I did a bunch of research to figure out how to build a video capable one man DSLR rig and thought I'd share my findings here to save others some time.
Why not get a video camera? Ken Rockwell said I should.
He's got a bunch of really good points, BUT I still want to use my DSLR to shoot video for 3 reasons
- It already takes good photos, which means I don't need to buy and carry two camera bodies, two sets of lenses, etc. Device convergence FTW. To me, this is the #1 advantage.
- In the grand scheme of optics, 35mm DSLR lenses are very affordable. A kick ass 50mm f/1.4 lens costs less than $500. It's small, sharp, light, insanely fast (important in low light situations), and offers shallow depth of field (important when you're taking a photo of something and want to blur out something distracting in the background)
- 35mm fullframe (5D) and crop sensors (7D/x0D/x00D) have amazing low light capabilities so you can shoot useable video without a lighting rig in most situation
Canon 5dmk2 was the first video capable DSLR to hit the market and at the time of writing it pretty much represents state of the art in the sub $3k price range. Still, it's plagued with a few pretty severe weaknesses that you'll need to address to turn it into a viable camcorder.
- Stabilization: if you pan or move the camera, video will be jumpy because there's neither digital nor mechanical stabilization of the sensor in the camera, and Canon's lens-based Image Stabilization gets jerky when you pan
- Audio: If you record audio with the built in mic it's going to sound like crap. And if you plug an external Mic straight into the mini stereo jack on the camera it's still going to sound like crap. No matter how good the Mic is. The reason is that the preamps in the 5Dmk2 suck.
- Focus: If you move towards or away from your subject it'll be out of focus unless you adjust manually because the 5Dmk2 video digital autofocus is completely worthless.
I learned all of the above the hard way, but fortunately I did so well in advance of needing the rig so I had enough to time to figure out passable workarounds. I'll share how I addressed weakness #1 in this post, and move on to the other two later.
Stabilization of moving shots
When you're moving around, the last thing you want is for your video to look like this:
To prevent this from happening, you can either a) shoot a shaky handheld video and try to fix this problem in post production using a plugin like After Effect's Warp Stabilizer or Deshaker for Virtualdub or b) shoot a smooth video to begin with using a Steadicam, which fixes the problem upstream by eliminating shaking altogether.
A Steadicam is a mechanical balancing tool. From a newtonian perspective it consists of 3 parts:
- At the top of the rig you have a weight: your camera
- In the middle you have a gimbal which is located slightly above the system's overall center of mass
- At the bottom you have a counterweight preventing the top weight (your camera) from tipping over
There's a little bit more to it than this, but you get the mechanics. Like most really good solutions, it's very clever yet very simple and elegant.
When balanced correctly the system is a tiny bit bottom heavy. This means that the camera will not tilt around any horizontal axis regardless of how much your hand is moving around. All you can do is move the camera up/down and forwards/backwards, and rotate it around the vertical Z axis. THERE'S NO TILT.
The Steadicam was invited by an American cinematographer named Garrett Brown back in 1976 and they've been used so much in pro filmmaking that he was awarded an Oscar for the invention.
What are the pros and cons with the different stabilizers on the market and which one should I buy?
Fortunately you don't have to pay $60k for a Hollywood Steadicam rig. If you have time, skills and access to a machine shop you can build one for for less than $100, and if you want to purchase an off the shelf system the cost is ~$200-$800. The compelling DSLR stabilizers I found were Steadicam Merlin, Glidecam HD2000 and CMR Blackbird. Here's how they compare:
Merlin beats HD2000 & Blackbird on:
- Weight. It's the lightest, which is important unless you're built like the incredible hulk. A 5Dmk2 with a 16-35mm lens already weighs 5 pounds, and that's without the stabilizer.
- Size. It's small and easy to transport.
- Brand. It probably has the best 2nd hand value, partly due to brand recognition and partly due to the points above.
Merlin & Blackbird beat Glidecam on:
- Operations. The grip handle rests right under the gimbal so you only need to apply upward force to keep the rig steady. There's no torque on your wrist whatsoever. This is a REALLY big deal.
