p.1 #1 · Mounting system for taking archive photos
I have been working on taking archive photos of some old family heirlooms (stamp books, documents, odds and ends, etc.) and am in need of some kind of a table stand to hold my camera.
I have a 5D Mk III that is too heavy for the horizontal cross-arm of my tripod and the tripod itself is too short to give the necessary elevation from my worktable. I can add weight to the tripod legs to keep it from tipping over, but the elevation problem remains.
Has anybody seen a system that will hold a DLSR about three feet up parallel to the work surface? I'm thinking about building one but wanted to see if there was a viable commercial option.
p.1 #2 · Mounting system for taking archive photos
You could pick up a couple of light weight light stands and make a crossbar with a piece of square-section aluminum tubing. I use this to hold medium sized backdrops. Just drill holes down through the tubing at the correct diameter for the tops of the stands. You can cut the length of the tubing to fit your needs. Mine's eight feet long, with 'extra' holes in the cross bar, and so I can have the stands at many distances apart.
I sometimes use a Manfrotto Magic Arm attached to a medium weight light stand for my 1DX.
I also sometimes use a Manfrotto double-ball head with super clamp at one end and an Arca-Swiss clamp at the other end to mount a camera on the lower part of a tripod leg. Here's a photo of the last rig (it's an old photo with a RC2 clamp - now it's an AS clamp).
