3 Camera Booms For Your Wednesday Afternoon

July 14, 2010 by Jakob Griffith 5 Comments

[Andrew] tipped us off about his Cable Cam built out of some lumber and clothes line. It is small enough to fit into a backpack, includes a safety line and the camera can pan and tilt. A future version is planned with a small remote motor to move the trolley more effectively.

[Andrew] accidentally linked us to his other Camera Crane, taking the same ‘cheap yet effective’ approach as his Cable Cam. Once again, just some lumber and creative engineering are used to pull this one off.

For those without the ability to weld, check out [Bill Van Loo’s] all wood version of a Camera Crane. Same parallelogram design, without remote video output or central pivot.

Panoramic And Spheric Tripod Rig

July 14, 2010 by Mike Szczys 12 Comments

This simple yet precise build takes your camera for a spin in order to take spherical and multi-row panorama photographs. The rig mounts to a tripod, using two servo motors for motion, producing images that can be stitched together perfectly. An Arduino handles the hardware with an LCD interface for dialing in the settings.It’s not the cheapest way to get 360 degree shots but the example images are amazing.

[Thanks Juan]

Wireless Face Tracking Camera

July 7, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 11 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8luy8jP1UNs]

A student team at University of Massachusetts have built this wireless face tracking camera system. Using a small 2-axis motorized camera meant to be mounted on model airplanes, an arduino, and some custom software, they can track faces and keep them in frame in real-time. This is pretty cool, but maybe not quite as groundbreaking as they make it sound. We think it is pretty awesome though. You can download the software and schematics on their site.

[via MakeZine]

Building A SuperMacro Lens

June 19, 2010 by Mike Szczys 51 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW0cFk9d-P0]

[Lozzless] has a steady hand and plenty of confidence in his hacking skills. The video above is worth watching for the full eight minutes. In it you’ll see him convert a lens into what he calls a SuperMacro lens with a working aperture. The process involves fashioning a connector ring from a lens cap, modifying an Electro-focus lens mount, and assembling the parts to do his bidding. We don’t have the photography background to fully understand what he’s doing here, but we can appreciate the process, and the results are shown at the end of the clip.

[Thanks TommyC]

Simple Shutter Speed Tester

June 16, 2010 by Caleb Kraft 23 Comments

[Pablo] likes to buy and repair broken cameras. When he was in need of a way to test the shutter speed, his brother came up with a great idea. Harvest the photo transistor from an old ball mouse. It turned out to be just as easy as it sounds. He plugs the circuit into some sound editing software to get the signal. We think this is pretty slick.

[via Makezine]

Head Mounted Camera Tracks With Your Eyes

May 25, 2010 by Mike Szczys 44 Comments

The EyeSeeCam is a rig that attaches to your noggin and points a camera wherever your gaze falls. There’s actually four cameras involved here, one to track each eye via a reflecting piece of acrylic, one as your third eye, and finally the tracking camera above that. There are some legitimate medical uses for this type of technology, but we enjoyed seeing some of the videos that [Johannes Vockeroth] put together showing everyday activities. We’ve embedded several clips after the break including an example of reading a book while wearing the apparatus. The third eye camera provides the wide shot with close-ups of the wearer’s visual focus.

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Point And Shoot In A Classic Camera Body

May 12, 2010 by Mike Szczys 39 Comments

If you think there’s a gun inside that camera you’ve been fooled. We just like the juxtaposition of the 1940’s era camera with the iconic sidearms. What you see is a point-and-shoot cameras inside of the classic Leica II body (this is actually a Zorki 1 knockoff). It is much like the Canon AE-1 hack but this time there’s plenty of build details.

Digital camera makers try to get the smallest form factor possible and consequently the inside of those things is a nightmare of tiny parts and intricate connections.The Sony DSC-WX1 is no exception, and even the battery is disassembled to fit inside. See the final product and its features in the video after the break.

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