Would you pay $30 for DIY vibrating 35mm plans?

snodart

snodart

Veteran
I was contemplating making a detailed and complete guide book and DVD for a DIY vibrating 35mm adapter. I still have a little ways to go until the the design is perfected. I would want to refine a few things first to make it a bit easier to build. Help would be available via a forum. The total cost to build would be around $300 to $350. This price would include all required parts... achromat, 35mm lens, GG, etc. I'm not out to make a huge profit. Just to make a complete and easy to follow guide/DVD and earn a little $ to build/buy more equipment.

My goal in this guide would be to include all necessary info... ie: instead of, "solder the wire to the motor", the DVD and guide would show you how.

So assuming that you thought that the footage (soon to come) was comparable to the current well known adapters, would anybody be interested? It will take a while to build the guide and DVD. I just wanted to see how many would be interested first.

General thoughts are welcome too.

:dankk2:
 
id consider it if you would make the final diy project a lot less than $300-$350. For that price, you can already buy some nice adapters.
 
helloworld said:
id consider it if you would make the final diy project a lot less than $300-$350. For that price, you can already buy some nice adapters.
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I think that you are mistaken, no one is selling a vibrating adapter for $300-$350 with a lens and few are selling a *Good* adapter for less than $600 (without a lens). Note what snodart said

"The total cost to build would be around $300 to $350. This price would include all required parts... achromat, 35mm lens, GG, etc."

his cost to build included the lens for the adapter which runs around $100 which means the cost to build the adapter is $200 to $250, if you can find someone selling a good, proven vibrating adapter for that price then I'll take 50 of them
 
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Well said marlenedegrood. You beat me to it.
:)

Thanks for posting helloworld, but marlenedegrood is correct.
 
Honestly, I'm kind of offended by this. I put hours and hours into building something, then posting the results online as did plenty of people before me, and many others followed suit. You're basically copying the work others have done (and I admit we were ripping of P+S's fantastic design as it was) then selling it as your own for a profit. It's just not ethical.
 
You're point is well taken Policar, but as we know, all the information to build your own adapter is here on this forum. You share, I share and many others share, that's what the DIY forum is about. But...if snodart wants to take the time to compile the information in an easy to read book and DVD to make it easy on those unwilling to find the information here, then have at it. I think it's highly possible that there are some who gather information from this site and then build a finished product to sell. For some, they'd rather just buy the product rather than make it, and there are some who might build a product if it was in an easy to understand book with a DVD.

Will the time come when people stop sharing for fear of someone marketing the information for profit? I doubt it. Personally, I believe in freely sharing information and would only find snodarts ambition to sell the information as unethical if he were to copy someone elses published plans from this or any other site. I'm sure that snodart wouldn't do that.......right snodart?
 
We have all built off others to come up with our own ideas and inventions. Thats how things are improved. Are you saying that there should only be one 35mm adapter or its plans sold??? There are a lot of different ways of making them. If someone wants to pay for his work of drawing up plans, and recording a DVD. I say more power to ya snodart.

I have seen plans as well as adapters sold. Maybe its unethical to take that info and post it for free :(
 
I"m all for the spirit of sharing openly, so many people have contributed on this subject for too long. It's because of this spirit that certain design elements were tossed in favor of what would yield the best results. Where would we be without all this info not shared at all?

But if you must sell your design you have right I suppose, we live in a capitalist country afterall.
 
Policar said:
Honestly, I'm kind of offended by this. I put hours and hours into building something, then posting the results online as did plenty of people before me, and many others followed suit.
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Perhaps you should take a look at this page of my website. Feel free to click on one of the home-built items to read how I built it.

http://snodart.com/hbe.php

Sharing the knodledge that I have gained through building much of my own equipment has always been a top priority for me. And rest assured that I will add similar pages for my DIY vibrating adapter. The difference in the guide/DVD is that the process will be broken down step-by-step. The cost of the guide/DVD is not for the design itself, but for the time it will take me to put together a complete and thorough set of instructions.

Policar said:
You're basically copying the work others have done (and I admit we were ripping of P+S's fantastic design as it was) then selling it as your own for a profit. It's just not ethical.
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I strongly disagree with this statement. The basic functionality of a 35mm adapter is public knowledge. You need a macro, GG, and a 35mm lens. It is the way in which these items are assembled that makes a specific design unique.

Of course I used information from various sources and guides. Again, I am not selling the ideas or the adapter itself, but a comprehensive guide.

I recently purchased plans for a camera stabilizer (full-rig steadicam) for $40. I could have gone out and spent a month or two researching how to build one (as I have done for all of my equipment), but somebody was good enough to put all the info I needed into a nice little book with step-by-step instructions. So I have saved myself who knows how many hours of research... and for a mere $40. This is not to mention the money saved by not having to buy various parts only to realize that they don't work or are not the correct quality. I gladly paid $40 for the plans. I'm sure Cody Deegan (the creator of the plans) spent a great deal of time building the guide. It would be unreasonable for me to expect him to just hand them to me for free.
 
