90 degree camera mount- anyone ever heard of this?

[Benjamin Cameron]

has anyone heard of someone wanting to position a camera on its side on a tripod, using an adaptor mounted between the head and the camera? the adaptor would rotate the camera down 90 degrees from fully upright/level, so that the camera is horizontal while the head is "upright", allowing for the full range of pan/tilt.

 

this might be a crazy idea, and i'm wondering if it's been used before. the adaptor would be fixed at 90 degrees. i have access to a machine shop where i am going to fabricate one. what does the internet think?

[Michael Collier]

they are around prefabricated. More interesting to me are the oddball Dutch fluid heads. I keep wanting to work with one but they are rarely called for.

[ian mussell]

i've shoot a few times with 90 degree plates, interestingly normally with american dop's.

unfortunately i can't remember why we used it :huh:

if you have one fabricated make sure it is nodal when you pan and there is enough room to get to all the plugs on the camera you're using, yet keep it as low as possible so you can balance easily on geared heads and you have enough counter balance on fluid heads!

 

fluid dutch heads are a pain, you can rarely balance them perfectly, they don't have enough counter balance for most film cameras and if you do balance them and Dial in enough counter balance they put the load so high that most fluid heads can't counter it! always nicer to use a swing head, i think. ;)

[Daniel Wallens]

These are quite common, and several manufacturers make them, and are common at most rental houses:

 

http://www.microdolly.com/micro_6.html

 

http://www.cinemagadgets.com/camera-suppor...358e6cf0f66749b

 

 

I am not sure why you are wanting to get it manufactured -- it may be easier and probably cheaper just to rent it.

[Mitch Gross]

We have them for rent at Abel.

[Chris Keth]

You can easily rent one or it's a super easy thing to make, assuming you can weld. Just a couple plates welded (make sure the weld is strong) at 90 degrees with a bunch of holes in them.

[robert duke]

Dont weld it. Either tap and bolt it together or buy a large aluminum angle iron.

[Benjamin Cameron]

yeah, i have friends who do machining. i've made custom camera stuff before with them, so i have some idea what to do. and yes, i won't be welding, i'll be bolting the plates together. assuming i did build one (cheaper for me than renting), how would i compensate for the weight of my camera (about 17-18 pounds) being offset to one side of the head and tripod. i have in mind a plate the offsets the horizontal camera mount to one side, so the camera's center of gravity is centered over the head. some of the plates i have found online don't seem to work this way, so am i overthinking this? thanks everyone.

[Michael Nash]

No, you're not overthinking it, tripod heads tend to work best when the payload's CG is directly above the center of the head. Also take into account that your rig may put the CG of the payload higher than normal, requiring more counterbalance compensation. As you tilt up/down with the head, the payload's CG is farther out from the center of the head than before.

[Benjamin Cameron]

that's exactly what i pictured. if i make sketches of this, i'll try and post them. it should be interesting. thanks.

[Benjamin Cameron]

that's exactly what i pictured. if i make sketches of this, i'll try and post them. it should be interesting. thanks.

Here are some photos of the mount, pretty straightforward, just a 90 degree aluminum L with a couple of threaded holes and a reinforcing brace below. It works great!

[Chad Stockfleth]

Just to add, you can do it with this Lamda Nodal head with the 3rd axis:

 

You can also get close with this Cartoni Dutch head:

 

 

Or, on the cheap, you can mount the plate sideways on your tripod and "tilt" the camera onto it's side. Of course this is not good with a very heavy rig and you lose the ability to tilt proper.

[Benjamin Cameron]

Or, on the cheap, you can mount the plate sideways on your tripod and "tilt" the camera onto it's side. Of course this is not good with a very heavy rig and you lose the ability to tilt proper.

Exactly. That's why I made this mount, all it cost was 4 hours of my time and 0$.

[Satsuki Murashige]

i've shoot a few times with 90 degree plates, interestingly normally with american dop's.

unfortunately i can't remember why we used it :huh:

Maybe for greenscreen portraits? That's been my sole experience with the 90 degree rig.

[Onno Perdijk]

Hello All,

 

I have been using this kind of rig quite often for having the maximum of

film-negative available for postproduction while filming a vertical-orientated

subject.

 

Or for some artistical-presentation in a gallery with multiple screens, setup

vertical and diagonal.

 

Onno Perdijk

KeyGrip

Amsterdam, The netherlands

www.solidgripsystems.eu

[Benjamin Cameron]

Hello All,

 

I have been using this kind of rig quite often for having the maximum of

film-negative available for postproduction while filming a vertical-orientated

subject.

 

Or for some artistical-presentation in a gallery with multiple screens, setup

vertical and diagonal.

 

Onno Perdijk

KeyGrip

Amsterdam, The netherlands

www.solidgripsystems.eu

exactly what i'm using it for. a documentary on the Redwoods. hard to imagine a more vertically oriented subject.

[Guest Glen Alexander]

These are quite common, and several manufacturers make them, and are common at most rental houses:

 

http://www.microdolly.com/micro_6.html

 

http://www.cinemagadgets.com/camera-suppor...358e6cf0f66749b

 

 

I am not sure why you are wanting to get it manufactured -- it may be easier and probably cheaper just to rent it.

 

some of those are similar to ones found here

 

http://www.modernstudio.com/cameramounts.html

[Thomas Barndt]

I used a 90 deg plate from Willy's Widget's in az. for this film

http://web.mac.com/tombarndt/aramasmot_zone/I_Will.html

[Rob van Gelder]

Here in Thailand we use this frequently for the shampoo commercials. The Asian women have lovely long and straight hair (OK, I am biased :D ) , and we do a lot of high speed shooting on this. This way we can almost double the resolution and with the fine details/ gloss on the black hair it makes all the difference.

 

Rob

[Tim O'Connor]

Dont weld it. Either tap and bolt it together or buy a large aluminum angle iron.

 

 

 

Hi Robert,

 

Why not weld?

 

I know you know your stuff; I just like to weld.