Cheap tripods
July 2009 (index)
Disclaimer: if you break your camera, it's your fault, not mine.
A number of articles on the web describe how to make a cheap camera tripod. The key observation is that there's a standard size for the screw fitting between the a tripod and the camera. And this happens to be the same as a quarter-inch (M6) bolt. I paid £2.06 for a bag of 10 bolts, nuts and washers.
tripods / roofing bolts
Fix the bolt to something stable (a bottle, a lump of wood, a bent coathanger, ...), attach to the camera, and you have a tripod. At least in the sense of tripod as something to keep your camera steady, if not necessarily the literal "three-footed".
My particular attempt was based on wanting to try some "3-d photos" which required having the same camera direction for two shots with the camera slightly displaced.
In lieu of any wood/metal-working skills I used some lego. First find a piece of lego that already has a conveniently sized hole.
lego with a hole
Then attach the bolt, nut, and washer to it.
with the bolt attached
And attach that to some more lego to make a stable base.
the finished article
Then this can be used by itself (placed on and against convenient flat surfaces and slid along; good enough for the "3-d photos" I was attempting) or attached to other bits of lego to your heart's content.
ibbly.com contact