Horizontal tripod extension

[Leonard Evens]

I want to take pictures from either the roof or next floor down of a garage recently opened in our downtown. The roof sidewall is pretty high, and when I tried to take a picture, there was a limit to how far I coul drop the front/raise the rear without including part of the wall. The wall on the floor below is not as high, but they are installing barriers with openings a little over a foot wide, which would limt the use of a wide angle lens. I am trying to think of safe ways to get the camera further out over the top of the wall. Is there some kind of tripod extension which could be used safely for that? Of course, the camera would end up not centered properly over the tripod, but my Toho FC-45X is relatively light. I might have to weigh down the rear tripod leg, and I'm not sure exactly how to go about that either. I carry things around in a Baby Jogger, but anything really bulky might be a problem.

My tripod will go higher, and that could in principle solve the roof problem, but my eye is at the right position the way I now use it, and I would have to bring a step ladder to get a higher point of view.

Any suggestions?

[Jerry Fusselman]

Leonard,

That's easy---get a large Benbo tripod. Perfect for the task. It is very tall, has a long side arm in the basic design that can extend in any direction. It weights about 8 pounds. If you like, you can borrow mine---I work in downtown Chicago.

[Mark Sampson]

A Majestic tripod with the sidearm attached to the center post.

[David A. Goldfarb]

When I do precarious things with an LF camera, a tripod, and an open window, I use a 10lb counterweight from a lighting boom on the tripod leg that's on the floor to keep everything on my side of the ledge. Here are various counterweights available from B&H--

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...rch&Q=&ci=1363

[Leonard Evens]

I should have said that I have an old Tiltall Pro tripod which works well for me. It weighs a bit less than 6 lbs, and I haven't been able to find any tripod/head combination that will work with my camera that weighs much less. Most of them weigh significantly more. I don't often carry equipment on my back, but when I do, weight is crucial since I have several herniated discs and spinal stenosis. If I do replace my tripod, it is going to be with something even lighter if I can manage it.

Thanks, Jerry, for the offer, but I plan to do this often over the course of the next several weeks, and I doubt it you want to lend me your tripod on a semi-permanent basis.

So let me ask again. Is there something I can buy or rig up just to extend horizontally using my current tripod?

[David A. Goldfarb]

With the Tiltall, the easiest thing is probably to use a Bogen lateral arm with a 1/4"-3/8" bushing to attach it to the screw of the Tiltall head, since it is normally designed to attach directly to a tripod. Of course the end also has a 3/8" screw, designed to hold a tripod head, so if you don't have another tripod head, and if the Toho doesn't have a 3/8" socket, you'll need another adapter to attach it directly to the camera. This puts the camera pointing downward, as for copy work, but if I understand you correctly, you want to extend the camera out over a ledge--so I think Bogen also makes a right angle bracket, which might work.

Alternately, with the Toho how long is the rail? Do you have enough rail to put both the front and rear standards in front of the tripod block with the lens you're using for this shot. I've done this with Sinar and Gowland monorails using very short lenses, or when I need to have the camera cantilevered out over a ledge, as I think you're describing.

[Bob Salomon]

The Giottos MT series center column will go to any vertical, horizontal or angled position. A seperate pan control allows it to pan 360° in any position without moving the tripod legs.

[Leonard Evens]

It appears that the Bogen side arm would work. Actually, Bogen makes a souped up version which has two camera supports on the rail as well as two on the end. Calumet Photo sells it for about $90. I would have to get something to convert from the 1/4 inch Tiltall tripod screw to the 3/8 inch to mount the side arm.

Having thought about it some more, I've decided for the moent to try other solutions. First, as David pointed out, I can put the standards on one end of the extended Toho rail. If I also set up the tripod so that two legs rest against the wall, I might be able to get everything far enough over the wall to do what I want. Alternately, I can get an aluminum bar, drill some holes in it and arrange to attach both tripod screw and camera to it by appropriate nuts and screws. One of the possibilities is L shaped in cross section, so even at 1/16 inch thick would be extremely rigid. Total cost would be less than $15.