Friday, August 6, 2010

DIY Ground Pod Ideas

Recently I watched some Moose Peterson training on the Kelby Training web site. The training was on shooting birds in Florida and during it he used a ground pod. His was a nice looking medal one which he promptly sat in an inverted frisbee so he could slide it on the sand easier. When I saw him using it I knew I wanted one so after checking around online and discovering companies want $150.00 for one I figured there's got to be some sort of DIY solution. There's a great example of one on YouTube just search for DIY Ground Pod to check it out.


While walking through Lowes the other night I saw these bucket lids at the end of one of the rows in the paint department. Immediately I thought about the ground pod so I bought two of them and enough 3/8 inch nuts and bolts to try and create my DIY ground pod. I ended up coming up with 4 ideas for creating a ground pod and this post summaries each of those proposed solutions.
Possible Ground Pod Solutions
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Solution #1 - The bucket lid
Ballhead Mounted to Bucket Lid
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At first I thought the bucket lid was going to be the perfect solution. It was light, made of plastic so I couldn't have to worry about water, and it looked like there was enough room to put the bolt through it and not have it drag on the ground. 
Bad Idea
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In order to not have the bolt drag on the ground I would either need to cut it or provide some kind of spacer to fill this gap (NOTE TO SELF -- use a wooden block to fill the gap -- sorry I had to write that idea down before I forgot it).
Better Idea
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Using this configuration for the nut and bolt allows the ballhead to be mounted closer to the lid but it's still too flexible to use so at this point the bucket lid is a no-go. I'll update this post after I have a chance to try a wooden spacer.

Solution #2 - The Frying Pan

Yes that is a non-stick frying pan. We recently bought a couple of new ones so I was able to use this one for my little project.
Nut and Bolt Attached to Pan
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If you think about it the pan will be sitting on the ground so having the nut and bolt extending from the bottom shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Camera Mounted
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While this setup seems to work who honestly wants to lug around a frying pan all day. I suppose if I cut off the handle it would be a little easier to manage but it's held on with four big rivets and I'm not sure I want to try and grind them off. I think I'll save this for when I have to go shoot some place where I could use a frying pan for protection :)





Solution #3 - The block of Wood

I wanted to try this setup after watching the video on YouTube so I grabbed a piece of scrap wood and drilled holes in it as you can see below.
Counter Sunk Bolt on Bottom of Wood
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Top of Wood
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The mounting method shown below has some promise to it but there's one big flaw. The wood isn't wide enough to provide proper support. When mounted like this everything tends to fall to the left.
Camera Mounted
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Shown below is the mounting method that worked best so far. I think If I added some sort of extension to the piece of wood I may have a workable DIY Ground Pod.
Alternate Camera Mount
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Solution #4 - PVC Pipe


On the way home today I got the idea of using some PVC pipe I had left over from a project so I clobbered together a "T" using connectors, caps, and pipe I had available. Below shows the mounting bolt ready for the ballhead.
PVC Pipe Mount
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Here's the camera mounted on the PVC T and this seems to work pretty well. I think I may be onto something with this one.
Camera Mounted
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Granted I didn't glue the pipes together and you probably wouldn't want to either to keep things portable but there's one problem with this solution as it is now. The weight of everything mounted on the PVC pipe makes it want to rotate at this T fitting. I'm certain this problem could be solved by either gluing the short PVC pipe into the base of the T fitting or drilling a hole and putting a set screw in it to stop the rotation or drilling a hole all the way through the base of the T fitting and using some sort of pin to prevent the ballhead from rotating from side to side.
Rotation Point
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So out of the four possible solutions there's two of them that may work. I'll post and update after I've had a chance to tweak things about. If you've already been there and done that or have any ideas I'd love to hear them.






5 comments:

  1. Congrats mate! I've now seen someone make a stranger DIY creation than anything I've yet come up with (the frying pan)! Actually, I'd think about hacking the handle off the pan and turning it upside down; then the protruding bolt on the underside doesn't matter, and there may still be enough stability.

    This is the Ground Pod I keep looking at for DIY inspiration:
    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/544674-REG/Naturescapes_SKM_II_SKM_II_Skimmer_Ground_Pod.html

    There has got to be a way to DIY something that looks almost exactly like that - I just haven't walked through Lowes/Target yet to find it.

    You're close with the PVC version, but you have to find a way to overcome the rotation. I'd tend to think that gluing the tripod-mount arm into the T connector, then attaching the other two front arms with either screws of pins might work best: stable enough, but still breaks down for portability. What about using two of these (of appropriate size): http://www.amazon.com/Dia-Grip-Lgth-Style-Lynch/dp/B002GPHT88

    But overall, a great set of ideas - this is definitely one of those cases where it's not worth spending $100+ dollars for something so ridiculously simple.

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  2. Brent,

    Thanks for the links. I really like the looks of that ground skimmer pod. One problem I thought about with any kind of round ground pod is will it fit in my backpack or not. I'll have to test the frying pan this afternoon. The PVC solution may not be quite as stable but it would be more portable for sure.

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  3. Here are several other solutions I just found out on the web...
    1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCBj6eZc2l4
    2. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9_WJ-FpspA8/SERQbFJDK5I/AAAAAAAAAFs/-E_NfkHN3vc/s1600-h/groundpod.jpg
    3. Get a Frisbee/pizza pan/cake pan/old skateboard attach a small ballhead so the lens plate would fit (Why mess with trying to remove a handle?)
    4. A beanbag fitted snugly into a cake tin is the simplest and cheapest option.

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  4. @Brian: thanks for stopping by.

    @anonymous: thanks for the links. I'll check 'em out.

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