How To Build A Portable DIY Overhead Camera Rig

On this video Josh from the YouTube channel energy researcher shows how he built a simple, low cost rig for an overhead camera with an aluminium box tube and some screws and nuts.

You don’t need much to build this setup – an aluminium box tube, some larger screws and washers and wing nuts. The parts cost about $24 (not including the ballhead and the tripod of course.

The main problem is to make the setup counterbalance – remember – if you change the lens the counterbalance will have to change – this is why the washers are a nice idea.

Over the past year or so we have published several videos which shows how to build or adapt existing products for use as portable or stationary overhead camera rigs (see our Off The Shelf Overhead Camera Rig DIY Build and How to Setup Lighting for Close Up Product Shots). The main issue right now is that from some reason no manufacturer created a product which is designed specifically for this application (yes, there are tripods with horizontal columns – we shall look at one by Oben and one by Manfrotto in the next few weeks as part of our tripod review series, and there are products like the Photek TRI-X-2500 Tripod Extender which connect to an existing tripod and can carry more weight and be used with a larger tripod – but to be honest, non of these options is really perfect and they all have some drawbacks – we are still waiting for the ultimate overhead camera rig).

You can also check out many more interesting DIY photography projects here on LensVid.

VIA: Diyphotography.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.