Johnny Chung Lee, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University, designed an attachment for a digital video camera which functions like a Steadicam camera stabilizing system. The most interesting aspect of Lee's design is that he says it can be assembled from parts available at a hardware store for about $14.00.

About two weeks ago, we had a celebratory dinner for my mother-in-law, Joyce Kuykendall, who earned a Ph.D. after eight years of study and research. One of my roles that evening was videographer. I broke out my Canon GL1, a fantastic three-CCD video camera, that I hadn't used in about two years because I didn't feel that I had good enough video editing tools to take advantage of it. I forgot how much fun it is to shoot video with a good DV camera like the GL1. I also forgot how good the output of a camera like this can be.

I'd love to try to build a camera stabilizer out of parts I can buy at Lowe's or The Home Depot. If you enjoy shooting digital video as well, you may also be interested in following Johnny Chung Lee's recipe. [ via Digital Media Thoughts ]