It\'s all been done before of course, but I thought I\'d show one specific to the gripped D700 that I made. For anyone that might be interested I\'d be glad to answer any questions. (Apologies in advance, for the watermark on the photos).
The body of the blimp is a Pelican 1200 case, and the lens tube parts are made from 4\" PVC pipe fittings. The \'standard\' lens tube seen here is for the 85 mm lens. The tube is glued permanently to the case using a collar and short inner tube arrangement.
As most folks here know the D700 with grip is quite tall and there is almost no clearance between the top and bottom of the camera, and the inside of the case. Luckily, the function of the blimp does not seem to have been adversely affected in this case. The depth of the camera is also potentially problematic, as the D700 pentaprism is quite deep and it almost touches part of the lens tube which protrudes slightly into the inside of the case. The remote I use is the Phottix Strato - it is single shot only and I cannot shoot bursts.
The \'standard\' lens tube is a regular 4\" female adapter PVC fitting. Instead of gluing a piece of glass directly to the end cap, I opted to use a 82 to 77 mm step-down ring. This lets me use regular 77 mm filters which I already have, and can use on my lenses when I don\'t need them on the blimp. A less obvious benefit is that by removing the filter I can get a good grip on the end cap when I need to transfer it between the short and long lens tubes.
The back of the blimp is very simple as I decided not to attempt making a cutout for the rear LCD display. The viewfinder eyepiece is simply a 30.5 mm UV filter which I screwed into the appropriately-sized hole I made in the back of the Pelican case.
The long lens tube is made from a male adapter PVC fitting (the centre piece in the photo) glued to a female adapter with spigot end (avoiding the need for an additional length of pipe to connect the two together). To use it, the male adapter end is screwed into the female adapter thread of the \'standard\' lens tube. Here you can also see the tripod mount, which is an Arca-Swiss type plate bolted onto the bottom of the short lens tube.
That\'s it then, in 500 words or less. Thanks for looking...
Nov 04, 2012 at 09:16 PM
Previous versions of SAng's message #11092417 « DIY sound blimp for gripped D700 (samples added) »
Thanks for looking...