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$1 Image stabilizer

Surprisingly, I don't have any 1/4" #20 bolts in my "parts" bin or I'd make one of these tonight. I'll hit the hardware store in the morning and post some results later on. It should be interesting to see what (if any) effect this has on shots with my Fuji that sadly does not have any internal image stabilization.
 
with a strong enough string to withstand some tension and image stabilization this can be pretty interesting to get you an extra stop.
 
my clumsy ass would get my foot tangled in the string

i'd fall down some stairs and break my neck AND my camera

cool idea though, i'm still gonna try it
 
There are these keychain-things, with the chain rolled up inside a case, you attach them to your belt, and pull the chain along with the keys. You know what I'm talking about? Would make a nice idea for commercial product. Genuine Canon, might cost a tad more than 1$.
 
Originally posted by: alfa147x
http://www.diyphotography.net/...ra-stabilizer#comments
Click to expand...

The comment at your link:

Like it But...

I really like this idea except for one thing.
One of my favorite photography quotes is, "You shouldn't be able to tell the height of a photographer by looking at his or her photos."
I think it could be interesting to make the string two feet long and force you to take photos from creative angles to convey your subject.
Click to expand...

The answer is simple. You can always tie a temporary hitch in the string to shoot a consistant group of shots from a lower angle. 🙂
 
Well, I made one and I'm glad that it only cost $.64 for the materials ($.35 for a 2" 1/4-20 Eye Bolt and nut, $.29 for a large washer to use as weight/foot rest, string was free since I already had it). The results are less than impressive. The movement of the camera felt more restricted when attached to the string, but it doesn't appear to have made any real difference in shots that would conceivably be attempted without a solid tripod. I suppose it might be because I have pretty steady hands, but I had to go all the way down to a shutter speed of 1/6 second before I could see any difference at all between unassisted handheld shots and shots with the "string tripod". I don't normally have a use for one, but I wish I had access to a monopod right now just so I could take comparison pictures for this test. I don't think there's much need for tripod photos since we know what they will look like, but I'll post some if anyone is interested.

These pictures were all taken at 300mm zoom with my Fuji S6000fd at approximately 10 feet (I didn't measure exactly) from a calendar hanging on the wall of my kitchen. My camera does not have Image Stabilization, so none was used in this test. 😉

Handheld at 1/15 second
String tripod at 1/15 second
Handheld at 1/6 second
String tripod at 1/6 second
Handheld at 1/2 second
String tripod at 1/2 second
Reference shot on a tripod at 1/2 second
Reference shot on homemade monopod at 1/2 second


Edit: Since I have it now, maybe I'll permanently attach the eye bolt to the walking stick I occassionally take with me on hikes for use as an impromptu monopod when I don't want to carry my tripod. 🙂

Edit again: Even if I don't take it with me, I'm going to attach the bolt to my walking stick so I can take those monopod photos I mentioned earlier. I'll do that in a few hours when I get back from shopping...

Edit one more time: I added a stable shot on a tripod at 1/2 second and one with my improvised monopod (eye bolt strapped to a 5 foot walking stick) also at 1/2 second exposure.
 
Oh, I suppose. 😛

I don't want to shrink them because that defeats the purpose of looking for focus details, but I'll cut a chunk out of the center of each shot and just post those.


edit: OK, they're cropped down to just show the same center area of each photo.
 
After taking that monopod shot, I have to say that I just might get my money's worth out of this $.35 eye bolt. The monopod is nowhere near as good as the completely stable tripod shot, of course, but it's a vast improvement over the handheld (and "string" held) shots. I don't see any point in using it with the string stretched down to my foot, but using that same string to strap the bolt to the top of my walking stick is a definite improvement over the handheld shots and could be useful for a shot that needs a long exposure while in the "back country". And when I don't want to carry/use a tripod or a walking stick, I can just take the string and bolt and find a stick to attach it to when I get where I'm going. 🙂
 
Well I see it's not a replacement for a tripod and won't make a blurry image clear, but it IS an improvement. 🙂
 
I thought I had posted this several days ago but I guess the message wasn't saved properly.

I had the bolt strapped on to the stick securely while I was doing my testing. I just wrapped it on again to take a picture. This isn't quite as secure as I would do it when taking lots of pictures, but even a quick wrap like this is stable enough to keep my Fuji from moving around when attached.

homemade monopod head
 
you don't even need the mount. The tension of your hand to your foot is enough if you hold your camera properly.

For most shots that steadiness matters bring a real tri/monopod or use a stationary object.
 
I imagine that results could vary a lot from person to person. The string trick didn't have any effect for me at any shutter speed I would even consider trying to shoot without a tripod, and when it did make a difference, it wasn't enough of a difference to matter in my opinion.

On the other hand, strapping that 1/4" eye bolt to the end of a stick made a big difference at moderately long shutter speeds and is definitely worth trying when a tripod isn't available.
 
FWIW everybody, I've read stories of people who use the Ropepod a lot distorting the bottoms of their camera bodies from the constant downward force. Probably not a big deal, but if you use a battery grip, it could cause problems. Also, I can imagine it would be quite easy to pull out tripod mount threading on a plastic P&S.
 
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