Jim Quinlan
November 26th, 2003, 08:56 AM
Demo video thrown together and starring my patient wife making her famous vegetarian chili.
(sorry the audio is real low at the beginning)
http://www.magoomedia.com/media/marz.wmv
This backpackstyle camera stabilizer has worked out real well for me. Total cost was less than $75.00 with all the hardware. However, if you can afford it, you may want to consider buying a "real" marzpak from http://www.marztech.com. It's reasonably priced and I've heard from people who own one that their customer service and quality is excellent.
My kids and wife make fun of me when I have it on but I don't care ... it gets the shots I want.
I wore it on a bike ride and that was a terrifying experience. The shots were so so on the bike and to make it usable, I need to attach a piece of 1/4" shock cord from the bike frame to the camera to keep it from swaying if you take your hand off the camera. It wouldn't do you well to let go of the camera to avoid hitting a car only to have the camera swing back and hit you in the face ... and then hit the car. I plan on refining this technique soon. It would work well using rollerblades or skiis also.
Here's the breakdown on my supplies.
Shock Cord 10' of 5/16 and 1/4" purchased from Boaters world (only a few bucks).
One small sailboat locking cleat (also from a boating store) - $18.00 (what a rip off but I needed it).
External frame backpack from EBAY - $24.00 + $10.00 shipping
Miscellaneous C Clamps and hardware from Home Depot - about $10.00
10' piece of 1" electrical conduit (I only needed about 2') - $2.37
Heavy duty 90 degree pipe (came off of a Wall mount telivision holder) $5.00 (bargain)
Piece of 2" metal bar (about 2') found laying around the garage $0.00
I used a #20 tap to tap out threads in my heavy duty pipes to allow vertical and horizontal adjustments using the 1/4" thumb screws.
The thing I like the most about this is you can do tripod like shots and more. All types of angles and different pans are easy. Dutch angle, and the thing that's impossible to do handheld is easy with this unit ....zoom in without shake. Walking takes a lot of practice but you can get a pretty decent shot .... definately not a Glidecam by any means. Gently push down on the shock cord and walk like a duck.
This is a fairly simple project that can use a variety of materials and not only the ones I used. You could use all plumbers pipe to easily construct this and that is what I was going to use until I found the pipes I have now. It's a great piece of equipment that I'm sure will replace my tripod in at least 50% of my work. Especially on the Appalachian Trail and Florida Trail. Just be careful walking. I got tangled up in my orange tree and almost harvested a few oranges while creating the demo video.
(sorry the audio is real low at the beginning)
http://www.magoomedia.com/media/marz.wmv
This backpackstyle camera stabilizer has worked out real well for me. Total cost was less than $75.00 with all the hardware. However, if you can afford it, you may want to consider buying a "real" marzpak from http://www.marztech.com. It's reasonably priced and I've heard from people who own one that their customer service and quality is excellent.
My kids and wife make fun of me when I have it on but I don't care ... it gets the shots I want.
I wore it on a bike ride and that was a terrifying experience. The shots were so so on the bike and to make it usable, I need to attach a piece of 1/4" shock cord from the bike frame to the camera to keep it from swaying if you take your hand off the camera. It wouldn't do you well to let go of the camera to avoid hitting a car only to have the camera swing back and hit you in the face ... and then hit the car. I plan on refining this technique soon. It would work well using rollerblades or skiis also.
Here's the breakdown on my supplies.
Shock Cord 10' of 5/16 and 1/4" purchased from Boaters world (only a few bucks).
One small sailboat locking cleat (also from a boating store) - $18.00 (what a rip off but I needed it).
External frame backpack from EBAY - $24.00 + $10.00 shipping
Miscellaneous C Clamps and hardware from Home Depot - about $10.00
10' piece of 1" electrical conduit (I only needed about 2') - $2.37
Heavy duty 90 degree pipe (came off of a Wall mount telivision holder) $5.00 (bargain)
Piece of 2" metal bar (about 2') found laying around the garage $0.00
I used a #20 tap to tap out threads in my heavy duty pipes to allow vertical and horizontal adjustments using the 1/4" thumb screws.
The thing I like the most about this is you can do tripod like shots and more. All types of angles and different pans are easy. Dutch angle, and the thing that's impossible to do handheld is easy with this unit ....zoom in without shake. Walking takes a lot of practice but you can get a pretty decent shot .... definately not a Glidecam by any means. Gently push down on the shock cord and walk like a duck.
This is a fairly simple project that can use a variety of materials and not only the ones I used. You could use all plumbers pipe to easily construct this and that is what I was going to use until I found the pipes I have now. It's a great piece of equipment that I'm sure will replace my tripod in at least 50% of my work. Especially on the Appalachian Trail and Florida Trail. Just be careful walking. I got tangled up in my orange tree and almost harvested a few oranges while creating the demo video.