If you ever need to take good quality photos of anything small, such as jewelry or surface mount components, you're likely to experience the pain of trying to use the "zoom" feature of your digital camera. If you're lucky, you've got a camera with a really good zoom that takes care of shaky hands. If not, you might be in luck using the highest ISO setting and being okay with grainy photos. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a tripod that could make your life easier by taking photos overhead?

Well... now there is! Here's an instructable on how to build it. Granted, this tripod is more of a unipod.

Step 1: Saw Pieces & Make Template

  • Pencil
  • Eraser
  • Index Card
  • Miter Saw / Box
  • Sand Paper
  • Ruler
  • Hardwood (30" x 3/4" x 3/4")
  1. Using the ruler, measure, cut and lightly sand the follow lengths:
    • 1 of 1 1/2"
    • 3 of 3"
    • 2 of 10"
  2. Trace a 3" piece onto an index card.
  3. Segment traced rectangle into 4 parts.
  4. Put crosses from coner to corner of each new rectangle.
  5. Put a cross between the first and last rectangle.
  6. Label each cross from left to right (A,B,C,D,E).
  7. Erase any markings on the pieces.
<p>Maybe modifying this lamp will be easy and might be cheaper. </p><p>http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/60146764/</p>
Several thoughts: <br> <br>1. I made this with pieces of 1x3 pine cut down to 1x1.5, which gave me more surface area between the pieces and thus more friction and a higher weight limit without the need for the rosin, or inserted sandpaper, etc. <br> <br>2. Similarly, I used 1/4-20 bolts and both a hex nut and a wing-nut to help me tighten things better. Using the two nuts together I get a very tight joint that stays tight, as the two nuts together bind on each other and do not loosen over time. Rather than loosening and tightening the joints for repositioning, I just leave them tight with a set amount of friction that holds my camera, but still allows me to reposition things. <br> <br>3. Instead of cutting a bolt to get threaded rod for the camera mount, there is a special bolt called a hanger-bolt with wood thread on one end and machine thread on the other, this will thread into the wood better and still give you the 1/4-20 you need for the camera (you screw this in using the same double nut binding concept, then you take those nuts off and put on the big wing-nut for tightening up on the camera) <br> <br>4. Rather than building in the clamping mechanism here I just use a large C-Clamp which seems to work fine for me (or really any other clamp you may have: spring clamp, bar clamp, etc.) I like the clamp design, I just didn't want to do the work and have lots of spare clamps around to use. <br> <br>5. Also, for added flexibility, I added an insert-nut into the bottom piece of the arm (that clamps to the table), so that I also have a 1/4-20 thread in the base that can accept the threaded mount from a tripod, so this can potentially be mounted to a tripod and add both height and flexibility to a tripod you may already have. <br> <br>6. Finally, I just want to say that this is a great design, so simple, and yet so useful, and portable too. I've built a couple of these for myself and others. One guy uses it for taking product shots of the stuff he sells on eBay, Rather than buy an expensive tripod he can just clamp this to a table and it serves the same purpose of steadying the camera as he takes pictures of small things in front of a simple backdrop. I use it for copying documents and just taking pictures of things where I don't want to, or can't take my tripod. I can clamp this to just about anything and still take great, clear, steady shots. Thanks for sharing this project and design on Instructables.
If the number of photographs justifies the additional cost, it would probably be more effective to use the 'pantograph' system of an old 'anglepoise' lamp which is spring loaded as well as having tightening bolts. Additional counterweight springs could be added to accommodate heavier cameras.
hello,<br>this is nice and simple.<br>I'm thinking about some improvements:<br>- adding a level bubble to keep horizontal the camera<br>- using larger pieces for the clamp, this means a better grip on the table<br>- use 3 of 10&quot; , this can lighten the structure that means you can use more thin wood workpiece
Hi,<br><br>I'm thinking about building such &quot;arm&quot; for my digital camera Cannon A550.<br>But for other purpose. My idea is to add light source, most probably monochrome LEDs around camera. Light source must provide uniform light intensity over A3 or A4 sheet of paper. Then i could use camera as scanning tool.<br><br>I'm a student so often i have some hand written notes, sketches which i want to share with my colleagues. For now i use camera on my smart phone but it's not good enough for small handwritten details. Regular low cost digital camera with optical zoom has much better performance.<br>When i have images, then it's easy to make pdf file from them. Even OCR.<br>This could bee very cheap replacement for scanner and it wouldn't occupy much space on my desk. :-)<br><br>I'm new here on Instructables. Can i post this idea as some sort of project and make a link to this project, but without actually building it?
You probably could, but consider a copy stand first. It's a camera support with lights on either side. Also, as Wheatridge pointed out, a scanner might be a better option. You can get fully USB powered ones from Canon for about $50 (their LiDE series).<br><br>However, I can see a trade off. If you use a camera, you can more quickly 'scan' in documents in a more compact format, but the resolution will be a lot lower than what can be had with a scanner.<br><br>Here's an example:<br><br>Assume an 8.5 x 11 in. Assume you can fit this into a 10 Megapixel image using your camera. This means that your DPI (dots per inch) is the square root of (10 000 000 / (8.5 x 11)), which is 327. Most scanners can easily do 600-1200 DPI.
