Simple carrying handle for hv20

[mrob7]

Recently I bought the poor man's stedicam (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/) and it came with an inverting bracket to use the stedicam for low angle shots. If you take the bracket and simply attach the bolt to the bottom of the camera through one of the holes secured with a wingnut, you have yourself a handy carrying handle. I would reccomend buying the stedicam package as you get a fairly good stedicam and an inverting bracket which you can use as a carrying handle somewhat similar to the very popular canon gl2.

You need a 1/4th wingnut and a 1-1/2" 1/4" machine bolt, along with the bracket. All the instructions are located over at his site to build the stedicam so head over there for info on the parts.

Here are some pics of the setup:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/j_reed4/DSC01428.jpg

Disassembled

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/j_reed4/DSC01427.jpg

Without the VideoMic

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/j_reed4/DSC01426.jpg

Again Without the VideoMic

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/j_reed4/DSC01425.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/j_reed4/DSC01424.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/j_reed4/DSC01423.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/j_reed4/DSC01422.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/j_reed4/DSC01421.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y173/j_reed4/DSC01420.jpg

It makes it alot easier to carry and makes the shots even smoother because it adds some weight, not to mention helps alot with low angle shots. The only drawback is that It dosen't really rest straight when idle as the bolt on the bottom makes it impossible to balance. As you can see it fits well even with the videomic on.

PS: Excuse the crappy picture quality, I had to use my old Sony DCR-TRV27...

[c_rex]

for horizontal stability while setting it down you could drill a hole through the center of a plastic peanut butter jar lid (or similar), shorten your bolt (or replace it with a knob assembly) and there you have a bolt on platform. Paint the lid matte black though.

[24Peter]

Maybe also something like this?
http://www.adorama.com/FABSMFRD.html?searchinfo=c%20bracket&item_no=36

[mrob7]

how sturdy would that be? It says its a flash bracket

[24Peter]

how sturdy would that be? It says its a flash bracket

Well you'd have to try it (Adorama has a 14 day return policy - no RMA, just send it back) but the difference in weight between your HV20 and a Canon 430EX flash with 4 NiMH batteries is less than 4 ounces.

[Smeangol]

Nice Handle! Big advantage not to occupie the photo shoe, here is my solution:
Yeah, disadvantage: I cannot attach my Rode videomic but i can live with it
http://smeangol.com/IMG_0134.jpg
http://smeangol.com/IMG_0135.jpg
http://smeangol.com/IMG_0136.jpg

Greetz, Max