DIY Shoulder Rig In Progress (advice/opinions appreciated!)

Rizzice

Rizzice

Active member
Here's the shoulder mount that I'm making out of PVC and some other bits and pieces. It's based off the RedRock Eyespy shoulder mount, but I do eventually want to make a dual grip attachment so you can use both hands to hold it.

Here's the rig (for my Canon 7D)

I've spent under $20 on all the materials (not including the Manfrotto QR):

shoulder.jpg


The rig is fully adjustable, I've added screws to the handle and shoulderpad to tighten them anywhere along the PVC pipes and the shoulderpads fit incredibly perfectly!




I'm stuck right now though trying to figure what to make the middle piece that attaches to the camera out of.. my original plan is wood block, but I am pretty unsatisfied with the longevity of wood. I'm actually looking for suggestions from you DIY gurus if you have any..

A possibility is to use a superclamp:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images345x345/371927.jpg
But it would only attach to ONE of the PVCs, and on top of that, I want to offset the camera mount so that I can look into the viewfinder directly without tilting the head, and I'm afraid it will cause too much torque on the PVC pipe/clamp. I haven't worked with PVC a ton or clamps a ton, so I can't really decide if it will work or not, but I almost feel like that much torque on a single PVC won't hold.

Any input/suggestions would be great! I plan on painting it all black for the stealth look once I finish up with it :)
 
Last edited:
DaWolf85 said:
Why isn't it possible to use two superclamps?
Click to expand...

After a lot of thought, I'm actually going to end up doing that. They should get here on Friday, and I'll probably connect them with some sort of bracket that will also hold the QR plate.

I'll post it up when it's all finished and painted!
 
I built a similar shoulder mount for my HVX with aluminum and steel and loved it for the first half of the first day of using it but I found that the single pistol-grip on the front - while convenient for looking badass and quickly switching to low angle shots - made for a rig that was very difficult to keep from bobbing and rolling even when braced against my shoulder. My advice to you would be to modify it to include two handgrips instead of one and adding a counterweight.

Hope it works out for you!
 
JoeRawlins said:
I built a similar shoulder mount for my HVX with aluminum and steel and loved it for the first half of the first day of using it but I found that the single pistol-grip on the front - while convenient for looking badass and quickly switching to low angle shots - made for a rig that was very difficult to keep from bobbing and rolling even when braced against my shoulder. My advice to you would be to modify it to include two handgrips instead of one and adding a counterweight.

Hope it works out for you!
Click to expand...

lol if you had followed the link trail he gave you you'd have found this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46248400@N07/4309403435/in/set-72157623297031010/

It shows that he did in fact add two handles.
 
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