DIY Gyroscopic Camera Stabilizer Made On the Cheap

Michael Zhang · Mar 13, 2012

DIY Gyroscopic Camera Stabilizer Made On the Cheap gryo mini

Physics guru David Prutchi recently came across a line of professional grade gyroscopic camera stabilizers by Kenyon Laboratories. They cost thousands of dollars each, but Prutchi noticed that the designs hadn’t changed much since they were first patented in the 1950s. He then set out to create his own DIY version using low-cost gyroscopes from Gyroscope.com. His finished device (shown above) actually helps stabilize his DSLR when shooting video or when photographing with non-image-stabilized lenses.

Here’s a short video demo showing what it does for unstable handheld video recording:

While it certainly doesn’t go toe-to-toe with the professional-grade stabilizers, it’s neat that this kind of thing can be built on the cheap and at home. If you want to try your hand at making your own, Prutchi has written up a step-by-step guide of what he did.

DIY Gyroscopic Camera Stabilizer that Really Works! (via Make)

http://www.facebook.com/tyrnight Nicholas Butler

on or off it looks the same.. thats horrible..
Alejandro2012

Yeah, no big difference… :(
http://profiles.google.com/n1ghtcr4wl N1ght Crawler

A simple DIY steady cam had been better.
http://armannd.com/ Titus-Armand

Wow that’s bad. I actually think the “stabilized” version looks worse than the non-stabilized one. It’s got sharper, more sudden moves that look very unnatural. Not to mention that goddamn noise…
jdm8

You’re right on the money. The effect isn’t so great, then it sounds like the mechanism makes such a racket. Steadicams don’t use gyros, it’s usually a needless complication at best, a pandora’s box of problems at worst. That isn’t to say there isn’t value in a gyroscopic stabilizer, but those are usually found in vehicular rigs.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Guy-Mullins/752299598 Guy Mullins

Should those gyros not be at 90 degrees to one another to stabilize horizontal as well as vertical motion?
Adam Emter

Yeah, I’m sorry but this is the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a while. Nothing against the inventor, but that’s just bad on all levels.
Alexey Sviridov

I saw somewhere a similar structure. Instead there was a gyro has two existing computer hard disk perpendicular to each other.
perceptionalreality

The noise is a deal-breaker. And the results aren’t actually very impressive. I was hoping for better. The most basic galvanized pipe and counterweight design works better than this. :(
Thechew

It certainly goes toe to toe with nothing…
destroy_all_humans

i probably wouldnt have shared this result
I’m so rich!

I’d rather just pony up the 500 grand for a Cineflex system
http://twitter.com/denMAR Dennis Marciniak

I agree.

I think what is happening here is that we’re used to seeing a little natural handshake.. especially online. When a mechanical device tries to overcompensate for that handshake we get these jagged motions that looks super unnatural.

Other theories?
http://www.facebook.com/xsportseeker Renato Murakami

What your video would look like if shot by Big Dog
Pablo Cocito

Sounds like he is being followed by a swarm of bees…
http://www.facebook.com/fotosfx Les Baldwin

There is a reason the Kenyon labs is the #1 gyro maker for photo / video systems.
The cameras on cables seen at football games, and air to air work are some of the biggest users of this technology. The biggest downside of Kenyon Labs gear is the weight and size of the gyros, they are huge, and weigh a ton. I’ve used them for air to air work, they are great, but beefy, and expensive.

http://www.ken-lab.com/
http://twitter.com/JonGeilen Jon Geilen

Man A HaloRig MINI from http://halorig.com would have actually made a difference.. Its cheap and lightweight!
Francine Racette

I think he purposely shook the camera in the first video so his invention wouldn’t look too bad.

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DIY Gyroscopic Camera Stabilizer Made On the Cheap