Building a MUG POV rig - A beginners guide

What you will need:

A camera with an Ultrawide Lens

You can use any camera for this case, but it’s ideal that it is mirrorless (to reduce the weight) and has a full-frame sensor—so the field of view is much higher without any crop. As for the lens, we have used a 17-28mm from Tamron, but the wider it is, the better it will create the much-loved POV distortion.

An Articulating Rosette Arm

In this case, we are using the SmallRig’s 9.5-inch Articulating Rosette Arm with 1/4" Threaded Screw.

You can find the link to the product here.

A Rosette arm allows you to change the camera’s angle, level and framing as per your need rather than having a fixed position over your base plate; it also allows us to cut the bottom bit of the rig where the rods would be visible. 

Baseplate

Any universal baseplate that supports dual 15mm rods would work - we used SmallRig’s Baseplate with Dual 15mm Rod Clamp
You can find the link to the product here. 

The sole purpose of the baseplate is to house all our components into one unit and hold them together; hence why we recommend a sturdy baseplate to avoid any malfunction or mechanical failure. 

2x 15mm Rail Rods

These rods are quite standard in any video production kit. We utilised an Aluminium Alloy 15mm Rod in 12-inch length to create a space between our mug and camera. However, a longer length would create a better field of view, if you have it (16 inches)

You can find the link to the product here.

Masking tape / Double-sided tape / Anything from your stationary kit

This is the point where you can be creative and use anything to hold the mug in place. We got the job done with just two pieces of masking tape to both ends that didn’t interfere with the frame, but even a double-sided tape stuck onto the rods would do the job.

It is vital that whatever mechanism you are fixing onto is rock solid but also non-destructive so the mug does not move over time as you shoot and create any framing issues. 

Additional tips and tricks

1. Replace the mug with anything else and you got yourself a new POV rig for another subject. 

2. A wider lens (Anything less than 18mm) combined with a full-frame camera would give the best distortion

3. To avoid reflections on the mug you could do one of the following
   - Use a dulling spray which would give the mug a matte finish
   - Create a blackboard cut out for the lens and place your lens through it so the camera and the operator’s reflections can be avoided
   - Spend a few hours removing them manually in VFX :)

4. The baseplate could further be mounted on other platforms such as a slider/jib/gimbal or anything with a ¼” thread which could potentially unlock a lot more possibilities for you and your project.