For Camera Stability - Use a Chainpod

It is a lot easier for me to talk about creativity with equipment than it is with images. There are reasons for that, if a person comes up with a really new way to shoot a bride and groom, it is tough to explain. If I want to show it I have to provide a picture of the usual ways a couple is shot and an example of this new way of shooting a couple. I don’t, at this point in my business, shoot weddings so I don’t have those samples sitting around. The other concern is that such a discussion would only affect wedding photographers. Equipment can affect almost anybody.

This week I want to talk about the chain-pod, a simple lightweight substitute for a monopod. I have successfully taken photos at a 1/15th of a second with this tool. This is the easiest and best piece of photo equipment you can build. You will need a 1/4 X 20 thumbscrew; you can get this at any hardware store. 1/4 X 20 is the size of the threads in the tripod socket in your camera. The threads on the thumbscrew should be about 1/2 inch long. You will also need about 6 feet of chain, more if you are very tall. Drill a hole through the flat part of the thumbscrew and attach the end of the chain into the hole

Chainpod detail Shows how the chain, thumbscrew and nut fit together at the end of the chainpod. © John Siskin All rights reserved

(You may want to glue a nut on the thumbscrew to prevent over tightening the thumbscrew into the camera. You have just made a chain-pod! Now in order to use this, attach it to the tripod socket of your camera, step on the chain, and pull up. The tension you create on the chain serves to stabilize your camera.

John using the Chainpod This image shows how to use the chainpod to make sharper pictures. © John Siskin All rights reserved

This project only requires a drill to complete.

The great thing about the chain pod is that it approaches the problem of camera stability not by putting something between the camera and the ground, but in a whole new way, by creating tension between the camera and the ground. A monopod is big enough to be used as a walking stick; a chain-pod will fit in your pocket. You can find a monopod in most camera stores, and there are no commercially produced chain-pods. Go figure. I guess creativity and self-reliance must be closely related.

Thanks,

John Siskin

Ps. if you have any stories about creative approaches to problems please share them with me. I’ll try to put some of them in this column!

Comments

Don't use too heavy a chain on cameras that have plastic tripod sockets