$14 in parts from Home Depot result in an ugly but reasonably effective image stabilizer for mounting a video camera.
You may have noticed that the link above is to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. That’s because the Carnegie Mellon page where the steadycam instructions were hosted is no longer available. All the instructions are available there, but I’m also sharing a few of the details here to save you some time in acquiring the parts.
Parts List for DIY Steadycam
- Three 1-foot long 1/2″ diameter galvanized pipes
- Three 1/2″ diameter galvanized end caps for the pipes
- One 1/2″ diameter galvanized t-joint
- One 2.5 pound weight lifting plate with a 1 1/4″ diameter hole
- Two 1-1/2″ long 1/4″ machine bolts
- One 1/4″ wing nut
- Three 1-1/2″ diameter flange washers for 1/4″ bolts
- Three lock washers for 1/4″ bolts
- Two 1/4″ machine nuts
You can also read about Matthew Brady’s experience using the steadycam in another post.
