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| Homemade
water-repellent camoflage cover on
a Bogen 3011N (aluminum finish) with
Bogen 3160 fluid head |
Camoflage
covered leg pads on a Manfrotto 3221G
(green) with Manfrotto 141RC head |
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| Both
tripods collapsed with padded head
covers installed |
This is a tale of two tripods -(1) a Bogen 3011N (aluminum finish)
with Bogen 3160 fluid head, and
(2) a Manfrotto 3221G (green) with
Manfrotto 141RC head.
Note
that the first tripod is the standard aluminum finish.
I originally purchased it for video work, thus the
fluid head on it. But the problem with using a shiny
aluminum finish tripod for wildlife work is pretty
obvious - it's hardly what you would call "unobtrusive" against
the leafy green of nature. Since I did not have the "green" Manfrotto
at that time, I needed to do something about camoflaging
the Bogen tripod.
FULL-LENGTH CAMO COVER FOR A TRIPOD:
I had
some water-repellent camo material left over from making
a rain cover for the camera/lens and myself, and there
was just enough left to make the tripod cover. In essence,
the tripod cover is basically a pair of "three-legged
camo pants", if you can imagine what that's like. This
pair of three-legged pants fits over the upper sections
of the tripod. For the lower two sections I made three
individual tubular slip-on covers (one for each leg).
I'm not going to go into specific sewing and cutting
instructions for this project, nor will there be any
measured patterns, etc. That would be silly since your
tripod most likely would be different. The purpose
of this article is to tell you what I made, and generally
how it was made, so you can adapt my ideas to make
your tripod cover.
In
essence, the tripod cover is simply
a pair of "three-legged camo pants" |
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The
two photos at right show the top of the Bogen tripod
with the camo cover velcro strap closed, and with it
open. This is basically the "belt" which holds the
pants "waist" closed. In the far right photo you can
see the legs are rolled down a bit, showing the foam
padding used on all three upper leg sections.
This
foam padding is really tubular
foam pipe insulation made
for copper water pipes, available at any hardware or
plumbing supply. It's much softer on your shoulder than
the metal tripod leg when you carry the tripod over
the shoulder. As you can see by the photo, the foam
comes pre-slit part-way through. Just cut it to length,
slit it all the way with a knife, and slip it over
each upper leg section. Be sure you buy the size with
an inside diameter just a little smaller than the tripod
leg diameter, so the slit will be slightly spread apart
when installed. If the foam's inside diameter is too
big, then obviously it will slip on the leg and not
be snug. You want a snug fit. Tape each end and the
middle of the foam with a thin
strip of duct tape (one
inch wide is sufficient) to squeeze it snugly onto
the tripod.
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| Intersection
of upper leg section and middle leg
section. Note slit in upper cover which
hooks over the "T" knob, as does the
lower cover section. |
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To
put on or take off the upper "pants", just pull the
tripod legs close together, open the velcro strap,
and slip them on or off like pants. The only thing
to keep in mind when making these is that the leg covering
diameter must allow it to slip over not only
the padding (if you use it), but also the knobs or
levers for locking the leg extensions, kind of like
making pants you can slip on while wearing your shoes.
You may have to allow for a split, slit or cutout in
the leg so your leg-locking knobs or levers will operate
easily with the cover on. Since my Bogen has "T" knobs
that screw in and out, I made slits for the knobs to
come through. Because the slit is looped over the knob,
it also keeps the leg covers from sliding up or down.
The center
post cover (shown at
left pulled part-way down so the velcro
strip shows)
velcro's
inside the upper
leg cover "pants" so it won't fall down, but still
allows the post to move up and down freely.
Be sure this cover "sock" for the
center post is not too snug, so the center post will
slide
up and down inside it easily, otherwise it will bunch
up and bind it when you try to pull up or crank up
the post. The bottom end of this "sock" can
be
seamed
shut or left open as you wish. The pattern
diagram shows in general terms how this and the
rest of the cover is patterned and assembled.
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The
three individual leg covers for the bottom/middle tripod
leg sections
are separate from the "pants", so the whole
thing can more easily be put on or removed. Each bottom
cover
piece is the same. The upper photo at right show how
the
covers accordion when the leg sections are retracted
to their
shortest length. The right photo shows one
bottom
section
extended. The pattern diagram at left shows how
the top and bottom of the lower cover is seamed into
a tube, while most of the middle is hemmed but
left open.
This
open area is closed with velcro once the cover is put
on, but it allows the fabric to bunch and accordion
when the legs are retracted. If the leg covers
were seamed into a tube all the way from end to end they would not
accordion well,
and would bind when retracting the section.
The
two left photos show the lower leg with the cover closed by the velcro strips,
and with
it open. Compare this with the pattern diagram and
you should be able to visualize how this works. In
the lower right corner of both photos you can see the
"T" knob. I put a slit
for this knob on the lower cover sections
on the side opposite the open side, since my knobs
are on the outside of the leg. This puts the "open"
side
of the cover to the inside of the legs.