Thank you everyone for your input.

Please understand that I am not attempting to stand as a gate keeper requiring a fee to pass into the world of DIY 35mm adapters. As marlenedegrood mentioned, all the info one needs is available already for free. It will take more time any money to find all the correct info and parts, but it is there.

ReneH said:
I"m all for the spirit of sharing openly, so many people have contributed on this subject for too long. It's because of this spirit that certain design elements were tossed in favor of what would yield the best results. Where would we be without all this info not shared at all?

But if you must sell your design you have right I suppose, we live in a capitalist country afterall.
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I am also for the spirit of sharing openly. There comes a point however, where a person should be compensated for their time. The home-built equipment area of my site took a great deal of time to build, but I don't feel that the info provided is worthy of charging a fee. The 35mm guide/DVD would be a complete guide worthy of compensation however.

Should we expect the folks at redrock to give this guide for free?

http://www.redrockmicro.com/p_guide.htm

or Cody Deegans great stabilizer plans?

http://codydeegan.com/

Or Barry Green's The DVX Book?

People invested time and money to put these together and deserve to be compensated.

I am not aiming to become the next Donald Trump. I truly want to help those who cannot afford a quality moving GG adapter, but I do not have the means to do it for free.
 
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I'd also be interested in buying those plans, but since I'm not from the US, will you also include places to buy the parts online, or locally? I've read a lot about adapters, and everybody seems to get some share of their parts from Home Depot, we don't have a Home Depot in the Netherlands :(. It would be fine though if you would also give websites where you can order the stuff online who ship internationally...

Would love to see such a guide, if you decide to create one, good luck!

Thanks,

Fredric
 
All those shDOF manufacturers are born here or in some other DIY forumboard. Nobody cries that they stealing and making profit from that. More than that - if they invent something whats here not so obvious yet - they put it under cover. And even more than last - they'll try to put invetions what are born here under patent - under their patent.

So in this context i wouldn't be so angry against the man who maybe spend this money for another DIY project. I like Your page http://snodart.com/hbe.php and seriously think about creating dolly and crane. Thereby stealing your ideas!
 
snodart said:
I am also for the spirit of sharing openly. There comes a point however, where a person should be compensated for their time.
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Well, I'd say there comes a point where a person chooses to be compensated for their time. Between Marlene and Ed (who seems to have dropped off the map), their tutorials and instructions in the DIY thread could certainly warrant some compensation. I'm not saying you're wrong for selling your plans. Not at all. I'm just saying that this is a choice, not something anyone forced you into. :D

With that said, I think it's fine if he wants to share the plans. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Twocik put out the designs for his adapter but still builds them for others. Like Marlene said, there are plenty of people who would rather just purchase the end product than do it themselves. And that's fine. Do I want to learn how to build a car just so I can have one? Of course not. I'd rather have someone build it and I can use it to get around. If Snodart's design is good then people will talk about it, if it is not it will fall by the wayside. We all know that reputation on this board is everything. If you try to sell your product and it is inferior or you are not a good person to deal with then that will spread around. It's the market at work.
 
Thanks for the input Fredric and ChainSmoker.

ChainSmoker, if I do decide to build the guide/DVD, I will put my heart and soul into it and do everything that I can to make all parts easy for everybody to obtain. If a part becomes a problem for anybody to find in their country, I would be more than willing to buy and mail the part at cost+shipping. I want people to have a quality DIY adapter that is within an affordable price range. In fact, that makes me wonder if it would also be a good idea to sell a parts kit for those who would prefer it that way.


[SIZE=+0]Keep in mind that this guide will take a few months or more to create. I am still refining the adapter to make it easier to build and with fewer parts. I will be shooting with the vibrating GG adapter for my hero-fest entry. Once that is done, I can invest my full attention to the guide/DVD. [/SIZE]

Thanks again.
 
ovjamaica said:
If Snodart's design is good then people will talk about it, if it is not it will fall by the wayside. We all know that reputation on this board is everything. If you try to sell your product and it is inferior or you are not a good person to deal with then that will spread around. It's the market at work.
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Excellent point ovjamaica. That is why I won't even bother starting this project if I don't feel that it is worthy of people's time and money.

hpd said:
So in this context i wouldn't be so angry against the man who maybe spend this money for another DIY project. I like Your page http://snodart.com/hbe.php and seriously think about creating dolly and crane. Thereby stealing your ideas!
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Yes, build them!
 
snodart said:
Excellent point ovjamaica. That is why I won't even bother starting this project if I don't feel that it is worthy of people's time and money.
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If I hadn't already researched the heck out of the adapter concept and had a resource like this available, I'd definitely go for a guide like this. Especially if it comes with a DVD detailing the process of making it. For people wanting to save some money by making their own this would be a great way to go, at least in terms of the concept. Good luck with it. Ever though of making more detailed plans/DVD's on your jib or other equipment?
 
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