To wrap up 2023, I decided to go with a different-than-usual post. A fun post, covering one of my favorite topics. Honest to god, crazy camera rigs. From the downright absurd to rigs I can’t even comprehend, here are six rigs to laugh, cry, and talk about as we begin a merry new year.

The “Community advice” rig

I present to you the “community advice” rig from u/Falcofury. It is a heartwarming tale of videographers helping one another. I think? In the r/videography subreddit, the user Falcofury decided to listen to people’s advice and add “some stuff” to their Sony FS5ii rig. What the word “stuff” includes is, but is not limited to, a rear-facing matte box, two seven-inch monitors, two batteries, a GoPro, oh, and a flat-head screwdriver. Truly, it’s a perfect rig, at least according to some people on Reddit.

The “it’s still usable” rig

This rig by u/BBQ-Dog from r/AnalogCommunity is technically usable, but it’s still just weird enough to make you wonder why it exists. The rig is centered around the Canon F-1, which used to be one of the best Canon cameras of its time.

In theory, you will get a decent grip on the Canon F-1 using this rig. Thanks to the handle of the Speedlight and the handle of the camera remote, you will be applying force from both directions of the camera’s body, keeping it stable. And because the remote is a remote, your finger won’t need to travel far to press the shutter button; there is already one on the remote you are holding. From here, the only question is, “Why would you go with this”? I guess this is a question we shall never know the answer to.

Literally, a trash can dolly

Can this even be classified as a rig? Probably, yes. It was posted on the shittyrigs Instagram page. The pros of terrible camera rigs. If they say it counts, it counts. So what is going on here? This rig, submitted by @_ryan_wishart, is what happens on set when you understand you need a dolly…but don’t have one. In contrast to how silly it looks, it actually did its job well. It didn’t perform well as a dolly in general, but that ended up helping the crew, as the shaky footage is more fitting for the feeling they were going for.

The “casual Sony shooter” rig

I occasionally meet some old videographers when shooting conventions and other large public events. These pros aren’t that old, but they’ve been around. From some of these old folk, I get some good insight. Tips born from years of experience. From the rest, all I get is complaining about “today’s videographers” or “today’s cameras”. I imagine these folks hear the phrase “a young videographer’s casual Sony rig,” and all they can picture is something like the abomination made by u/aDaedalos from r/Filmmakers.

Super GoPro

Did you know you could mod your GoPro? A user named bkmoorty seems to know that, considering they uploaded this image to the r/gopro subreddit. What exactly is that? Well, that’s a Zeiss 10-100mm zoom lens mounted on a GoPro Hero 6 Black. If you’re wondering why the creator went down this mad path, consider this. Modern cameras are expensive. You don’t have to buy a Sony a9iii, but you can still end up spending a fortune on a camera and lens. Meanwhile, GoPros are cheap, and lenses made for tiny sensors are cheap as well. Even a 10-100mm from Zeiss, which would cost a fortune if made for full-frame, doesn’t hurt your wallet much.

The “hydra” rig

This is probably the biggest, most impressive cursed rig you have ever seen. It was posted by Taika Waititi, the director of Thor Ragnarok, back when that movie was still in production. Taika didn’t give much info or context to go along with this post, only writing, “Independent cinema is not dead”.

As such, we aren’t entirely sure what the purpose of this rig was. I heard it may be related to 3d shooting. In a quick check, yes, Thor Ragnarok did have a 3d version. That said, I won’t pretend I actually know anything about how it was used.

In conclusion

I hope this was a fun read for you. For some, 2023 was a bit of a rough year, so I hope we can at least start it off with some happiness in mind. Nothing like laughing at the absurdity in life, and the only limit of absurdity in a camera rig is your own creativity (and twisted mentality). Maybe we should have a competition in the future to see who can make the absolute worst rig. What do you think?