Alright so you want a better way to film lines and all around, make your filming smoother. The answer is a tripod mount handle. Your end result will look like this.
Your best bet is to start working on a clean, level surface. Try not to use the best table in the house, unless no one is going to care. It’s probably better to work on something fairly high off the ground, seeing as I always work on the floor and cause myself uneeded back pain.
To get started, here’s everything you need and it can all be found at your local hardware store. Luckily I found everything in my basement.
- One peice of metal, 1 inch wide, 1/8th to 1/4 inch thick and about 20 inches long. More for larger cameras. Less for smaller cameras. Around 20 is average.
- One quarter inch bolt to screw the handle into the tripod mount hole.
- One wingnut to screw upside down into the screw to secure it to a camera.
- A washer or two .
The next step is to drill the hole in the piece of metal. To do this turn your camera upside down and grab a tape measure. Measure the distance from the tripod hole to the front of the camera. That’s how far away from the start of your handle your hole should be. Make a mark there with a marker then use a drill to bore a hole through it. A drill press would be much easier if you have accesss to one. On the handle I made here, the hole was already on the piece of metal so I decided to use that and it’s actually fine for the Panasonic GS series cameras.
After you have your hole drilled decide how far along the metal bar you want your bands to be. You should probably have something along the lines of 6 inches for the bottom, 6 inches for the vertical part, and 7 inches for the top, but like I said earlier, if you’re cameras bigger you might wanna make it bigger. You probably won’t have to make it more than 22 inches. Again, using a measure tape and a marker, make marks at the places you wann to bend at.
Now You want to find something you can use to bend the metal. A couple good choices are:
- Some heavy weights, about 100 pounds or so. You can wedge the handle under the very bottom one and lift it up at the marked bend location.
- Vise grip, lock it in so you can just bearly see your markings then pull/push to bend it.
- A pole, like I did.
Once You have both the bends done that’s just about it. You might want to paint your handle or put some stickers on it to decorate it. One of the coolest things is to get the infrared remote your camera came with and tape it to the top so you can record without taking your hand off the handle.
Screw the handle on to your tripod mount and you’re done!
