If you haven’t had a chance to watch one of the best TV shows of all time (personal opinion), set your Tivos and Comcast DVRs to Science Channel for an early-morning Catch It Keep It marathon. Starting at 6am EST, you can see all ten episodes of the phenomenal first season back to back.

Watch as Zach and I torment three hopeful builders by dangling their prize in front of a myriad of massive and massively destructive mechanisms. Lots of great engineering, physics, science and smashing demonstrations done in fun ways. Rooftop ramps, flying cars, thermite, steam rollers and more!

And if you miss it here, you can always catch it via iTunes or Amazon.

Now you can catch any episodes you missed the first time around. Watch me and Zach challenge a team of contestants to build something that can save their prize from near-certain devastation. And at the end, I get to see if I’m able to beat my own “method of destruction” too. Full of fun science, physics, engineering and destruction. 10 great episodes. Science Channel.

• iTunes: Catch It Keep It: Season One (will open iTunes)
• Amazon: Catch It Keep It: Season One (watch online or download)

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Steadycam test 2 – before and after from Nathan Carrick on Vimeo.

Shaky footage can be one of the biggest killers when shooting video. As cameras get smaller, and zoom ability gets more powerful, the effect of shake is multiplied greatly. This can still be fine for everyday, “snapshot” use – but to capture footage for any semi-serious use, you need to brace your camera against the jitters.

A way to retain mobility while combating shake is to move the center of gravity of the camera to a point that is not in line with the lens. This is the basic idea behind the steadicam, a mounting rig that is used by many professional camera operators. Typically, a counterweight is affixed to the camera at a certain distance via a mounting bracket. The length of the bracket and the heft of the counterweight are set for the specific style of shooting that you want to do. The displaced center of gravity helps nullify the small jitters from shaking the lens, and the added mass of the setup also helps keep the motion more fluid and less herky-jerky.

Normally, you’ll see high-end steadicams that have a nearly frictionless joint (gimbal) that allows the camera to remain steady as the rig twists, turns, and tilts. But satisfying results can be had with a simple unit that uses just the counterweight alone.

Johnny Chung Lee has a start-to-finish writeup on his site steadycam.org on how to build a $14 steadycam with everyday items. The gist: two short lengths of steel pipe are combined in a sideways T, one side for a handle, the vertical piece to hold the camera at top and the counterweight below. A small weight is affixed on the bottom, the camera is connected to the top with a modified endcap that has a mounting bolt in it, and voila: DIY steadicam.

DOIT reader Nathan Carrick sent me some photos and videos of his assembly of this project, and a before/after video of the results (the inspiration for this post). I’m impressed – you can see how this improves the quality and creates a smoother looking result.

Nathan's PVC endcap for the DIY Steadycam. The 1/4" mounting bolt on top is the standard size all cameras use.

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“You’ve gotta see it to believe it” means less and less as we take each step into a digitally manipulatable future that is nearly impossible to distinguish from the real thing.

Need to film a visit to Vegas? NYC? Moscow? Green screen it! As evidenced by the above demo reel, we’re now at a point where the television and movie images that look and feel so very real are as fake as science fiction. Even as someone who works in the entertainment industry, I’m blown away, and maybe even saddened a little by these illusions be revealed to me – I truly thought Hiro from Heroes was IN Times Square. But it is a testament to the acting abilities and the special effects capabilities that we have available today.

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As a pizza making fanatic, I love visiting well-regarded pizzerias to observe and sample their handiwork, learn some tips, and gather inspiration. During my recent travels to New York City, I set out on a pilgrimage to eat at some of the top pizza on this side of the Atlantic.

My pizza safari focused primarily on Neapolitan pizza, a style that I absolutely fell in love with during a visit to Naples in 2003. A blazing hot wood fired oven cooks the pizza in 2-3 minutes (sometimes faster), leaving a slightly charred edge and bottom, but springy and chewy in the middle of the crust. For ease of comparison (and personal preference), I stuck to the basic and classic “marinara” style: sauce, basil, garlic.

