Be a multimedia McGuyver – 101 DIY tools and techniques for cool, professional photo, audio and video gear on the cheap

Macgyver rules

Long, long ago in high school and college I used to do a bunch of indy films with friends and classmates for fun (and some school classes). We never had any money so we couldn’t buy expensive gear like steadycams and jigs, but we did have Home Depot, some tools, lots of time and ingenuity so we were able to cobble together makeshift gear to make things work.

Now-a-days, the magical internet has connected A/V nerds and backyard engineering geeks. Here’s a long list of cool video, photo, audio and multimedia techniques, tools and things to try out:

  1. The legendary $14 Steadycam
  2. Make your own 360 panoramic photo robot
  3. DIY Movie Lightning Lamp
  4. Head Rest Camera Mount
  5. USB Spy Shirt
  6. Video Camera Mount for Bicycle
  7. James Bond’s wallet (with digicam inside)
  8. Dual Waterproof Consumer Electronics – the condom housing
  9. 2FerCam: Video Interview Rig Captures Both Subjects With One Camera
  10. DIY Macro Len for $2 in 2 mins
  11. Pimp Your Copter !
  12. How to Enter the Ghetto Matrix (DIY Bullet Time)
  13. Build a DIY Knex Digital Camera Tripod (actually a quadpod)
  14. The $2 LED Camera Light for Video and Photos
  15. Make a remote controlled camera from a cellphone
  16. Underwater Video Camera / Camcorder Housing for less than $50
  17. 16 feet pan-and-tilt camera crane for $60
  18. Sweep Cam (aka head mounted camera)
  19. Take Photos From Inside Your Mouth … with the Smiley-Cam!
  20. Disposable Flash that Syncs with any other Flash
  21. $5 Motorcycle Camera Mount
  22. Diy ringflash
  23. Canon EOS remote
  24. String Tripod
  25. The Intimate Video Light/ Handheld photograpy light.
  26. Blue Screening [On the cheap]
  27. 4 Easy Steps to Making Old-Fashioned Lenticular Images from Your Photos
  28. DIY Softbox Grid for Under $10.00.
  29. DIY Plywood Skater
  30. DIY Russian Camera
  31. How to Make Video Panoramas from Your Digital Camera’s Video Clips
  32. Pocket Tripod
  33. DIY Softbox
  34. How to Make Video Panoramas from Your Digital Camera’s Video Clips
  35. High-Speed Photography Instructions
  36. DIY ring flash
  37. Homemade FigRig
  38. Make a cheap submersible webcam
  39. DIY Pan jig side
  40. DIY Photobooth
  41. High speed photography – water figures
  42. Extremely Cheap Lightning Photography
  43. Foldable DIY softbox – from a bug shield
  44. Another DIY Micro-Macro Lens
  45. DIY Pano-Head / Vertical Mount For Digital Camera
  46. Aerial photography cheap
  47. DIY Camera shoulder rest
  48. DIY Grid Spots for Your Flash
  49. DIY light-activated slave trigger to fire a remote strobes
  50. Hobo DIY Softbox for Perfect Portraits
  51. Build your own underwater remote operated vehicle (ROV)
  52. Make a cheap $5 camera handlebar mount for a motorcycle
  53. Build a panoramic tripod head for $10
  54. Build a cheap wide angle adapter
  55. Make a Pinhole Camera and Darkroom
  56. Pinhole Camera Instructions
  57. Make a macro attachment for digital cameras
  58. Homemade matchbox pinhole camera
  59. Build a flash trigger
  60. Make a digital toy infrared camera
  61. Super magnification camera
  62. Cheap 1$ light tent / light box
  63. Make a $50 mountain bike video camera
  64. How to build a cheap ringflash
  65. Capture lightning with a digital camera
  66. Make your own PVC Fig rig
  67. DV camera lens from still camera hack
  68. High Speed Photography – Weekend Projects
  69. Astronomy web cam adapters
  70. More photos from balloons…
  71. Make your own camera tripod with a bottle-cork
  72. Body Strap
  73. Easy Boom Pole for Under $30.00!!!
  74. Updated Bicycle mounted steadicam
  75. DIY Shutter Release for your Canon DSLR
  76. How to Make A Inexpensive Light Tent
  77. Bicycle Camera Mount for under $1 : intro
  78. How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio
  79. Homemade FigRig
  80. Make a cheap submersible webcam
  81. How to Make Video Panoramas from Your Digital Camera’s Video Clips
  82. Blue Screening [On the cheap]
  83. The DIY Fisheye Lens — Using Nothin’ But a Pair of Old Glasses and Some Tape
  84. $60 jib set up
  85. Worlds’s cheapest aerial video platform
  86. HOW TO BUILD A MOBILE/PORTABLE BLUE/GREEN SCREEN
  87. Create Quicktime VR Panoramas (using free software)
  88. Teleprompter DIY for $50.00
  89. Make a $50 mountain bike video camera
  90. Laptop Battery Hack! You’ll Save $$$ Video
  91. Electric Motorcycle: Test Drive (with Video) – Popular Mechanics
  92. Telephone Handset Microphone
  93. The Intimate Video Light/ Handheld photograpy light.
  94. Helmetcam for Watersports
  95. DIY Microphone blimp
  96. Car Roof Mount
  97. $1 image stabilizer that fits in your pocket
  98. See Life From a Dog’s Point-of-View with the Photojojo Doggie-Cam!
  99. The Ultimate Guide to Time-Lapse Photography
  100. Another underwater housing
  101. DIY VR

This list has been cobbled from years of bookmarking and I have don’t remember half of the people that tipped me off of to all this stuff (although a lot of it — as you can see — is from me being a Make Magazine and Instrutables fanatic). I’m certain that these people also helped somehow: Seth Gitner, Angela Grant, Richard Koci Hernandez and Zach Wise.

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You’re currently reading “Be a multimedia McGuyver – 101 DIY tools and techniques for cool, professional photo, audio and video gear on the cheap,” an entry on Journerdism

Published:
01.21.08 / 12am
Category:
best practices, cool stuff, humor & time wasters, multimedia, nerd, photojournalism
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