Car rigs home made anyone?

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Richard Black
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has anyone made their own car rigs on the cheap?
I just want to make up a cheap suction pole setup. So a pole comes off the front of the car hangs down so i can do long exposure rolling shots. Anyone made one cheap?
 
Youe best bet is getting in contact with liberalis, I believe he has a custom setup as described
 
My mate on here, Dal, he uses one....think his simple one just consists of his tripod and a few glass suckers and exhaust clamps...
 
The thing to remember is that that the car will moving at less than walking speed, it does not need to go fast. The following is just from my experience ...

There are 4 parts each as important as the other to get right in building a rig;

1/ How its connected to the car.
2/ The boom or arm section.
3/ The head end, how to connect your camera.
4/ How they all fit together (the tricky bit)

There is 2 main ways of connecting to the car, an under-car kit, using magnets or clamps (good for minimal photoshop, bad for universal fitment and magnet reliability) and suction cups, which will fit 99% of cars but leaves a fair bit to photoshop out.

The boom arm needs to be a fine balance between rigidity, length, weight, and physical size, plenty of trial and error goes into this part alone.

To connect your camera most people use a Manfrotto magic arm combined with a super clamp as its plenty adjustable, and the clamp will fit over most pipe/boom/arm diameter ( I don't use one myself because I can't afford one yet, lol)

The really tricky part is how to connect your suction cups (if thats the method used) to the boom keeping it rigid but also allowing it to be adjustable for both reach and curvature of bonnets or glass etc, an engineering mind comes in handy.

This is just the start, there's then the whole lighting/scenes/photoshopping/camera settings/car sourcing/weather predictions/what to have for breakfast/etc/etc.

Enjoy.

Ps: don't spend loads of cash, if your having problems finding something, let me know and I'll have a think on how it can be done cheaper.

Pps: cheers Keltic
 
superstat said:
My mate on here, Dal, he uses one....think his simple one just consists of his tripod and a few glass suckers and exhaust clamps...
Click to expand...

Here's a picture of my rig and also a picture taken with it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/DemonEscortS/Photography/CarCameraMountcopy.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/DemonEscortS/Photography/DSC_0038copy.jpg

The downside to this simple rig is that you can't get the entire car in. and ideally you need a wide angle lens for it to work.

The upside is that it only costs about £12 to make.

And just so that everyone knows, Liberalis is the one that showed me his old rig (which i copied to make this).

I keep meaning to build one like Liberalis's new one but havent had the spare time to really look into it.
 
those suckers are available from B&Q as glass movement suckers for £ 5 each.

I have one which I've got a ball head mount clamped to for mounting on a car. For some of the pole type shots, I'd want more than one.

They're strong. I stuck one on our works transit van and it wouldn't come off, no matter how hard I pulled or shook it.
 
http://www.rent-a-rig.com/rig_en.html

This seems to be an awesome set up....12m! but not pictures...

I'm looking at doing something similar to what you guys are chatting about...maybe we could all pool our knowledge and finds etc...
 
andrewc said:
They're strong. I stuck one on our works transit van and it wouldn't come off, no matter how hard I pulled or shook it.
Click to expand...

:LOL: Don't know if you meant it but that kinda came across as dry humour and gave me quite a mental image!

Coffee all over the monitor now...
 
Also check out AutomotiveRigs.com. I don't know how well they work and have never used them, but they look interesting.

I'm using a couple of the Manfrotto suction cups with superclamps and an 1 1/2" aluminum pole to make about a 12 foot boom at the moment.
 
They look sweet....$$$
 
superstat said:
They look sweet....$$$
Click to expand...

:) That is more $ than a home built option, but darn cheap when you look at the real stuff.

For some wallet reaming goodness, check out these guys. I don't know the price of an actual system, but they are computer controlled near frame accurate moving rigs that can hold a 45kg motion camera setup and move it in multiple planes 10-15m from the vehicle at speeds up to 40+ mph. They are made with carbon fiber and tempered glass (for easy photoshop work). Now we're talking $$$!
 
To make a car rig you will need the following items:

  • Manfrotto Avenger F1000 Suction Cups x2
  • 1 1/4" pole - preferably reinforced aluminium
  • Manfrotto Superclamps Mn035 x3
  • Manfrotto Magic Arm 143RC x1
  • Wired or Wireless shutter release (not essential)

  1. Use the the suction cups to mount onto the body of the car (or even the glass from the windscreen if you wish to get a very low angle).
  2. Attach the 035 superclamps to each of the suction cups.
  3. Use the 035 superclamps to clamp the aluminium pole.
  4. At the other end of the pole clamp on the magic arm.
  5. Attach the camera, set exposure to 1/50th shutter priority, push the car from the rear and fire the shutter via remote, or use the timer.

That set up with a long enough pole will allow you to shoot any angle pretty much, although you will need to do a fair bit of photoshop cloning of course.

I hope that helps!
 
lukemedway_uk said:
To make a car rig you will need the following items:

  • Manfrotto Avenger F1000 Suction Cups x2
  • 1 1/4" pole - preferably reinforced aluminium
  • Manfrotto Superclamps Mn035 x3
  • Manfrotto Magic Arm 143RC x1
  • Wired or Wireless shutter release (not essential)

  1. Use the the suction cups to mount onto the body of the car (or even the glass from the windscreen if you wish to get a very low angle).
  2. Attach the 035 superclamps to each of the suction cups.
  3. Use the 035 superclamps to clamp the aluminium pole.
  4. At the other end of the pole clamp on the magic arm.
  5. Attach the camera, set exposure to 1/50th shutter priority, push the car from the rear and fire the shutter via remote, or use the timer.

That set up with a long enough pole will allow you to shoot any angle pretty much, although you will need to do a fair bit of photoshop cloning of course.

I hope that helps!
Click to expand...

How much does this cost?
 
I used my roofrack "bars"

One attached normally to the top of the car, then placed the other bar on top of the secured one, slid it out to the side of the car. Three jubilee clips to hold the two bars together.

Then a gorilla pod and plenty of duct tape holds the camera to the bar...................:LOL:
 
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