13Jun GINI DSLR RIGS are nice at the right price.
If you are still in need of a DSLR RIG or just want some spare parts, buying used can be a cheap way to go. This mornings ebay find is a slightly used GINI DSLR RIG.
If the price stays low enough this could be a good collection of random 15mm rail parts to have around. There are also enough parts that you might be able to turn this into 2 camera rigs if you pick up a couple of .
pricing can be all over the place. Swing by their store and
. Sometimes you can end up with a pretty good deal, but watch out for jacked up shipping prices. I’ve seen them has high as $200 and as low as $19.
11Jun 3 Legged adjustable camera support rig – First impressions
I finally made it home around midnight last night and the first thing to greet me (besides the dogs) was a large stack of boxes. This morning I dug through them to find the 3 legged camera rig I ordered a few weeks ago.
There isn’t a lot of padding in the box and there aren’t a lot of extras. Basically the kit includes the 3 legged adjustable rig, an allen wrench, and a single page manual. The design isn’t quit as compact as I was expecting but it does still fold up into a form factor about the size of a large net book.
Adjustments aren’t as simple as the manufacture makes it out to be. You’ll need the included allen key to loosen and snug up the adjustable arms. The allen head bolts are also designed to strip if they are over tightened, so you have to be careful when snugging up the arms.
The included 1/4 20 screw on the bottom of the adapter is also part of the camera mount which isn’t the greatest configuration if you plan to mount this on a tripod. I added an extra 1/4 20 screw to provide a more secure mount for my Manfrotto 577 QR plate. There is still plenty of room, even with a large QR plate, to adjust all of the arms to any position you’d like.
Even though there are a few problems I’ve found with this rig so fare, overall I’m very impressed. I don’t normally expect much from a DSLR RIG under $100, but the DSLR RIG shoulder mount (or whatever name you can find it under) feels pretty solid for the price (currently $85 on ebay).
The 1/4 20 threads are in every position you could think of on this guy, so mounting microphones, monitors, counter weights, or whatever else you can think of should be very easy. The only mounting issue I see as a problem would be finding a good place to attach a follow focus or matte box.
I’ll try and have a video review up once I get a chance to actually play around with this some more, but my first impressions leave me feeling good so fare.
UPDATE: Full video review is now up.
09Jun Stuck in Poland.
Good news, I’ve finally made it to a place with good quality internet. Bad news is it’s the airport in Warsaw Poland. The Islands of Greece are very nice, but internet there is light gold, hard to find and even harder to extract.
The nice thing about the Poland airport is that the internet is fast and usable. Unfortunately enjoying good quality internet also means i’m trapped in the airport for the next 10 hours waiting for my next flight to Chicago. If all goes well I’ll be home by Friday night, but my return home has been filled with boat delays in Mykonos strikes in Athens and layovers in Warsaw.
If this keeps up I might not make it home tell Saturday. I should be back to regular posts as soon as I make it home. Vacations are great but a few weeks without the internet can leave wishing you were home.
01Jun On the Road again.
I’m heading out of town for the next two weeks. I’ll be spending some time in Poland and Greece. If I can find internet, I will continue to update the site. But no new youtube videos tell I get home. Everyone’s shock mounts and DS214 adapters shipped out yesterday. Thanks for buying all of my stock!
I’ll get more made and up as soon as I get back.
31May ART USB DUAL preamp video review
I finally had a chance to do some testing on the ART USB DUAL preamp. The quality and range of its preamps aren’t life changing. There is a bit of high end roll off and the audio ends up sounding a little bit muddy. But overall it did as good or better then I would expect for the price range.
When you have a device that has a ton of features crammed into a small box, you usually end up with something that does ok at everything but not great at anything. The ART USB DUAL preamp definitely fits into this category.
On the positive side:
- Price ($75)
- Phantom power
- XLR & 1/4 inch inputs
- Battery powered
- USB audio interface
On the Negative side:
- High end roll off in the preamp
- Slight hum when powered by USB
- Not designed for camera mounting
I’m still happy with it for the price and the USB feature is a real plus for me. You could spend $200 or more on something with less features but slightly better audio quality, or you can save that extra $125 and get the poor man’s Swiss army knife of audio gear.
30May Zoom H1 Shock mount in the wild.
I just received the first pictures of the Zoom H1 Shock mount in the wild from Paula. She wanted me to note that the shock mount is turned around in the photo. I probably wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t pointed it out. The unit looks nice on her canon 60D, I kind of feel like a proud dad seeing my shock mount being used.
She also came up with a good solution for black rubber bands. Instead of using the included 2 1/2 x 1/4 inch bands in the kit, she’s swapped them out with elastic hair ties. I’m not very familiar with hair ties but these look like something you could probably pick up at your local drug store.
If anyone else has pictures of there Zoom H1 shock mount, I would love to see them. Also I’m open to any updates and improvement you guys might have in mind.
29May Juicedlink DS214 adapter ready to go.
It seems easy to just come up with a good idea and say poof “here it is”, but in truth, designs made with the makerbot arn’t quit that simple. The stack of 5 in the picture are just a few of the designs that didn’t work out. Some fell apart because of settings, some were just a little to small and a few had holes that didn’t work out. Regardless, the Juicedlink DS214 design is finally finished and ready to go.
There is a limited run of these first few adapters. So get them well they are hot. More will be coming in the next few weeks.
SOLD OUT
28May 3 Legged adjustable camera support rig.
I see this rig for sale all the time on ebay. When they first started popping up the price tag was somewhere in the $300 range, but over the last 8 months the price has dropped to something a little more reasonable. Now you can for just under $100.
The rig is usually called something generic like “” or “
” but they all look about the same. There are a number of good features about this rig for the price.
On the plus side:
- Mounting wholes all over the place.
- Extendable arm that can be used as a shoulder support.
- 1/4 20 holes at the top of each handle.
- Folds up into a small easy to travel with package.
- Price
On the negative side:
- No support for 15mm rails.
- Follow focus could be very hard to mount.
- Mounting maybe to small for some QR plates.
Really for the price, I think this could be a very handy travel rig. It folds up so small that I could see many people over looking its faults for the convenience of form factor. If you’re still on the fence, here’s a video of a girl awkwardly smiling well demonstrating the features of this rig.
After Looking this little guy over I may have to order one to add to my collection. .
UPDATE: I just bought one, full review coming soon.
26May Another cheap Focus lever follow focus.
Geared follow focus setups can be costly. Another option is to attach something to your lens. Or for $8 you can buy . It’s basically a tie wrap with a hole and an adapter that allows you to attach a rod. The rod gives you subtle control over lens focusing.
It’s a good idea and its very cheap. If you don’t want to spend the money on a this could be a good way to go.
25May PTP Camera controller for your DSLR.
I was trying to hunt down CHDK info on the Canon 7d when I came across this strange looking device. Basically it’s an all in one camera controller that can be run from a 9 volt battery. When I say “all in one” I mean this thing can actually control video and photography on just about every digital camera you could think of. The list is huge.
It looks very interesting, but I’m not really sure what you would use it for. The cost is about $100 and it does sound like one of those devices you would find a use for once you owned. It’s just a strange package and an oddly unfinished looking devices. It also packs so many strange features like PTP control of your camera, IR adapters, and Battery monitoring.
If you need something like this then swing by their website and check it out. I’m sure someone needs this and just doesn’t know it.
