www.3ders.org

Feb 14, 2016 | By Andre

The GoPro camera is a wide-angle waterproof camera that is popular with just about anybody that enjoys the outdoors. It’s powerful, compact, easy to use and can be taken just about anywhere thanks in-part to the vast number of adapters available out there today. To add to this, custom adapters available through the 3D printing community have also taken off in recent years. With a quick “GoPro” search online, you’ll find 3D printable mounts for quad-copters, 360 video and chest straps, just to name a few.

But through all of this, and even if you consider all the software video stabilization built in, GoPro still tends to have a shaky bounce to any captured video while on the move. Well, leave it to 3D printing enthusiasts yet again to come up with a cost effective solution to this as well. The Simple Steady is a 3D printed steady cam adapter that hit Kickstarter not long ago and has already smashed through its campaign goal of 4,000 Swiss Francs.

The team behind the Simple Steady comprises of a three friends from Switzerland that take their GoPro camera out wherever they go. They write that “no matter where we are, on holidays or on a hiking trip the GoPro camera is always with us.” Unfortunately they also concluded that their shots “were always shaky and not very useful” and were finding all the decent steady cam adapters out of their budgets.

So, what they did was put their 3D printing and design backgrounds to the test and came up with a steady-cam with a parallelogram and springs to absorb shocks, as well as a two-axis gimbal to compensate for unexpected hand movements. And while listing "no additional training" as an advantage might seem confusing to some, I can vouch that trying to use a professional grade steady adapter without prior training can be a tedious undertaking.

As with many hobbyist inventors out there today, they utilize low-cost desktop FDM 3D printers to produce all the plastic components for the Simple Steady. While I feel ABS would have made for a better material to use for an all-conditions product (on account of its strength and higher temperature range), the PLA they’ve gone with should get the job done.

When it comes to deliverables, September 2016 is when everything is expected to ship and a range of components (handle for Fr19) to the complete Simple Steady system (Fr79) to everything plus some extras (Fr86) are all available as pledge choices.

To me the Simple Steady is definitely a very useful and practically designed addition to the growing list of GoPro (or smart phone) adapters out there today. Its cost is definitely a bonus even though I did see similarly priced products on Amazon after a quick search. In any case, it’s great to see yet another successful Kickstarter campaign put forward by some clever friends and their 3D printer.

Specs:
Weight: 340 gram, 0.75lbs 
Dimensions: L=250mm, H=300mm, W= 60mm (without handle) 
Material: PLA, Aluminium 
Compatible cameras: all Gopro cameras and similar actioncams

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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