Videography Gadgets

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Total Approx $45.00 Dollar 'Hands Free' shoulder rig modification / Shoulder Mount + Rotating Flash Bracket.

The Goal of this video is to show a simple 'low budget' way of how to mount all of the important accessories for DSLR video onto a cheap $24.00 shoulder mount rig.

Okay that's probably the worst article title ever for a Video Camera blog, but this cheap should support from Amazon or Adorama has earned it's own acronym. A.S.S. stands for 'Amazon Shoulder Support' or 'Adorama Shoulder Support'. I blogged about this thing months ago and one seller on Amazon ran out of stock. The other sellers tripled their prices. It was normally going for around $24.00 dollars, now you're seeing it around $70.00 bucks. You can all thank me for popularizing it. Not to fear, the guys over on eBay are still selling it for around $24.00 dollars and you can find them following the link below.

Anyways, I wanted to hack something up and saw this thing hanging around the corner of the studio. Thought i'd try to add all of my important accessories to it and see how it goes. It's actually not bad, and it turns it from cheap looking to sheek looking. So sit back and enjoy the video of me doing my A.S.S. implants with the Canon 5D Mark II, Battery Grip, Rode VideoMic, 126 LED video light, LCDVF, and Zoom H4n.

Here's the product.
You can find the shoulder support from eBay by clicking this link, or the image below.

click image

Here's a link to that rotating flash bracket that goes for about $21.00 dollars or so.

click image

Shoulder mounts aren't the same as Steadicams. It's not totally designed for walking / running, but it still helps alot in those areas. I don't want to reinvent the wheel, so here's a user that's uploaded his version of testing it out by walking around.

If you're still not sold, I believe this is the legendary Phillip Bloom having fun with one.

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I saw these grips a while back online, but thought they would be something very tiny and not very useful. Turns out these things are quite large and the company who makes it also designs Gun and Rifle type stabilizers. I have yet to see a DSLR + Viewfinder with this handle, but thinking that would look very very cool. Might be a great handle to add to the DIY shoulder rigs.

Old school 8mm Cameras

Camcorder with Grip

They can be purchased here:

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Fred C. over at TuperHero.com is working on a DIY shoulder rig I believe he's calling the "Tuper-Rig". Based on the RedRock EyeSpy shoulder mount, he's cleverly used some type of L-Bracket to serve as both an offset (for lcd viewfinders), as well as height leveling. Not easily seen in these photos, he's using 2 long aluminum square tubes to make both the handle + shoulder pad fully adjustable sliding forward and back.

Still in progress, Fred sent me these photos of the basic rig layout. If you check out his blog website at https://tuperhero.com, you'll find more information with some way cool drawings and designs of his final plans. Awesome job Fred, and thanks for that huge huge donation to the website too!!

Final questions i'm sure the Cheesycam audience wants to know is, when's it going to be done, and where can they buy one?

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Now that you're all excited about the title of this post, I have to break the bad news and say unfortunately it's not me giving this prize away. I'm just letting you all know about the Olympus Pen Challenge going on right now. Olympus is going to give you an Olympus E-PL1 camera + $5,000 dollars to fund your next video project.

It's easy to enter, you don't even need an Olympus camera to submit for the challenge. Basically you send them a short video telling them what you would use the new camera + money for, and they'll choose a few winners. Anyone want to team up with Cheesycam for a project, holla back! I'm thinking music video utilizing all the features in the new E-PL1. More details following the link.

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These videos are long, but super super interesting for anyone who cares anything about lenses. Most of the time I feel like everything camera related is overpriced, but after you understand the work behind creating some great lenses, you'll feel very differently (well at least for Canon Lenses). This is a three part series that covers the making of a Canon L series 500mm F/4. Take the time to watch when you can.

Part #1 Making of Canon 500mm Lens

Part #2 Making of Canon 500mm Lens

Part #3 Making of Canon 500mm Lens

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I've always wanted this Pen camera for it's throwback feel, and interchangeable lens features for a small portable, but wasn't happy with the quality of the E-P1 HD video. Now this E-PL1 version which comes out cheaper than the introduction price of the E-P1 is more my style. This commercial revived my interest, you'll see what I mean at the end of the commercial.

