Car Rigs - what do you use?

[Fordo]

Anyone got any photos of their car rigs?

I need to put one together, but it needs to be exceptionally solid.

Im going to be using a 5d, for video- which is why it needs to be very solid, but i want to get a reasonable length from the car.

Im going to do some test filming for an upcoming project. Im hoping to achieve the 'floating cam' style shots used in guy ritchies M5 advert from 2000.

So basically, need ideas for a car rig, needs to be very stuff, get me a reasonable length from the car, and not too big- i want as little to get rid of in post as possible.

(editied for 'sauage fingeritis')

Edited by Fordo on Friday 12th February 15:19

[Lunja]

These guys might be able to help out:

http://www.cameragrip.co.uk/

I've used their kits for in-car shoots before and they've been great, and the prices are reasonable too.

ETA: http://www.cameragrip.co.uk/acatalog/hague_sm11_ca... - that's probably what you're looking for, and comes in at £269. It'll only hold a 2kg camera, and the suction cups can be a bit difficult to attach, but it'll be very simple to rig up and I'm sure you'll get some great shots.

One tip though would be to use a very wide angle lens - I recently tried some in-car video with a Sony Z1 HDV camera and really wished I had a much wider lens...

Edited by Lunja on Friday 12th February 16:39

[Fordo]

Lunja said:

These guys might be able to help out:

http://www.cameragrip.co.uk/

I've used their kits for in-car shoots before and they've been great, and the prices are reasonable too.

ETA: http://www.cameragrip.co.uk/acatalog/hague_sm11_ca... - that's probably what you're looking for, and comes in at £269. It'll only hold a 2kg camera, and the suction cups can be a bit difficult to attach, but it'll be very simple to rig up and I'm sure you'll get some great shots.

One tip though would be to use a very wide angle lens - I recently tried some in-car video with a Sony Z1 HDV camera and really wished I had a much wider lens...

Edited by Lunja on Friday 12th February 16:39

thanks for the links

id already planned to use quite a wide angle prime- want to get the whole car in shot. if its a success, i'll post up some results in a few weeks

[Lunja]

Fordo said:

Lunja said:

These guys might be able to help out:

http://www.cameragrip.co.uk/

I've used their kits for in-car shoots before and they've been great, and the prices are reasonable too.

ETA: http://www.cameragrip.co.uk/acatalog/hague_sm11_ca... - that's probably what you're looking for, and comes in at £269. It'll only hold a 2kg camera, and the suction cups can be a bit difficult to attach, but it'll be very simple to rig up and I'm sure you'll get some great shots.

One tip though would be to use a very wide angle lens - I recently tried some in-car video with a Sony Z1 HDV camera and really wished I had a much wider lens...

Edited by Lunja on Friday 12th February 16:39

thanks for the links

id already planned to use quite a wide angle prime- want to get the whole car in shot. if its a success, i'll post up some results in a few weeks

No probs

Would be great to see the end result!

[Muska]

I used the following:

2x manfrotto avenger f2000 suction cups from adorama NYC
3x manfrotto super clamps
1x manfrotto variable friction arm
4x 3ft sections of ally pole (can't remember the dimentions)
3x 1ft secions used for joining that had machined ends so it all slotted together.

This little lot cost me £500, but it was excellent.

check out this link for the complete lowdown on rig equipment and technique: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php...


Pics on my flickR in equipment section:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7921987@N05/sets/7215...

regards,
Matt.

[whaninoz]

how wide would you need on that kit? would 24mm on full frame fit the whole car in?

or will i need to get a 17-40L

[megy]

I tried the old 3 leg method, but quickly moved to a single arm way, a lot better, but I need a stiffer pole to cut down on the flex.