In seven days I visited six pizzerias. There are many NY spots still on my list, including Di Fara, Luzzo, Lucali, Totonnos (Coney Island, closed for renovation – I unknowingly tried to go there), Roberta’s, Salvatore’s (Staten Island), among others.

The most surprising discovery on my trip is that while the wood-fired oven is a staple for good pizza, it is not the only fuel found. Some of the top rated spots in NY use coal burning, oil burning, or even electric ovens. Secondly, the reputation of the location’s oven doesn’t always correspond with the outcome of the pizza. You’ll see this in my notes below. And, the locations that touted their use of fresh, organic ingredients stood out for the richness of their pies.

I made a quick video for each spot, to preserve the memory, show the ambiance, and take a good look at the all-so-important pizza oven. Here are the six place I visited and some of my notes. Enjoy!

Even though the odds of getting to see the darkness of space in person are slim - just over 500 people have traveled into space - it’s possible to still see it through the lens of your camera with a small assembly project and a few cheaply obtained materials. Including a styrofoam beer cooler.

A team of students from MIT recently set a goal to capture some photos of the curvature of the earth. Their off-the-shelf project cost them approximately $150, and the results have garnered them attention from CNN, Fox, ABC and more. Here’s how they made it:

Equipment Used in the Launch Capsule

One of the amazing parts of this project is that there were only two small modifications needed on the materials: The camera used was selected for its ability to use a timed shutter script through the CHDK firmware update (I use this same setup for most of my timelapse films), and the styrofoam cooler allowed for lightweight thermal insulation which can be easily cut to allow the lens of the camera to stick through.

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Gorgeous colors, beautiful movement, rich light. All from the new Canon 7D.

(The interview shots are done on the Panasonic HVX 200)

I’ve been meaning to post about the new Canon camera for a couple months, and this parasailing video finally me to do so. The recently released Canon 7D is the current pinnacle of video-enabled digital SLR cameras. Perhaps because they’ve got a history in the video segment, and understand it better than Nikon does, Canon has made some desirable moves in video functionality on their cameras with each new release.

• The 7D finally gives video makers a range of framerates: 23.97, 29.97 50 and 60
• An impressive bitrate of 50 mbps
• Manual exposure control
• And the price is totally reasonable: just under/around $2000 (check it on Amazon)

This camera is a filmmaker’s dream. The APS-C sized sensor does tasty things with the background blur, and works great with older Canon lenses by dropping the fringy edges from the shots – something that a full frame sensor would pick up.

DIY video expert Eugenia Loli-Queru posted a great 7D entry on her blog with additional information and excitement.
Here’s another great wrap-up of 7D info, with a wish list for the next generation (autofocus being #1)

Makes me think about selling my Nikon.

Take two anvils, a couple steel plates, a cardboard gasket, a length of fuse and a lot of black powder. Voila: anvil launching. Watch as Gay Wilkinson, champion anvil launcher, blasts his solid iron anvils 200′ in the air with this setup.

Note: Please do not take this post as a recommendation that you should attempt to launch your own anvil (or anything else, for that matter). Black powder is terrifyingly explosive – even the hardiest professionals are frightened by it.

Universal, 2 Gyro Image stabilizer – More DIY How To Projects

The most extreme camera operators use a gyro attachment for their camera to get smooth, steady shots. This applies to both still and motion (video) photography. The attachment works by two internal gyroscopes spinning in opposite directions, creating an X-Y stabilization pattern. In an rough, rocky environment (helicopters, boats, Deadliest Catch), the gyroscopic effect holds the camera steady, resulting in a much smoother shot.

You can buy camera gyros from places like Kenyon Laboratories, however such high precision results in a seriously high price tag – they can easily cost over $10k. Or, if you have a couple external hard drives laying around, plus some USB phone chargers and a few scraps of wood, you can assemble your own lightweight gyro assembly following the steps in this great Instructable.

Two things to try:
-Use 2.5″ laptop drives for size (they may not have enough mass to stabilize anything larger than the smallest pocket cameras)
-Putting the drives in-line instead of a 90º offset

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Not much to “do” through this video, but maybe something not to do: be on a train during a tornado.