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Make a DIY Camera Cage.

I caged my cameras, you can to, keep watching to learn how and why this is a good thing.

#cameracage

When I first started making videos I thought a tripod was the only way to hold my camera for steady shots. Then I saw what a cage can do for you, and I said I need one, but I'll build my own because I want more from it than what's available and it's more entertaining that way for me and you get to see how it can be done.

Why use a cage?

We create “how to” videos and most of any of our videos are of me or Sherry or another friend making, repairing or teaching things. This means set up a camera or two on tripods start recording while we do this. But there are other things that need to be set up, on or near the camera that may need to connect to the camera.

Battery pack
lights
monitor (old Smartphone)
sound recording device
Second camera for a different angle of vue
Behind the scenes camera
etc...

Hanging this stuff on the tripod has resulted in a number of broken devices, when they fall off, and when doing a hand held shot adding this stuff was mostly not an option.

A cage surrounding the camera gives you places to attach things. The attachment points are solid to the camera, so where the camera goes so do they. A cage also gives you additional ways to hold the camera that can help steady it, even with a big lens.

I also wanted to provide more in our videos, such as behind the scenes and additional angles of the work being done, but this needed more cameras in an area that is often crowded already. The cage gives me more places set up these cameras.

Why build it?

I wanted a cage that would work for ALL of my cameras. Not just the YI M1, but also the GoPro, and the Vivitar action cameras, any one of the Smartphones I use, as a camera or as a monitor controller for the other cameras. I also wanted it to be expandable to include other equipment I get in the future. Plus this cage has cost me less than $20 in new materials, with extra left over for further expansion.

First cut the bar to the sizes needed, I used a hack saw, but a miter saw will work on aluminum as well. Make sure that the material is clamped down so it doesn't move around while you cut, that just makes it harder to cut a straight line.

My parts were as follows
7” bottom
4.5” sides
7.5” top
2.5” camera tab

Next remove the burs from the parts and give them a rounded edge where possible. This can be done with a file, but this will take time. A router table with a fence can be used with a 1/8” round over bit, this is much faster but is more advanced and brings the Mechanically Inclined Rating up to 7. If you choose to use a router be very careful it can and will route whatever goes into it, including your fingers.

Now layout and drill the locations for mounting devices. A sharpie can be used to color the surface so that when it's scratched with a sharp edge will leave a silver line for locations. Once I had the locations I center punched the location to give the drill bit a starting point so it would not wander much. Where you put the locations is up to you. You need 1/4-20 threaded locations to mount the cage to a tripod, and 1/4” through locations to attach most cameras with a bolt. I chose to use all 1/4-20 threaded locations in the bottom bar centered .5” apart, with a single 1/4-20 threaded location in the center of the bar for tripod mounting. The advantage of this is that, I can drill any of these locations out to ¼” through, later if I need to. The side bars also only had 1/4-20 threaded locations. The top I alternated threaded locations and through locations because I knew I needed these through locations for GoPro mounts and mounting clamps for Smartphones.

With all of the 1/4” and 1/4-20 locations drilled and tapped, I now used the scrap block of wood to align the bars together, this helped me to make the connections square to each other and give me a way to drill matching locations for each of the parts going together. I used #6-32 bolts to assemble the parts together, 2 at each connection. The #36 drill bit is the minimum size for tapping 6-32 locations. I used that size drill bit to drill through both parts at the connection but only tapped the locations in the top and bottom bars. The locations in the side bars were drilled out with the #28 drill bit to be through locations for the 6-32 bolts, that way the bolts tighten the parts together when assembled.

2 camera selfie using the cage to hold both cameras
Picture in Picture

This is #HowWeDoIt to make videos and the tools we use:

Cameras:
#Samsung smart phones J7
#yi M1 mirrorless camera with 12 - 40 mm lens
#GoPro hero 7 black


Video Editing:
Software:
Open Office
#Filmora9
GIMP 2
Hardware:
Dell Inspiron 5570, 16 GB RAM