Homemade "groundpod"?

[s._misra]

Hi.

 

I am wondering if anyone has considered making a

homemade "groundpod"..i.e., something in the style of:

 

http://www.naturephotographers.net/gs/gsgroundshot2.html

 

?

 

If so, could you please share your experience?

[awahlster]

Yea I'll give you an idea for free go to a local second hand store find a 12" aluminum pie plate or small pizza dish drill a 1/4" hole in the middle of it and stick your favorite cheap ball head in the middle of it with a pan head screw. The cost of the pie plate should be about a buck. Scoot it along as needed. I remember seeing this factory made item thinking it was perfect for the limited edition leica crowd as it is super simple and way over priced.

 

Mark W<div></div>

[imaginator]

I came up with a wooden design: plywood triangle with adjustable "spikes" on each corner. Mount ball head with bolt and your ready to go. The problem is how do you look through the viewfinder when the camera is angled up?

[jeff_plomley1]

Jeffrey:

 

With a right angle finder. It works great!

[chris_hansen]

Mine is as simple as some of the others. I used a 14 inch long piece

of pine 1x12 . I drilled a 1/4 inch hole in the center of it about 3/4

of the way down the length of it. I then put in a 1/4 inch carriage

bolt in and secured it with all purpose duct tape to keep the bolt

from falling out when my ballhead is not attached. It is very low to

the ground. To raise it I sometimes set it on top of a bean bag.

God's light to all

[phil]

For photographing shorebirds at nearly eye level, I took an old skateboard I found put out for trash, removed the wheels, drilled a hole in the middle and ran a 3/8" hex bolt up through it into the ball head (at the moment I use a simple bogen swivel head with an RRS Q/R clamp attached, but a ball head would be more useful). Pretty much any thinnish piece of plywood would do, I just liked the overall shape of the skateboard for my purposes (a generally large expanse of wood to stop it sinking into the mud) because I hope it stabilises the potential for fore-aft flex on smaller ground-pod designs with a long telephoto.

[leif_goodwin8]

I bought a Cullmann ground spike and put a small bal head on it. The result is useless. Vibration is severe. All small tripods are next to useless in my experience.

 

I would recommend a bean bag. It will allow you to place your camera in most orientations. Just make sure the bean bag is large enough, and sink the camera into it. Use a right angle finder to view. An added benefit of a bean bag is the damping of vibrations. Oh and you can place a beanbag on a wall, on a stout tree branch, on a car roof and so on.