After being inspired from watching the video I posted yesterday, I decided to do a bit of research on building my own digitally stabilized camera mount. My first problem I had was finding a way to sense movement so I can correct the movement. Like what the video preluded, the gyrostabilized camera mount used gyroscopes. Although this does work, gyroscopes are not cheap especially since you need to have at least a dual axis gyroscope sensor. And, then you have to interpret the gyroscope data which isn’t easy. So, after a bit of searching, I found a sensor called an inclinometer. An inclinometer detects the angle at which the sensor is tilted off level. With a dual axis inclinometer, I can then find the tilt of a plane which will let me stabilize and level the plane using servos. I am thinking maybe an accelerometer might be useful as well to determine the speed of the correction. Besides the sensors, I still need to figure out how exactly I am going to physically build this thing, and how to do the robotic stuff.
A gyrostabilized camera mount is basically a camera mount that uses gyroscopes to stabilize any unwanted motion when moving the camera. Take a look at this one made for helicopters:
That video has inspired me to try to create my own system. I got a tripod ball head that I think I could use to create a gyrostabilized mount using servos and some form of gyro sensors. Hopefully I can get my hands on some sensors without spending alot of money.
Today has been just one of those days. Nothing much went on today, though I wish I could have gotten stuff lined up to begin shooting “The Geek Sacrifice.” Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
Alright, so most of you probably don’t know what a lensbaby is. A lensbaby is a lens for SLR cameras that allows you to really play with the focus so you can artistically create interesting effects. It’s a kin to the really expensive tilt and shift lenses available for SLRs that allow you to off center the focal plane. A lensbaby gives you even more control allowing you to select just the item you want to be in focus and everything else will be out of focus. Now here comes the interesting part. What if you stuck one of these on a 35mm DOF adapter for your DV camcorder? You could make some really interesting shots with this thing. It allows for great artistic options in videography as well what it was originally meant for in photography. The manufacturer even decided to make a dedicated lensbaby that has a particular mount just for cine movie cameras. Just take a look at some of their sample footage to see what I’m talking about. It’s really spectacular.