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It's a little early to be posting this up, but I was excited to see the rough cut on a video project I was asked to help with. Sorry Travis, I know it's still in progress, but I just had to show off the excellent work you've put in so far. I'm pretty proud of my Steadicam work with my Hybrid rig for this gig.

Producer Travis Simpson found me on Vimeo and asked me to be the Steadicam operator in a video project that was going to be shot entirely on DSLR's. My bit of experience in DSLR cameras helped as well for being a good candidate as Cameraman #2.

The interesting part of this video is the run and gun type gear used. We had to be fast, mobile, and carry only a few items to work in the tight traffic conditions of San Francisco. This entire video clip was shot only with 2 cameras + 2 lenses. Here's the setup:

Camera #1 Canon 550D / T2i + 50mm F/1.2 on RedRock EyeSpy bundle with Follow Focus
Camera #2 (me) Canon 5D Mark II + Sigma 20mm on my Hybrid Steadicam Rig (Found Here)
Sound was captured seperately by awesome Sound Engineer Kevin Crawford

If you see more than 1 person in the shot, that's the Canon 5D Mark II + Sigma 20mm on Hybrid Steadicam.
If you see the camera panning or moving during a shot, that's Canon 5D Mark II + Sigma 20mm on Hybrid Steadicam.
Close up detail shots or headshots are from the Canon T2i + RedRock EyeSpy + 50mm L F/1.2.
We also used the 126 LED video lights (found on the right side of this website) during the Bar scene diffused by bouncing off of a piece of paper. Love them lights.

Credits for the video (still in editing progress)
Producer: Travis Simpson
Director of Photography: Me!
Host: Ben Djavaheri
Sound Design: Kevin Crawford
Production Coordinator: Derek Fernandez

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Updated: Here's the new link for a seller that's selling the exact same batteries I use.

I talked about these batteries a little while back when I placed my order on them. I've been using China shipped aftermarket batteries for years on my Canon 5D Mark II & Canon 7D (same batteries). I use aftermarket battery grips for both of those cameras also. Since i've been using them with absolutely no problems, it was a very easy decision for me to try out the 550D / T2i batteries coming out of China. I'm very happy with them. They work like normal Canon OEM batteries. They seem to last just as long, and unlike my other batteries, I can charge these on the Canon OEM charger. They also display the battery life indicator on the Canon EOS 550D / T2i. With shipping you can get them for as little as $10 bucks each. I was a little skeptical at first, but the T2i videos seem to blend in seamlessly along with the other cameras and is now seeing just as much, if not more, use during the gigs. It's never been used for any photography, but as a third video camera, it rocks! These batteries are a big help on long jobs. These aftermarket batteries for the Canon EOS 550D / T2i rock! You can purchase the batteries by clicking here.

Updated: Here's the new link for a seller that's selling the exact same batteries I use.
click image to purchase aftermarket batteries for the Canon EOS 550D / T2i
t2i-battery-updated

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Part of the workflow for me that's been a real pain is memory card backups. After an all day shoot it's about leaving your Compact flash or SDHC cards with the editor to do his data dumps so he can get straight to work. Otherwise it means you have to find a way to dump about 200 gigs of video to an external, and then find the time to get it back to the editor in a timely fashion.

I've been on the fence for a while about getting one of these portable Memory Backup devices, and it seems like it could really help in speeding up data hand-offs. The idea is to purchase at least two and just rotate / switch each time we do a job. Sure we can always drag around a laptop and a couple of USB drives, but transfering from card to laptop and back to external drive seems like more gear to carry and slower transfer times. Sure there are different and maybe cheaper versions of these type of devices, but so far the Hyperdrive has always been the one recommended to me by professionals. You can find prices of the Hyperdrive Memory Backup on eBay by Clicking Here.

Or you can always check out Amazon

Holy cow, check out this expensive version too: