When you make a living building stuff and documenting the process camera setups take up a lot of time, breaking expensive equipment is an occupational hazard. [Ivan Miranda] knows this all too well, so he built a fully-featured camera crane to save his time and camera equipment. Video after the break.
The basic design is a vertical mast with a pivoting camera mounted to the end. The aluminum mast telescopes for increased vertical adjustability, and rides on a plywood base with caster wheels. The aluminum pivoting arm is counterweighed to offset the camera head, and a parallel bar mechanism allows the camera to hold a constant vertical angle with the ground. Thanks to the explosion of home gyms during the pandemic, gym weights were hard to find, so [Ivan] used an ammo can filled with sand and screws instead. A smaller sliding counterweight on top of the arm allows for fine-tuning. [Ivan] also wanted to be able to do horizontal sliding shots, so he added a pulley system that can be engaged with a clutch mechanism to keep a constant horizontal angle with the camera. Most of the fittings and brackets are 3D printed, some of them no doubt on his giant 3D printer.
We can certainly see this crane meeting its design objectives, and we can’t help but want one ourselves. [Alexandre Chappel] also built a camera crane a while back which utilized a completely different arm mechanism. As cool as these are, they still pale in comparison to [mingul]’s workshop-sized 8-axis CNC camera crane.
Sure shines over those static shot videos and caffeinated camera holder views. Using a camera like you are wetting seedlings in a hurry, ugh.
Awesome build. Although I shudder to imagine the amount of extra editing hacking in all the montages would take (for me, at least).
The eternal battle of style over substance.
There are tons of people who do the kinds of things he does. His enthusiasm makes his videos better than 99% of them.
The eternal battle of enthusiasm over substance.
The eternal battle of snarkiness over helpfulness ;)
The comment section on this site often has a sad amount of empty negative critique without productive value adding advice.
(Other times I see some gold advice in the comment section!)
I think all the DIY gear makers design to create more affordable options than the commercial options is admirable.
Yeh sure there’s a 1000 ways to do this but it’s interesting to see other peoples approaches. Alexandre Chappels is another interesting option.
Good work Ivan!