Mini Jib -second diy project

C

cinecrunch

New member
This is my second project and so far it has come along pretty well. It was made from scrape steel I had lying around the garage and took about 15 hours to get to this point.

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It is is 15" long from pivot to the camera mount. And 20" from handle to mount.

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It is currently balanced without camera so it will need a little more weight on the handle to offset the weight of the camera.

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It has about 2.5 feet of travel from top to bottom and can be mounted to a tripod with a tapped 1/4" 20 on the base.

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I have a few more things to finish up before it is really ready to shoot some video. Hopefully should finish it up this weekend.
 
Thanks for the positive feedback. I am curious myself to see what it can and can't do. I had a few shots I wanted to try in fairly tight spaces and this is what I came up with. I am sure there will be a number of limitations but we'll see.
 
That is amazing!!!

Love it, can't wait for a video..... and maybe a baseline schematic? it's all Random scraps in the garage?
 
It's funny you ask that. I have already started designing v2 and that is top of my list. I want to have hard stops that are adjustable the way you would on a higher end follow focus. The limit how high or low the arm articulates. Another thing that I will be adding is the ability to lock the horizontal swing. I want it to be able to lock at every 45 degrees. I can do that on this model but will be limited in my approach as it is already welded together. I added it up and there is about $35 worth of steel on it if you were making a trip to lowes. So it would be affordable to build without any material already on hand.
 
Afraid there is some bad news on the mini jib from. I had some time to put it through it's paces and came to some conclusions.

1. It's length is to long for anything but a giant table. The arm is 20" long and the minimum focal length for me was 18". For a total of 38".
Doesn't give you much room to play on a large table.

2. It is difficult if impossible to get a steady shot with it. Due to it's short stature is takes a really steady hand to get anywhere near a usable shot.
With the dolly moving one way and the jib arm moving the other it is very hard to make it work. Also, the lever being so short the ability to get a smooth short even when
the dolly is standing still is difficult. An Inch of downward force causes the camera to rise 8". So the slightest movement causes the camera to rise 2" in no time. I add elastic bands
to either side if the pivot to slow it down but it only helped a little.

I like the idea of a jib with a small footprint and still think it can be done. I have a few ideas I am going to prototype and will keep the forum updated.
 
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