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BOWL-ONLY: for mounting off-Tripod. Sources?
I’m building a tracking gadget that needs a 75 MM bowl (to accept heads)
I’ll just bolt it to a small sliding platform made of .5″ aluminum.Can anyone recommend sources for bowls?
I did find a 100mm bowl at B+H, that would need an adaptor. (The manufacturer, CAMBO, does not make a 75mm)Sachtler wants $140 for a production line part. Too much.
I wonder about a repair shop, with parts or surplus…?
(I’m imagining a shop in Hollywood or the Valley that has a bunch of old tripods and parts hanging around. The proprietor is wearing bifocals, the walls are wood paneled. He has a pet owl.)Thank you for any leads…
-Ralph
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9 Replies
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https://www.adorama.com/AG1065BDHH.html?utm_source=gbase&utm_medium=Shopping%20Site&utm_campaign=Other&utm_term=Other — $30. Elsewhere $150.
Rick Wise
director of photography
San Francisco Bay Area
part-time instructor lighting/camera
Academy of Art University/Film and Video (grad school)
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
You won’t beat Rick’s suggestion as far as price goes.
If the full high-hat won’t work, I’d say my next suggestion would be to hit eBay and find a cheap set of sticks with the right size bowl and cannibalize it. We’ve done that with Oconnor sticks that have a weird-sized bowl you can’t find elsewhere. There’s usually tons of cheap tripods there.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Beautiful. Two great leads. THANKS!
-> Ralph
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We have one like this bolted to a square of plywood and it amazes me how often we find uses for it on floors and roads, or the roof of a car or what-have-you.
One thing we do a lot of is fake a crane shot with this, when there is no budget for a crane, using the hi-hat, c-clamps and a six-foot folding aluminum stepladder. Bolt the hi-hat to the shlf or the top step of the ladder, add camera, do a subtle pan/tilt. Faster and easier to set up than a real crane, and appropriate for a number of things.
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Wild… Yes, 80% of the way, with simple tools. You probably know this, but Warren Miller used ladders too. He’d keep it folded and flat, mount his 16mm on the step side at one end. Then, at the balance point, slip the rig over his body through one of the step openings and hold the rig with his hands… and then ski behind or in front of his moving subject while he’d ski within the ladder frame. Smooth. (I suppose falling with that rig would be a real bummer!)
I do the same in the field (when I remember), using anything with mass and a bit of length. Once used an 8′ bamboo culm to tape farmers in Northern Thailand. Smooth.
-> Ralph
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Yeah… we don’t use them too much, but all of our ladders (a couple of short ones, one tall one) have holes that we drilled in the top for easy head mounting directly without using a high-hat or bowl or anything.
We’ve also a few times attached our jib to top of the tallest ladder, which enabled us to get a pretty high shot. I will say that arrangement made me a bit nervous at the time, but it always worked well.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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There used to be some guy that sold a gadget to connect three identical extension ladders together to make stupendous tripods, like 50 feet high. I can’t google it up, must be using the wrong keywords.
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Maybe try the Cirque du Soleil Gift Shop?
As much as I like the notion of it, I think I’d leave the actual shooting up to my assistant.
It’s actually a brilliant way to access heights almost anywhere.
-> Ralph
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I did find this, a leveling assembly that attaches to a flat plate. Manfrotto 438. The advantage is that nothing protrudes below the mounting surface, which in some applications is a big deal.
https://www.amazon.com/Manfrotto-438-Ball-Camera-Leveler/dp/B001A1VKPM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Downside is that a ball-based head cannot be swapped from the primary tripod to the unit with the leveling assembly, at best not quickly. Probably would require another head in the kit.
-> Ralph
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