I Do Love a Bit of DIY

Last semester I made a DIY Cam Slider. This is basically a mini dolly for making small tracking shots. I used it in my pairs project for Documentary which we did about Little John's Grave in Hathersage:

As you can see the tracking shots are rather jerky. This is due to the plate which the camera sits on not sliding smooth along the track. I hope to fix this by using skateboard wheels instead of clips.


While searching earlier for the full title of the Sony Z1 (it's Sony HVR-Z1E as it happens) I saw a link to follow focus devices for the Z1. I had a quick look and was disappointed to find out that they were over £300. This is clearly far too expensive so I searched to see if there was a cheaper way of doing it with DIY.

There is, for all of $1 you can make a cheap follow focus:

I think it may need some adapting for the Z1 but I will definitely be giving this a try some time this semester.