Found on Aliexpress a great solution for photographing items on a table. This is a conventional boom microphone stand with a head for attaching a camera or smartphone.
I've always had a problem with vertical photography. A tripod for such shooting should be located on the side of the table so as not to interfere, and a regular photo tripod does not fit at all.
Surprisingly, there are practically no tripods for vertical photography in photo shops. I was even surprised to find out that one of the foreign bloggers, who has a studio equipped with very expensive equipment, uses to vertical shooting a homemade construction of two tripods on the sides of the table, on which a wooden block is fixed, hanging above the table, to which the camera is attached.
Looking for solutions for vertical photography on Aliexpress, I came across a tripod based on a microphone stand and immediately ordered it.
This is how the tripod looks when folded from both sides (the kit also included a mount for a smartphone, I forgot to photograph it).
The Chinese boom microphone stand has two 3/8 "screws. One at the top of the vertical post, the other at the end of the horizontal. The head supplied with the standard "photo screw" 1/4 "is screwed to it.
If a smartphone is used for shooting, the included mount is screwed to the head screw.
This is what a camera looks like on a tripod.
The vertical arm of the tripod is telescopic. Height from floor to center of attachment point 70-136 cm. The horizontal boom of the "crane" can tilt up and down and move to the side (this is useful to hang a counterweight on it). Thanks to the tilt, it is possible to achieve the height of the camera mount from 25 cm to 180 cm from the floor. The maximum sideways extension of the horizontal bar is 57 cm.
This tripod has two drawbacks. First of all, you need to align the camera along two axes so that the picture is free of geometric distortion. It is convenient to use a two-dimensional bubble level for this. I ordered these are the levels, but something they will not reach me in any way.
The second drawback is that the design is not rigid enough and the camera can shake from the slightest vibration. But if you shoot carefully, this is not a big problem.
Tripod costs $ 25.43 with delivery from Russia. There is also an option with a lamp, but attaching the lamp to the top of the upright is not a good idea.
I have been using this tripod for a year now and it helps me a lot both in photographing large lamps for Lamptest.ru, and in filming objects on the table for video reviews.
© 2020, Alexey Nadezhin
The main topic of my blog is technology in human life. I write reviews, share experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. My second project - lamptest.ru. I test LED bulbs and help figure out which ones are good and which are not so good.