Otherwise Known As Kevin Miller (XI)

Please take 3.5 minutes to watch and vote for my daughter's video!

Want to turn your "old" iPhone into a video camera?

After drooling over my sister's iPhone 3GS the other day (which includes a video camera, voice-activated dialing and bluetooth headset connectivity among other features), I contacted my carrier (Fido) to see if I could upgrade my ancient (14 month old) iPhone 3G. Sure, they said. Just give us $600.

What?

Turns out they won't allow me to upgrade my phone for the much lower price of $199 (less my $60 Fido credit) until I'm within 6 months of the end of my contract. So that means no new iPhone until January 2011. Bummer. Especially since BC just enacted a "no talking on the cell phone while driving" law, and my dog just chewed up my iPhone earpiece. 

On the good news front though, yesterday I discovered an app called iVideo Camera that adds video capability to older iPhones. The best part is, it's only 99 cents! You can judge the quality for yourself below. It's not great, but seeing as I won't be filming Lawrence of Arabia on my phone any time soon, it should work just fine.

Now if only I can find a way around the "no talking on your cell phone while driving" law...

Improve upon perfection? You bet I can!

One of the joys of Youtube is stumbling across something you weren't looking for. For example, a short while ago I was hunting for a tutorial on how to make a low cost camera dolly. In no time at all, I found several excellent videos, especially this one by Indy Mogul. However, in the midst of my search I also happened across plans for jib arms, lighting softboxes, steadicams and all sorts of other devices I didn't know I needed but suddenly wanted desperately.

That said, just because something is cheap doesn't mean it's easy to build. So while I was excited to find all of these plans and the test footage that proved their effectiveness, many of the projects were still a bit intimating.

That all changed when I stumbled across a video called "Build Your Own Tripod Stabilizer for Free." Not exactly a catchy title, but it does get straight to the point. For those of you who don't know, a tripod stabilizer is really just another word for a steadicam (a stabilizing mount for a video camera that isolates the operator's movement from the camera, allowing for a smooth shot even when the cameraman is moving quickly over an uneven surface). Up until I found this video, the cheapest steadicam design I had heard of was $8. Even then, I could only find the test footage, not the plans themselves. So when this video promised to show me how to do it even cheaper, I simply had to press play. I think the video pretty much speaks for itself, so why don't you take a look and then we'll reconvene below.

After watching this video, especially his test footage, I decided to give it a whirl. Not only was William's solution cheap, it couldn't be simpler for a technophobe like me. So it seemed like the perfect solution--well, almost perfect. My one hangup was that tying water bottles to my tripod seemed like a bit of a hassle. Even William looked like he was having a difficult time doing it. So I hunted around the house for something else to use. What I came up with was pretty simple: three Nalgene water bottles like the one pictured below. The cool thing about them is they have a built-in loop. No need for string. Just hook one bottle on each of your tripod legs and you're ready to go.

To test the new apparatus, I ran down the street as fast as I could beside my son as he raced along on his bike. When I watched the resultant footage (see it here) I was impressed. It turned out even better than I anticipated. Hardly any shake at all. The only thing I had to worry about was the weird stares I was getting from the neighbors. But I've been getting those for a long time anyway...

While my slight modification is definitely an improvement on William's design, it certainly isn't free (unless you received your Nalgene bottles for Christmas like I did). So William still wins top prize. But if you're looking for a simple, low cost way to stabilize your video camera, you won't find a better solution than this.