This Instructables project is excellent for a point and shoot camera, but certainly can not replace a flat bed scanner which is ideal for your needs. You can purchase a great scanner for less than making this project and adding an LED light source which would be complicated. You can get an Epson Perfection V300 scanner for less than $100.
You could also use an anti slip paint on the hinge joints which is what l have done with the one that l have made
Out of curiosity, what's the name / brand of this paint and where is it available?
mix play sand into enamel paint , or glue sandpaper to the wood on one side of the joint.
l live in the united kingdom but the paint is manufactured by 151 coatings and is called Non-slip clear paint it can be applied to most surfaces including concrete and wood l originally purchased it to paint my powerchair access ramp
Awesome idea, thank you very much for sharing! It seems it's pretty simple to create.
Thats very nice!<br><br>I should also be noted that if someone is not that handy with wood, or cant get the material, one could get the Tertial IKEA lamp and easily mode it as a stand.<br><br>http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/20370383/
I think that it's not such a good idea. This lamp has springs and needs a mas of her &quot;head&quot; to stand at some position. If mass of camera is lighter it won't stand still at position because springs will move it away. If camera is heavier than lamps head it will fall down on table. It may work if difference in mass is not big. Then because imperfection and friction it may stand still at wanted position.
Allow me to disagree. I don't know how you came to those conclusions but I happen to have in this very room now 3 of those Tertial lamps and they keep their possition fine with or without the lamp-head. That been said, if one wants to mount a heavy DSL-like camera at the end it will not support it very well indeed. But as far as point-n-shoots go there will be no problem at all, trust me.
Good to know. <br>I have experience with very similar lamp and it was difficult to make it stand still. So i assumed that this lamp have similar problem. Especial after use of some time because metal becomes smooth and it's difficult to tighten screw on joint enough.
It looks more like a copy stand than a tripod.
Good find, I didn't know such things existed!
What a great project for point and shoot cameras! I will build one right away. I am also going to try to find a comercial version for my Nikon 35mm, as this one doesn't appear to be able to handle the weight of a real camera. Your photography is excellent.
Thanks. I use an older Canon A460. It has a nice close up zoom function, and with time delay / ISO 400, it reduces my chances of taking a blurry shot. Afterward, in Ubuntu / Linux and I crop / rotate / color adjust the photos in 'gThumb'. Then, I reduce them to size / quality using 'mogrify -resize 25% -quality 50% *.JPG' and remove extra information using 'jhead -purejpg *.JPG'. Lastly, I remove the timestamp via 'touch *.JPG'.<br><br>You're right about the weight, Although the 3/4&quot; x 3/4&quot; hardwood is probably strong enough to support several pounds, the weight is actually held by the junction between two pieces of wood and the wingnuts, so it's key to make that rough / sticky as possible to support as much weight as possible.
Great idea, and good project! <br> <br>But... with one leg, wouldn't that be a monopod and not a tripod?
Not even a monopod, more like a crane. Author should call it &quot;Overhead Crane Camera Mount&quot; or something similar. Using &quot;tripod&quot; is very misleading. Nonetheless, it is a great instructable for an even greater idea. 4.5 stars!
You're right that structurally it's not a tripod. It lacks three legs.<br><br>However, functionally, it does what one would expect a camera tripod to do which is to hold a camera in a fixed position away from an object. I figure it made more sense for me to call it a tripod, due to the device's functional nature. If someone desired to build a device for suspending a camera overhead it seemed more likely to me that they'd search for a tripod than a monopod or crane.
&quot;If someone desired to build a device for suspending a camera overhead it seemed more likely to me that they'd search for a tripod than a monopod or crane.&quot;<br><br>I think the more usual thing to search for for that application would be 'copy stand' or camera support.<br>Nice straight forward design though.
Great weekend project.With the adjustment in the arms you would be able to cover a large area for pictures.<br><br>You could also glue small pieces of sand paper on each side of the hinge if you can't find the rosin. Seems like the rosin would be cleaner looking than the sandpaper though.
You could make rosin... I've got an instructable about how to do so posted.
Sandpaper seems like a great idea. You might be able to use double-sided mesh type sandpaper that's made of silicon carbide to avoid gluing. It's sold for drywall sanding and would need to be cut into round washers.
I've never heard of double sided sandpaper. That sounds like a great idea. Cut them into round washers and use a hole punch for the machine screw to pass through.
It looks like window screen material, but gritty / rough:
Nice, I could use something like this.

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Bio: I'm an Engineer. I like hiking, flea markets, and electronics.
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