Revenki's photos with the keyword: tripod

The finished product, ready to be installed in the car. All told, it took about an hour to fumble around and get this to go together. View the resulting timelapses here.

A closeup view of the mounted camera in its intended orientation. Since software settings will readily flip the image on this webcam, there's no reason it can't be flipped over the other way. The original mount on the camera is opened up just for visibility - that little counterweight leg folds down neatly over the steel nut. Unfortunately, however, I couldn't disassemble that part of the original mount in order to take the counterweight off. View the resulting timelapses here.

It took a lot of bending and adjusting to get the holes in the interleaved feet of the P-clamps to line up. Be patient, and carefully adjust the bends in the "tangential" feet, so as to shift the loop a bit and give a little slack to the "bent" feet on the clamps. I did most of the adjustments with the tangential feet (only) bolted together with a short 1/4-20 bolt-nut pair. Once the bent feet were adjusted enough, their slotted holes started to fit over the free threads on the bolt. At that point I removed the bolt and nut, and trimmed a 3/8" section of the rubber liner off of the P-clamps (not visible here - it's in the area facing the "outboard" sides of the camera's original mount) to allow the bent feet to reach just a little bit further (with the untouched rubber liner plenty enough to hold the camera tightly). Having previously removed the head from the suction mount (by opening the clamp on the ball head), I then slipped the feet of the P-clamps over the thread on the head, and (somehow, don't ask me how) managed to get the nut to engage before it all fell apart. On the suction mount's head, there is exactly enough length to go through the nut and leave the rule-of-thumb 1-2 free threads on the other side. The only thing left to do is to fit in some sort of restraint on the hinge between the camera and its original mount, so that it can't swivel freely there. View the resulting timelapses here.

The webcam as seen from underneath, attached (sorta permanently) to the mounting bracket. I say "sorta permanently" only because, once you have it assembled, you won't want to take it apart again. For use on a tripod, I would buy a sacrificial quick shoe for the purpose. And yes, the camera head is upside down on its original mount. I disassembled it to see where I might pot in a threaded insert for the tripod mount, and then put it back together the wrong way. This same mounting approach should work with the original mount in its proper orientation, though. View the resulting timelapses here.

Another tripod hack, this time a crossbar for mounting two camcorders for filming Monday's Space Shuttle launch (STS-131). (No, the tripod is not really that short...) The plan is to mount one camcorder with a telephoto extension on the fixed quick-release (left) and adjust the entire assembly to align that camera at maximum zoom looking at LC-39A to get the ignition and early liftoff. The second mount, a small Promaster ball head, is for a second camcorder, with a somewhat wider field of view, independently pointed at the same pad with slightly higher inclination, to capture ignition, liftoff, and the first minute or so of the launch. Dunno if it'll work, but there's no harm trying. All told, there's about $40 worth of materials involved, $28 of which was the ball head which I had to buy for the project (already had the QR plate and shoes and other bits and pieces). The crossbar is a piece of 2" x 3/8" steel C-channel from Home Depot, cut to 12" long, drilled for 1/4" bolts, and covered with black gaffer tape (in lieu of black paint, which I don't have the time to do right now). Oddly enough, the gaffer tape makes it look pretty professional, as if it's powder-coated. 1/4"-20 bolts hold the two mounts on at either end. In the center is the spare 3/8" shoe that came with my Vanguard Tracker 4 tripod, with the screw removed and replaced by another 1/4"-20 bolt and nut (need to get some washers tomorrow morning). And yes, I did drill a 5/16" hole in the bar to receive the set screw on the shoe, because I am that detail-oriented. The Manfrotto QR plate on the left was the same width as the C-channel, which posed a small problem - it wanted to ride on the tines of the C. To fill the gap, without having to fuss about finding something exactly the right thickness, I took two leftover composite door-hanging shims, cut 2" long pieces from them where their thicknesses added up right, and then drilled an oversized hole in the middle. I then oversized the hole lengthwise to the crossbar, so that when I assembled everything and snugged up the bolt, the wedge-like shims would slip just a little bit until they were exactly the right height inside the C-channel. Brilliant, if I do say so myself...

Two 1/2"-diameter P-clamps. Not shown: a single 1/4-20 steel nut. That's it. All told, about $3 worth of materials from the specialty fastener drawers at Lowe's. Oh, and a Logitech 9000 camera, which was about $85 when I bought it new a year or so ago.

Another tripod hack, this time a crossbar for mounting two camcorders for filming Monday's Space Shuttle launch (STS-131). The plan is to mount one camcorder with a telephoto extension on the fixed quick-release (left) and adjust the entire assembly to align that camera at maximum zoom looking at LC-39A to get the ignition and early liftoff. The second mount, a small Promaster ball head, is for a second camcorder, with a somewhat wider field of view, independently pointed at the same pad with slightly higher inclination, to capture ignition, liftoff, and the first minute or so of the launch. Dunno if it'll work, but there's no harm trying. All told, there's about $40 worth of materials involved, $28 of which was the ball head which I had to buy for the project (already had the QR plate and shoes and other bits and pieces). The crossbar is a piece of 2" x 3/8" steel C-channel from Home Depot, cut to 12" long, drilled for 1/4" bolts, and covered with black gaffer tape (in lieu of black paint, which I don't have the time to do right now). Oddly enough, the gaffer tape makes it look pretty professional, as if it's powder-coated. 1/4"-20 bolts hold the two mounts on at either end. In the center is the spare 3/8" shoe that came with my Vanguard Tracker 4 tripod, with the screw removed and replaced by another 1/4"-20 bolt and nut (need to get some washers tomorrow morning). And yes, I did drill a 5/16" hole in the bar to receive the set screw on the shoe, because I am that detail-oriented. The Manfrotto QR plate on the left was the same width as the C-channel, which posed a small problem - it wanted to ride on the tines of the C. To fill the gap, without having to fuss about finding something exactly the right thickness, I took two leftover composite door-hanging shims, cut 2" long pieces from them where their thicknesses added up right, and then drilled an oversized hole in the middle. I then oversized the hole lengthwise to the crossbar, so that when I assembled everything and snugged up the bolt, the wedge-like shims would slip just a little bit until they were exactly the right height inside the C-channel. Brilliant, if I do say so myself...