Category: DIY

DIY – Build a Panoramic Tripod Head

Building a pano headIt’s true, having a good tripod head can save you a lot of headaches but normally it costs quite a bit to buy one. The only solution is to build your own!

There’s some amazing software out there for panoramic photography. Various software packages warp, stitch and blend sequences of photos so that they (ideally) look like one big, high-resolution, panoramic shot. However, getting these shots to turn out perfectly isn’t easy when hand holding your camera or using a normal tripod, especially when some parts of the image are fairly close to the lens. Panoramic tripods can cost hundreds of dollars, but making your own isn’t that hard. Even better, it’s dirt cheap.

[via Steve and Worth1000]

How to Build a Panoramic Tripod Head – WikiHow

DIY Nitrogen Laser

Nitrogen/air laser Everyone is talking about this today. I remember first read about a free nitrogen laser in the Scientific American Experimenters Handbook when I was a teenager. I was more into building a Van de Graff machine but I could still appreciate a laser that didn’t need any complex lasing fluids or expensive tubes or one of those ultra cool multi Joule flash lamps. Ahh.. Such day dreams those made up… Oh yeah, about the laser. Pretty much is uses a great whopping spark to excite the nitrogen atoms in the air to a higher state and in turn that liberates ultraviolet radiation. Cool, eh? Hubert’s page has all sorts of cracking info on how that darn thing works, the kid did his homework Looks like you could build one for less than $50 easy. The 10KV power supply could be obtained from a TV or you might even be able to get away with using one of those cheesy air ionizers you find in second hand shops. Or you could buy one from Information Unlimited. (Weird, I Googled ‘high voltage power supply’ and saw the link, I had no idea those guys were still around! Very cool!)

Hubert’s laser page: Air laser

And if that don’t do it for ya, check this one out you laser pervs! Home built nitrogen (N2) laser 

CSSoh’s Lego Pneumatics

LEGO pneumatics What do you get when you add air to your LEGOs? No, not crispy LEGOS that don’t go soggy in milk, you get power! This site has all sorts of methods of building motors, valves, and switches that run off from pressurized air and all are made with that classic building material, LEGO. YOu know, it’s not too late to order some for Christmas if you want to mess with them.

CSSoh’s Lego Pneumatics

CamPole – Just in Time For Christmas!

My brother sent me this today:

"So, how do you take a picture of a large family at a table and get all of them in the picture? Well, you could shoot a digital panoramic and have a long, wide image with everyone at the table, Or you could shoot from the corner and get everyone at a triangle shaped table with the people closest to the camera being washed out from the flash, or you could hover above the table where everyone is the same distance from the camera, and the table actually looks square, and nobody suffers from wide angle distortion. Difficult you say? Well not if you have the amazing, the astounding, Kitco CamPole! Yes, with the Kitco CamPole, you too can get those amazing shots from ABOVE the action! Now you too can share in a godlike perspective! Fully featured with remote air release, wireless video viewfinder, and fully automatic exposure. Buy your CamPole today! Only at authorized Kitco dealers!"

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Receiver and LCD television at base of pole.

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Camera head assembly. Head is at a 45 degree angle.

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Shutter release. The bulb release is screwed into a nut that is brazed onto a flat washer. Whole assembly held by gaffer’s tape to camera. Bulb release pushes the shutter release button on camera. (more pictures of that soon -John)

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Video camera/transmitter taped to viewfinder. The viewfinder frame is about %50 smaller than a normal 35mm camera viewfinder, so the video camera has no problem ‘seeing’ the whole frame.

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Video camera/transmitter setup again.

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Entire Assembly

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Christmas tree pic- top down view taken from floor level.

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I’m looking forward to seeing more photos from this rig. Maybe if I prod him a bit he will add a tilt ajustment to it.