How to Keep a Camera Steady for Walking Selfie Video with this DIY Camera Rig

One of my clients asked me if there was a rig to keep the camera steady while walking and shooting a selfie video. I came up with the following idea which in demo in the video below: Keep Camera Steady for walking Selfie Video with DIY Camera Rig.

Steady Camera Work is a Must

One of the cardinal rules for making better quality videos is stabilizing the camera. Shaky camera work is hard to watch. That’s why (besides a camera) getting a tripod is the second item on my list of things to get for any budding video maker. (The first item on the list is an external mic.)

But what if you are making your own videos? What if you want to move around during the clip? What if you want to take a walk and talk to the camera as you go? Dynamic (moving) camera work can add visual interest to a video. But shaky camera work just makes it hard to watch. How can we create a rig that holds the camera steady but still allows it to follow along with someone on the move? There are a number of different “Steadicam” (TM) type products on the market to solve this problem. But what about the do-it-yourselfer? What about the bootstrapping entrepreneurs that are wearing all the hats in the business and don’t have the revenue built up to the point where they can pay specialists to do things like make videos? What if we are trying to make our videos with our smartphones? There are ways to achieve the “Steadicam” (TM) effect without spending $150 for the Steadicam Smoothee (affiliate link) or $200 for the Varizoom Stealthy.

Gear to Keep a Camera Steady for Walking Selfie Video

Keep a Camera Steady for Walking Selfie Video with DIY Camera Rig 1

Here you can see the PVC pipe with a muslin clamp that fits loosely around the selfie stick near the head acting as a gimbal. A 2nd muslin clamp secures a .5 lb. cylinder to the handle the selfie stick as a counterweight. This simple DIY rig is designed to keep a camera steady for walking selfie video work.

For the do-it-yourself rig that I put together for this video I used:

Mpow iSnap X Bluetooth Self-portrait Monopod a.k.a. “selfie stick” 🙂
Two 4.25 inch muslin clamps
PVC pipe (approx. 21 in.)
Half pound steel weight (taken from a set of ankle weights)
iPhone 5s
Native Apple camera app
Demo video completely edited with iMovie for iOS

Background on Camera Stabilizing

Many handheld camera stabilizing devices incorporate a gimbal and counterweight. A gimbal allows movement on all three axes and is the connection between handle and camera mount. The gimbal allows the camera to pivot on the X-axis, Y-axis, or Z-axis. The counterweight is suspended below the camera by some kind of mounting pole and keeps the camera upright. My makeshift model in the video uses selfie stick as the mounting pole. The musline clamp on the PVC pipe segment is acting as the “gimbal”. In truth the clamp is only holding tightly to the PVC pipe. It is around the selfie stick near the head by the smart phone. The stick is far enough back into the jaw of the clamp so that the stick is not held tightly.

The half pound metal weight at the bottom of my contraption is clamped to the handle on the selfie stick acts as a counterweight.

The PVC pipe allows some extension to widen the angle of the shot a little as well as provide some dampening effect on the natural bumping movement of the walking motion.

Disclaimer

I must add here that this DIY rig is one of those “try this at your own risk” sorts of situations. Smartphones (even though we carry them very casually and “everyone” has one) are actually rather expensive and somewhat fragile devices. Please use caution when clamping to your phone or suspending your phone and moving around. Any number of things could go wrong and your phone could end up dropped with a broken screen. Or you could bump into someone while walking in a public place looking at your camera while filming and injure yourself or someone else. Please use common sense and extra care when working around other people. 🙂

Please let me know what you think this simple rig to keep a camera steady for walking selfie video. Maybe you have come up with some great DIY moving selfie rigs. Please share.