Total Cost:  About $42 plus $50 for the Amazon Mounting Adapter

Ryan's T2i Tips & Reviews - DIY Home Depot Steadicam

This video was way overdue.  Finally sat down and tied up the loose ends.

Parts
¾ PVC Pipe – 10 feet (x1)
¾ PVC 45 Degree Elbow – Slip x Slip (x2)
¾ PVC Tee – Slip x Slip x Slip (x1)
¾ PVC Male Adapter – Slip x MIPT (x3)
¾ Iron Floor Flange
Rapid Connect Adapter w/ Sliding Mounting Plate
Scrap Piece of Wood
10-32 Brass Acorn Nuts (x9)
10-32 x 1½ Round Slot Head Machine Screws(x9)
M6x16 Pan Slot Screws (x8)
M6 Coarse Thread Pozi-Lok Nuts (x8)
10x¾ Oval Phillips Trim Screws (x4)
8x¾ Aluminum Screws (x4)

Equipment
Measuring Tape
Saw
Phillips Screwdriver
Drill & 3/16 Drill Bit



Alternative mounting adapter solution coming soon...

I only kind of thought of the theory but haven't applied to a real-world application yet.  I can, however, share my theory at this point.

1.  Drill a hole (not sure on exact size) through the middle that will let you squeeze a 1/4-20 (1/4" diameter, 20 threads per inch) screw through.  The screw's length should be at least an inch longer than the height of your scrap piece of wood.

2.  Pass your screw through the bottom of the wood through a washer and up through the top.  Put another washer on the other end.  Then tighten it down with a nut.

* so basically you're passing a screw from the bottom through a washer, then the wood, then another washer, then a nut to tighten all of them together.

3.  You can now screw the scrap piece of wood to the floor flange.

4.  Screw on another nut on the top all the way down to the first nut but don't tighten it.

5.  Screw your camera on top (you'll have to rotate the camera around, yeah, I know, kind of annoying) and use the second nut to tighten it to the position you want.

I'm a little concerned about the stress that this could cause on the part of the camera that the screw goes in.  I'll hit up Home Depot sometime this week and document via pictures what I've got in my head right now.

EDIT:  Pictures...







With this DIY alternative, you'll probably have to carry a small wrench with you at all time to make sure both nuts are tight.

Haha, only a "few".

actually this is a dumb question, but how do you hold this steadycam??  Do you hold it where you picked it up at at the beginning? Do you hold it loose so it's allowed to move a little while running with it?

Not over the shoulder, you hold it just like I was holding it at the beginning of the video.  Practice walking around with it too.  You'll want to focus on keeping your hips level and your arm not stiff (so yeah, somewhat loose).  Best advice I can give with this guy is practice, practice, practice!

Hmmm, I wonder how it would perform if I threw some padding in there and tried it OTS for shots requiring less moving around?  Might have to try that.  I'm also 6'4" so maybe that's why the shots look high.

As a side note, for the steadicam that holds a field-monitor that I'm working on, I might be able to feed the HDMI cable through the PVC pipe to give it a sleaker look, hahaha.  That would be pretty sweet.  I might even sand paper it, then prime and paint black to see how hardcore I can get it looking for those who are afraid of going this route because they think it don't look pro.

wow, that looks great!

To be honest, I haven't really used it yet.  I've just set it up with the new steadicam (soon to be called the "Fernie Steadicam" - Firm Enquilibrium Retina Neutralizing Image Experiment?).  My immediate concern was the vertical black bars on the left and the right.  I've been doing some testing throughout the day and determined that if you press the 'DISP' button once or twice to remove the Canon information from the screen, the black bars will be smaller (the screen will be used more - i tested this both with Canon's firmware and the Magic Lantern firmware - same issue and resolution).  Take a look at this picture and compare it against the one from my last post...



* Keep in mind that I'm using the Magic Lantern cinescope cropmark.  On the regular firmware or without this cropmark, you'd get a lot more vertical real estate with the picture.

Another bug with the monitor + Magic Lantern firmware is that sometimes the screen gets all messed up.  The solution, half-press the shutter for about 3 to 5 seconds then let go.

Not too shabby eh?  I'll be using it extensively this weekend on my snowboard trip and probably have all sorts of saucy tid bits about it when I get back.

Hahahaha.  There's a good chance this weekend that...

1.  I capture one of my buddies doing a backflip then twixtor the hell out of it
2.  Drink a few beers, put the camera on a tripod and try a backflip myself.  I used to be able to pull them off when I was young and full of piss and vinegar.  Now I'm just old and decrepit and would rather film someone else doing it.