography Gadgets

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Ok, you professionals can skip right over this article. This may even fall under 'tacky' for the seasoned Pro's. There's surprisingly a lot of young readers at this blog, possibly still in high school and unemployed. Aspiring to make fun YouTube videos with a standard handheld camcorder, they need an extra hand in some low budget DIY advice. These are probably the easiest & cheapest DIY stabilizers I could think of. So here you go kids, I hope you enjoy it, as I looked quite silly modeling these brackets on various parts of my body in the aisles of Home Depot like i'm creating the next Lady GaGa costume. It's ok though, I can rock a $2000 dollar Steadicam setup and still rock a $2 dollar Shelf Bracket, it's all good....i'm all about inspiring the creativity.

All of these 'Heavy Duty Shelf Hangers' can be found in the same place. These curved brackets are typically used for hanging heavy objects in your garage such as bikes and ladders. Unlike flat steel angled brackets, these are round (tubular) which are more comfortable to grip. There's plenty of different shapes and sizes to use these for adding extra support for your video camera.

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First up is a one sided angled bracket. By just adding a quick release plate on the bottom, you'll have yourself a very sturdy (very very sturdy) handle to your camera. Flat black paint and wrap up the handle with some Tennis racket grip tape, and you'll be in business. Notice the little angle at the top? Could be a nice place to add a cold shoe to mount another accessory. The rest of the bracket can be drilled to further hold more accessories like LED lights and portable recorders. By the way, just click any of the images to get a better look.Single bracket stabilizer for just $2.36.

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Second on the list is a double sided bracket. This is actually larger than what appears in the photo, and the double sides can act like handles on a Fig Rig. Hey this is way easier than trying to build the Cheesycam DSLR Cage Fig Rig. Just place a Quick Release adapter dead center, a little grip tape along the sides, and you'll have yourself a fig rig style camera stabilizer. Yup, there's another angle up top for that cold shoe accessory too for just $5.98.

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Third on the list, another simple bracket. Used in the position shown in the photo (above) the short angled end (left) actually feels comfortable as a small handle. The (right side) flat side has enough area to act as a chest plate. Throw a quick release adapter on top and you'll have yourself a steady little camera shooter for $5.24. Sure it's not offset, but should work pretty wicked for an HV20 or HV30 with flip out LCD, hey maybe even a Canon 60D with it's flip out LCD.

Yeah I know what you guys are thinking, pretty crazy right? For a group of young students looking to have a bit of fun making videos, so long as the bully doesn't steal your lunch money, you could gain some steady shots with these ideas. Oh and i'm guessing a few of you DIY'ers will be heading down to Home Depot later today to secretly play 'Heavy Duty Shelf Hanger Dress Up'. LOL...Try it, you'll be surprised.....

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Canon-BG-E9-Grip

Here it is people, first images of a Canon 60D upgraded with Canon battery grip BG-E9. This thing is a bit hard to track down right now, and there's no aftermarket alternatives at the moment. This thing really threw me in a loop at first glance. I expected the Battery grip to load from the back like the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D. Not only does the Canon 60D feel so close to the 5DM2 & 7D cameras, it's also using the same LP-E6 batteries. Somehow I imagined it would have the same battery grip. Well it turns out the BG-E9 battery grip loads from the side similar to the Canon 550D / T2i using a tray to hold two batteries. This is a first for Canon to use the LP-E6 batteries into side tray.

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Right away I loaded an aftermarket (unchipped) battery to see if the BG-E9 would reject it. Don't worry people, it likes it, and it works! Yes yes yes, the grip works with only one battery too. In the OEM box there's a case to hold the second tray which uses AA batteries, so that I can use my Eneloops. I'll take some better photos in the studio later today. If you have questions about the BG-E9 let me know, i'm sufffering a block right now and can't come up with what else you'd need to know.

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Vimeo member Fred Norquist used a bit of Angled Aluminum and old skateboard trucks to get this DIY dolly result. Looks like a pretty low budget DIY for those who want to add some movement to your camera shots and not spend a ton of cash. Although pretty effective, just by looking at it, there's a lot of variables with how the rails are positioned that can cause some irregular movements. So if you attempt this, make sure you got things lined up well. The old measure 10 times and drill once routine (I have to measure more than twice). Simple and effective for a DIY project i'm sure most people can tackle.

[Thanks Fred]

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Here's a video showing off Ikan's Gearless follow focus. These types of systems should work well if you're not pulling long focus, and also if you're using some quality lenses with an easy focus ring. The nice feature about this Follow Focus is the ability to mount it using a 1/4 thread. The Power Arm that they are showing looks like it has a bit of flex to it, but i'm sure there's plenty other ways to mount it solid. Not too shabby, and pricing i'll let you be the judge.

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Here's the F3 available over at B&H: Ikan F3 Friction Follow Focus

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china-dslr-cinema-bundle

We've seen some competition on DSLR support rigs from Hong Kong and Korea. Now it looks like another Chinese company has been listening to the sales of DSLR's. Just received a tweet today from @jphansen about this new line of DSLR Support rigs soon to be coming out of China. The rigs looks very well designed, and should be since they are close to another popular brand with the blue accents. Everything else on the different rigs have gone with solid black. Not much word on the build quality, but these are the same guys who slap their name on the 717AH Fluid head which seems like a decent build. I'm expecting these to be cheap cheap cheap.

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They've seem to come up with an entire lineup of many different accessories including Gearless follow focus, Matte Box, Shoulder Supports, DSLR Cages, Handles, and of courses Rods, Clamps, and mounts. Prices, not sure of just yet, but i'm hoping it's something much more affordable than what's currently available. If anyone catches these for sale on the web, holla at your boy! I'd be interested in seeing more of this.
Here's the link: https://www.chinafancier.com/enindex.asp. If you like this article, Tweet it.

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The fact that the Canon 60D uses the same batteries as the 5D Mark II & Canon 7D was both a blessing and a curse. For those who already had these batteries, it's nice not having a different set of batteries and charger to add to your gear list. A single OEM LP-E6 will run you well over $70 dollars. For those who are looking to buy extra ones, prices on aftermarket LP-E6 batteries seem to have inflated. There was one brand on Amazon that dropped their decoded (chipped batteries that communicate with camera to show battery life) batteries down to $18.00 dollars, but now brought them back up to $60 bucks!. Yeah they know that there's a new market out for these batteries after the Canon 60D release.

If you don't care about the battery meter, there's plenty of Aftermarket LP-E6 batteries that run around (2)pcs. for $15 dollars. Very very cheap, but they will need their own charger. It's not suggested these be charged on the OEM charger. I think I have 6 of those myself which still run to this day, and are probably a year old or more.

There's two brands on Amazon for 'decoded' batteries still showing around $22 dollars, and a few Aftermarket LP-E6 Decoded Batteries on eBay for around $15.00 each.

I was still waiting for more reviews on these items to see if they will actually work well and hold up as good batteries, and if the battery meter really works. A friend of mine has a wedding lined up on 10/10/10 - of course the most popular wedding day this year, and so he's invested into the Maxtek Replacement Li-ion Battery For Canon. He's had it a short while and seems to work exactly like OEM, and charges on the OEM charger (can't do this with un-chipped batteries). I've asked him to give us a demo video of the batteries in use, but he says they work exactly the same. This battery is compatible with the Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D, and Canon 60D.

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Decoded Batteries Starting at $15.00 		2x-batteries
2x Un-chipped LP-E6 starting at $15.00

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Mailbag-thursday

A few boxes came in this morning, but not the one i've been really waiting on. According to the tracking, the one package i'm excited about should be here later this afternoon (show you later). These boxes aren't of much interest. One is the XLR cable for my AT875 Short Shotgun Microphone for the JuicedLink DT454, the other package is 4 Mini Flexible Tripods for my Studio, the third is the Kodak Pulse Digital Picture frame. Wow, that was fast...

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Shortly after RedRock Micro announced their EVF - Electronic View Finder for DSLR's, Zacuto now has a complete web page and video showcasing their product. Actually they've gone as far as a complete domain name @ ZFinderEVF.com. It's still up in the air if RedRock Micro has an actual working version, but from the images that were submitted, it doesn't look like a finished product. Actually in this Video (above), Zacuto is also just showing a 3D model, so take this as just another announcement and not an actual product (yet).

Marketing is always ahead of technology and some people are speculating that the announcements were aimed just to be the first. Hopefully the products are released soon, as we've seen some bad turnouts on early announcements for products that never seem to make it to market or experience long delays. Personally it's all exciting, but I don't know if consumers really care who's first to announce what, it's more about first actual availability and pricing. I'd even take my chances on a no-name brand EVF if the resolution was adequate.

Redrock Micro is stated to come in around $600 dollars, and the Zacuto EVF just under $800. If i'm correct, you'll still need a Z-Finder to use with the EVF bumping that price up a few hundred more. This is something many DSLR shooters have been looking for and I feel they'll be set to grab whatever becomes available early on. Under those brand names, they'll both be well made products, but since Zacuto's will be several hundred more (including Z-Finder Loupe), time to market is what's really going to set the pace on EVF sales.

Another option would be going with the smaller 5" LCD monitors such as the Marshall V-LCD50-HDMI. Unlike the EVF's announced, the Marshall Monitor has additional features for setting proper exposure. I guess if you really wanted magnification for the LCD, you could just make a DIY loupe using a Macro Close Up FIlter and a box.
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IKan also has a 5" LCD HDMI Monitor for DSLR's too.
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