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Step 5Testing
The old (finished Sept 24th) 2 Gyro system provides a great stabilization, but is quite bulky. Not that easy to take into the field...
This 1 Gyro design is far more easy to handle in the field, cheaper, folds up, stores easily, uses less power and is easier to build.
Testing was done during mid twilight. The camera was a Canon SX 110 IS, at 10X maximum zoom setting (330 mm focal length 35 mm equivalent).
Exposure was set at 1/ 15 sec: Impossible to avoid motion blur if held by hand.
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS:
With some training, this stabilizer performs almost as well as the far more bulkier 2 HD stabilizer.
Training is important: Holding the camera in a steady, horizontal (unrotated) position is easy. But when pressing the shutter button, a beginner like me tends to move his whole arm instead of just his finger. Which results in rotation of the camera...
Rotation around the optical axis is the only unstabilized motion in this design.
Fortunately, with some practice, pressing the shutter button while holding the camera steady, is easily learnt.
I would have preferred the multi platter HD. The gyro power of this particular HD feels a bit light.
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I'm curious what voltage is actually used for the platter motor, if I can find another junker drive at work I'll check. I just trashed 5 old scsi drives last week... Perhaps you could still eliminate one of the voltages with a 3.5" drive. You should be able to get rid of the PCB as well, and run the power straight to the motor. The magnets and head assy can be removed. The magnets and their mounting plates add quite a bit of weight.
Good idea, its a good use for a bad hard drive.
I cannot add any suggestion at this moment to improve it. Reading about your comment on your difficulty of holding your camerasteady when shutting, I remembered an Idea that I use to train people onhow to properly hold as camera and softly press the shutter button, itis by using a laser pointer temporarily attached to the camera to showhow much movement is done when pushing the shutter button down. Keep practicing until the laser dot projected onto a wall lookssteady. The tool-like lasers like the Black and Decker can projecta pair of lines at 90 degrees, which helps in developing a sense ofhorizontality to properly level the camera too.
Finally, practice placing your finger laying on the camera body top, andusing ONLY the fingertip to SLOWLY squeeze the shutter,avoiding pushing the whole camera when operating the shutter. Theold rule of thumb in 35 mm photography was to select a shutter speedreciprocal of the lens focal distance; that is, if using a 135 mm shorttelephoto, one should use at least 1/125 second exposure with hand heldexposures. But with modern image stabilized lens or sensor, anaverage two stops can be saved (that would be 1/30 sec.) Now, using yourHard disk stabilizer can add at least one more stop. This is anexcellent idea and I truly commend you for your approach. Keep-up thegoog work!
amclaussen, Mexico City.
Thank you for the laser suggestion!!! I think this is the best way of training to be a good photographer.
It might be possible to use as is, or rewinding could be necessary. It needs a controller as used in RC planes. Some folks make their own controller: letsmakerobots.com/node/2898
Gimbal or pivot mount about the CG, ala Wimberly head to isolate the camera-gyro from your body and hand movement.
Place the battery pack on an adjustable stalk below the camera body to provide additional roll and pitch stability. Pitch instability is the major cause of camera jitters and roll stability is not otherwise provided by your new gyro system.
An external monitor (your EOS), electronic viewfinder (Ricoh GX-series), or flip out LCD (Lumix G-1, some DSLRs or a video camera) would allow you to keep the gyro close to the camera CG and still compose the shot.
A smaller camera would increase the effectiveness of a given hard drive mass. For example, a compact camera would work well, The Ricoh and Lumix Micro 4/3 cameras have live VFs too.
Higher rotational velocity would give more stability for the same weight. can the HDD be hacked to overdrive the motor?
I applaud your use of recycled drives, but consider upgrading to a designed-for-purpose gyro-stabiliser because the HDD platters are solid and the heads, tracking electronics, etc. all add additional weight and are so less efficient than a gyro that concentrates most of its weight peripherally.
(in very long exposures while on the move, another type of motion blur occurs: not by shaking, but by a steady change of position, like a ship turning or nearing a destination, where perspective will change. A stabilizer will not correct this.
The bulk and weight would also be much larger.
Super tele lenses are nowadays often equipped with their own image stabilizer.
One of the surprises of the 2 models I built was the remarkable boost in performance when both the internal as well as the Gyro stabilizers were on.
Making a dedicated stabilizer for a super telelens, with 2, or 4 HDs could result in much improved stabilization.
Would it be possible to separate the 12 V and 5 V electronics in the HD circuit board? In that case the arm could be taken out, or cut down to the part outside the platters. the spacers between platters could then be replaced with a stack of platters from junk HDs, or by a carefully machined metal disk.