The first rail system was made with wooden dowels, and then I found some aluminum rods at the big box store so I decided those looked a little more "pro" and remember it's not about whether you win or lose - it's how you look playing the game ;) So here's a look at the new and improved DSLR Rail Rig

In the picture you can see my home made DSLR rail rig and also the homemade tablet holder mounted on the tripod - Using an app for controlling the camera from the tablet, I can face the tablet and camera towards me and see if I am framed in the shot or not - that's really helpful for my low budget DIY videos where I am the camera man AND the actor LOL

My camera rig consists of

• Canon T4i DSLR Camera
• Samson Zoom Microphone (actually have several mics to use for various occasions)
• Zoom H4 Stand Alone Recorder
• 3D printed Follow Focus (the red stuff in the picture) - the Follow focus allows me to focus the camera by turning the red knob rather than have to try and focus by turning the lens ring which is just awkward
• Hot Shoe mount LED Light ring - In the picture I have this mounted below, not actually on the camera shoe because the light would be behind the sunshade - but I can mount it either way for different needs)
• Two 1/2" aluminum rods (found at your local hardware store)
• Custom designed / 3D printed Camera Mount
• Custom designed / 3D pirinted Shoe Mount
• Custom designed / 3D printed Matte Box / Sunshade holder (the matte box came with a rail mount adapter but it did not fit my rails of course)
• Matte box / Sunshade (ebay - $15)
• Viewsonic GTab Tablet - this one is nice because it has a standard USB port so I didn't need to get a special cable to connect it to the camera - lucky win!
• Custom designed / 3D printed tripod mount tablet holder (the blue stuff in the picture) - I have another article with some details on that one
• The rods are held together and there are couple caps on the end with custom 3D printed stuff

OK so here's a picture - sorry the picture is taken with my phone because the camera is mounted on the rail system! LOL