Shooting products and food professionally it happens to us quite often that we need to shot very low on a table. We have a large number of tabletop tripods and holders of different types (some of them we have even reviewed here in the past and they are fine for some situations), however, when you need to go really low in the center of a large table there is just no good solution other than hand holding the camera and this isn’t the best option – especially when you need to shoot video and use your hands.
You can use some paper under the lens to set your camera at the correct angle and we have done so many times in the past but we always wanted a more permanent solution so we came up with one.
Using a thin piece of wood with our favorite RC2 quick release base we created a flat table camera holder. Making one is simple and can cost under $10.
The way we made this holder is really easy. We used a 16cm or 5 inches long 1 cm thick piece of wood. We drilled a 5/16 hole and used a 3/8 tap to thread the wood and with the help of a 3/8″ 16 screw with an Allen drive head (5/8″ in length), we fixed the quick release to the wood.
Our DIY wooden Table Camera Holder design
We also added an L-bracket to the front to prevent the quick release from spinning.
Now we can place our camera even with a rather long Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro lens and have it just 2cm or under 1″ from the table facing straight forward.
You can, of course, play with the design as you wish – if you want to make it less DIY you can just get a properly sized cheese plate and connect the quick release to it. If you want to go lower you can use a thin piece of metal and glue the quick release base directly to it.
Another version of the same design based on a cheese plate
The only thing that we are missing with this design and we are still trying to make, is a simple way to tilt the camera up and down precisely. If you have any ideas – let us know in the comments – enjoy!
Parts you can use for this build:
- Original Manfrotto 323 RC2 Quick Release base
- 3’rd party 323 RC2 quick release baseÂ
- SMALLRIG (large) Cheese Plate
- High Tensile – UNC Grub Allen Socket Set Screws Cup Point 3/8″ 5/8 length
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