Lightweight Camera Tripod?

[James Patsalides]

Has anyone built an SUL camera tripod? Needs to support ~1.5lbs, have some kind of leveling mechanism and be stable enough to use on uneven surfaces. I was thinking trekking poles + one CF pole? Ideas?

[Keith Selbo]

If it's mostly so you can get yourself in the picture StickPic is a great little device.

[Steven Evans]

James, head into the photography section of this forum and search for "Sub 4 ounce carbon tripod". There have been a few very neat ideas along the same lines as what you are thinking.

Sounds to me like you are looking for something for a bigger camera, but if it's a point and shoot, I made this not too long ago and it works great.

Trekking Pole Camera Mount

[Brad Rogers]

Very cool Steven!

[Kevin Beeden]

Why not use a single walking pole and three guylines (something low-stretch; dyneema, perhaps?), pegged out with conventional slider adjustments? It won't be as sturdy as an all-pole solution, but with a remote or timer shutter release, I reckon it would do a pretty good job (I often use 2 second timer delay when using my digital camera hand held in low light, as most of the movement comes from pressing that button; the timer gives you time to steady again).

Fit a pan/tilt head (of whatever complexity you feel you need) to the walking pole handle (either one of the poles fitted with a camera mount screw, or else drill and tap your own appropriate hole).

A bit more of a pain to use than a proper tripod, but probably just as easy as two walking poles and a carbon pole. Plus, you can adjust the height, which you may not be able to do if the carbon pole is a fixed length.

[Tom Holbrook]

Hey all check this out.

I was ready the local fish wrap and saw this gadget listed as one of the techie items for Xmas.

It is a tiny tripod that fits on the top of a bottle, and for a low price of $10 bucks. And, it would be considered Ultra Light.

The Bottle Cap Tripod from Dynomighty Design Inc.

http://www.dynomighty.com

Also, found this other tripod referenced

The Monfrotto Modo Pocket: http://www.bhphotovideo.com $20.00

Z.

[Tom Holbrook]

http://www.dynomighty.com/product_detail.php?Bottle-Cap-Tripod&d=miscellaneous+DY-301

Here is the direct link to bottle cap tripod

[Tom Holbrook]

Typo… "ready" should have been "reading"…

my brain works faster than my hands…..

Z

[Nia Schmald]

This thread is worth looking at.

[Jesse H.]

I'd say so ;)

[Yohei Aoyagi]

Do you know JOBY Gorilla Pod?
little heavy, but easy adjustable.

http://joby.com/gorillapod/slr/specs

[Mark Zollinger]

Regarding the dynomighty, I don't think it has any sort of tilting options. If that's the case, you can MYO.

I can't find my link to pictures etc (might have been make magazine), but let me describe how to make one that probably weighs considerably less:

– At your local hardware store, find a 1/4-20 nylon bolt (about one inch long is good, YMMV), a matching nylon wingnut, a matching nylon regular nut, and two start lock washers (not nylon, and in any case, optional)

– Drill a 1/4 inch hole in the center of a bottle cap from whatever size bottle you are most likely to have with you while hiking (2 liter soda, power-ade, whatever).

– Feed the nylon bolt up through the hole from the "inside" of the cap, firmly attaching it to the cap with the regular nylon nut (and keeping it in place with the optional star washers, which I've never used myself)

– Thread the wingnut on UPSIDE DOWN so the wings point down towards the cap. (to tell you the truth, the wingnut could be considered optional as well, especially if you are worried about fractions of an ounce)

To use this, screw the cap onto a bottle (not empty since it needs balast to keep from tipping over). Screw the camera onto the nylon bolt. Tighten the wingnut up against the camera to keep it snug.

Note: most of the weight savings comes from using nylon hardware. The original design used stainless steel.

Note 2: I've created a variation that is tiltable, but haven't tried it in the field yet.

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