Blackbird & Glidecam beat Merlin on:
- Price. They are both 40% cheaper than the Merlin
- Versatility. You can flip them upside down and fly the camera very close to the ground (this might be important if you're going to shoot a real life version of Disney's Bug's Life)
- Capacity. You can use them to balance slightly heavier cameras. Merlin supports maximum 5 pounds with the counterweights included in the box and 7 pounds with additional weights. The other two systems go a tad bit higher, although in practice you're going to need some sort of exoskeleton (vest + arm) to be able to fly a camera weighing more than 5 pounds for more than some minutes.
Conclusion:
The Merlin was the right compromise for me. I bought it and loved it. If you understand the simple mechanics of the tool, it's contrary to what I read before on some forums super easy to set up and balance. If you're willing to give it 10 minutes you'll figure it out. While I imagine it'd take a life time to truly master this tool, it's easy to get quite good results, see for example the below:
My only complaint would be that the finish of the product isn't quite what I would have expected given the price. I don't mind the fact that many of the parts are plastic since this keeps the weight down, but there's a difference in finish between this product and similarly priced mechanical equipment from say Arca-Swiss and Really Right Stuff. However, since this doesn't affect operation of the Merlin at all, I don't think it's a big deal. I wholeheartedly endorse the product. It's amazing.
Stabilization of fixed shots
I've always used my DSLR primarily to take still photos and will continue to do so. Hence, I needed to interface the Merlin with the stabilization system that I use for stills. My photo setup consists of
- A 3 leg carbon fiber tripod. This is imho the only way to go. It's more stable than a mono-pod and lighter and easier to setup than quad-pod. You want a tripod with a center post that has a hook at the bottom so you can hang a weight there stopping it from swaying in the wind - especially if you're shooting with long lenses or time lapses.
- A ballhead with a quick release clamp. This allows you to pan and tilt the camera, and mount and dismount it quickly and without tools.
- An L bracket for the camera allowing me to clamp it in both horizontal (landscape) and vertical (portrait) position while keeping the center of mass right on top of the ball head. This makes it much easier to make fine adjustments than if you flip the entire ball head 90 degrees over on its side, putting torque on the tripod and making it want to flip over to the side.
In my opinion, Gitzo makes the best carbon fiber tripods and Really Right Stuff make the best L brackets, the best quick release system and the best ball heads. They're both pretty much indestructable and have travelled with me all over the world.
Integrating the best Steadicam stabilizer and the best tripod setup
I wanted to interface the Gitzo/RRS tripod with the Merlin to be able to easily switch between a) tripod, b) Steadicam, and c) hand held shots. Unless you're willing to machine custom parts, the only way to do this is to stack the Really Right Stuff quick release system on top of the Steadicam Merlin's dovetail plate.
To make sure this was possible before doling out my hard earned Amex Points (w00t w00t) on the Merlin, I started looking for schematics of the dovetail plate. When I couldn't find any I reached out to Garrett Brown who invented the Steadicam and asked for one. Much to my delight he put me in touch with the Robert Orf in Steadicam's engineering department, and Robert got me the drawing below. Kudos to both! It's a top view of the dovetail plate with the front-facing edge at the top, and Robert gave me the permission to republish it to save you some time.
As you probably guessed, the small holes are just pilot holes to keep the camera from rotating once mounted. The large holes take 1/4-20 threaded screws holding the camera. The center of mass for a Canon 5Dmk2 with a Canon 16-35mm lens and a RRS L bracket attached is situated pretty much spot on over the H hole, so the best way to interface the two systems with this camera + lens combo is to
- Purchase a RRS B2 LR II clamp
- Run one locating screw through locating hole above "K" and one through locating hole above "O" and then screw in the included locating pins. The diameter of these pins is about 1mm or so too narrow to fit snugly into the cavities of the QR plate, so I strapped a cable tie around each.
- Run the Merlin 1/4-20 flat head screw through the hole labelled "M" in the dove tail plate and into the center hole of the RRS clamp. Since the RRS hole is threaded 3/8-16 you need to purchase a 1/4-20 thread reducer bushing and I'd recommend fastening it using LocTite 242.
This is what it looks like when you're done and the whole setup weighs ballpark 7 pounds. It's stable, light, sturdy and sparkling with awesomeness.
Next up, a blog post about how to solve the audio problem. But first I've got some stabilized video to cut. :P