Here is a pic of the rig





And a sample from the shoot

[Muska]

at 24mm on a crop sensor body i could get this:

[Fordo]

whaninoz said:

how wide would you need on that kit? would 24mm on full frame fit the whole car in?

or will i need to get a 17-40L

this i wasnt sure of- i was going to hire a couple of lenses on the test day to experiement. Ive got this idea in my head- i want to go as wide as i can wityhout looking fisheye, low cam angle framing car, with car looking very prominent in frame due the perspective of using such a wide lens, and a dramatic sky top of frame. I love what wide angle lenses do to a sky



thanks muska for posting up that pic, that helps out. if 24 gets you that on a crop, should be easily enough on a full frame. Roughly what length of pole were you using?

[Muska]

I had the pole at full extension but you'll find it's best to use some as counter balance. i'd say that was aprox 12ft from the car. I was using an ND filter to slow the shutter speed down. This shot was with a sigma 10-20 on the same body:



I know the colours are way off, this was only a test.

[Ev_]

Bear in mind that most rig shots you see will have been taken at a very low speed (possibly with the engine off and maybe even with the car being pushed) to reduce vibrations and, with longer poles, to stop the camera bouncing up and down.

For video, especially if you're planning on driving at "real" speeds, you're going to need a very sturdy set-up to avoid getting any bounce. Your (aluminium) pole will need to be a) as big a diameter as you can fit in a Superclamp's grip (50mm if I remember correctly), b) attached to the car at points as far apart as possible and c) positioned so that the camera is as close to the car as your chosen lens will allow.

Sounds like the results could be interesting, though...

[Muska]

You've just descrivbed exactly how I took my shots, hence no driver in the second one for the eagle eyed among you

I just found a couple of shots that still have the rig in:

[ROADRUNNER3]

I use the B-Hague kit, with a Nikon 12 - 24mm lens .......

[Xenocide]

So, as someone not at all photograph-y. How do you get the pole out of the image?

[Muska]

Photoshop. Layers, cloning and time.

[jrampton]

I use the following :

2 x Manfrotto suction cups (the ones with the joint)
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-manfrotto-f100...

3 x Manfrotto superclamps

1 x Manfrotto Magic Arm

12ft x 2in OD Alli tube from Nevada.co.uk (£24.95)

Custom joiner as the 12ft tube is cut in half machined from alli bar which cost me £40 to have made by a friend.

[_dobbo_]

Here's mine - 3 manfrotto suction cups and a 3 2m length ally poles.

I'll be changing to a single pole setup shortly, the 3 pole one is too complicated.



You can get pretty far from the car though with this kind of setup, whilst remaining stable:

[ROADRUNNER3]

jrampton said:

I use the following :

2 x Manfrotto suction cups (the ones with the joint)
http://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-manfrotto-f100...

3 x Manfrotto superclamps

1 x Manfrotto Magic Arm

12ft x 2in OD Alli tube from Nevada.co.uk (£24.95)

Custom joiner as the 12ft tube is cut in half machined from alli bar which cost me £40 to have made by a friend.

I'm interested in going down the single boom route - on the basis that it'll need to be about 12 foot long, it would make sense, for portability, to have it in three sections. How would these connect to each other / do you recommend anyone to do the machining ?

Tim

[Gillet]

loving some of these setups, i have a simple Manfrotto mount and extending arm, but nothing compared to some of these mamouth kits.

Problem i have with getting one of these bigger rigs is that my photo taking skills aren't that great, but my photoshop skills are even worse, so anyone have a guide on how to photoshop the rig out?

cheers

[Muska]

I might not have posteed this link but it comtains EVERYTHING you need to know on Rig making/ps work etc...

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php...

Warning it's 220 pages long but very, very good.

Regarding the pole, I googled to find a local company, they supplied it split into the sections I wanted (4x4ft sections & 3x 1ft sections) I then had the ends of the 1ft sections machined by a friend, he said he only took off 'a gnats cock' then i fit them, drilled and fitted bolts, washers & nuts to secure. voila.

Edited by Muska on Tuesday 16th February 13:37