The last detail is to tie a piece
of nylon
camo cord around the bottom of each cover. This is seen in the "leg extended" photo in
the previous paragraph. Even though the cover is tapered to
the small end of the leg, it still had to go on over the rubber butt end of the leg
(or over a rubber tip and spike on some tripods),. This means it has to be loose
enough that it ends up sliding up the leg when extending the bottom section.
By wrapping a piece of cord around the end of the cover and tying it, the
cover stays put at the bottom. It's an easy thing to untie the cord on those few occasions
when you might want to remove the cover.
I also made a padded camo tripod
head cover, but this is unnecessary for camoflaging the head, since it has the camera
on it when taking photos. It is, however, useful to protect the tripod head in transport
and storage. I won't go into details on this, except to say it's basically a double-walled
tubular bag, with 2 thicknesses of 3/4" foam padding (1-1/2 inches) between the inside
and outside wall. You can use a drawstring, or velcro, or snaps, etc., to tighten
the
bag opening
when installed over the head to keep it from falling off. The head cover for
both tripods can be seen in this photo at the top of the page.
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CAMO COVERED LEG PADDING FOR A TRIPOD:
As
mentioned at the top of this page, I have a Manfrotto 3221G tripod with Manfrotto
141RC head. The "G" stands for green, although only the top leg sections are green.
The rest of the tripod is black. Still, what I was going after was a newer model
(newer than my old Bogen, anyway) with the leg catches that allow the legs to spread
wide, making the tripod drop down low. I needed this for my wildlife photography
(shown in the left photo of the tripod inside my small blind),
and the
old Bogen simply would not drop down far enough for shooting from ground level. Since
I was getting a new tripod, I figured getting a green one couldn't hurt.
It appeared this green tripod had leg pads on the top sections, though when I got it I found out there was no "padding" to these pads at all. They are just thin hard-rubber sleeves over the legs, hardly something to make carrying the tripod over the shoulder any more comfortable than a tripod without hard-rubber sleeves. So I found myself in another "camo project". The finished
padded covers are seen in the photo at right. I only put two pads on the tripod, since all three sides can't rest on my shoulder at once. Essentially, I only needed two legs padded.
The foam padding used on the
Bogen tripod was ideal, and I had some foam left over from that first project, but
the silver-gray foam was hardly "camo" - so
much for paying extra for the "green" tripod. The simple solution was to make
camo covers for the foam padding. This is a simple project, so simple that I don't
see any need for a diagram. The
padding
is
secured
with
tape, just as in the previous project. With the foam installed, cut out
two rectangles
of
camo
material
the
right size to cover the padding when wrapped around the leg. The cut material should
have enough extra for hems all the way around, and extra overlap on the long sides
for the velcro to
lap over and connect. Test fit this after putting a narrow hem around the edges.
When satisfied it fits right, sew on the velcro all the way along the long edge (velcro loops
to one edge and velcro hooks to the other). Don't skimp here. Putting a few spaced tabs of
velcro will not hold the edges closed and tight. You want this to be very snug and
well fitted so there are no gaps to get fingers caught under while handling the
tripod.
These two photos show the one
important detail - snugging up the ends of the cover to fit closely to the leg and covering
the
ends of the padding for a good finished look. Obviously the cover must extend a little
past each end of the padding. As seen in these detailed photos, this extra is then bunched
up in three or four places,
spaced around the cover ends, and sewn together, so the end fits snuggly against the leg. This gives it a nice
finish. When done, wrap the cover around the padding, press the velcro together and that's
it. All done....... with the covered pads anyway.
I suppose I'm never really done.
I also made a padded tripod head cover, just as I did for the Bogen.
But
I didn't stop there. I had one more great idea.
IMPROVEMENT ON A TRIPOD CARRY STRAP:
This tripod came with a nice
heavy duty shoulder strap, except it had no padding with it. After looking at
this a while, I came up with not only a nice thick pad to slip over the shoulder
strap,
but
also
a
way
to "package" the
tripod for transport using the strap it already had, shown in the photo
on the
right.
This works whether carrying the tripod vertically from the shoulder, or carrying
it slung horizontally at your side. When carried vertically, the padded "cup" that
covers the tripod feet protects your hip bone from getting banged up, and keeps
the legs together in transport. It's also great protection for when you pack
the
tripod in
your
vehicle.
The left photo shows how the shoulder
strap pulls up
on
the "cup" strap, securing it tightly over the tripod feet. When
the tripod is laid down. there is enough slack that the cup will slide off easily,
though it is still looped
through the shoulder strap. You can use the tripod with the cup still attached to
the strap (handy to keep track of it), but you might not want it attached all the
time.
The right photo shows the cup
by itself, and how I solved the problem of taking the cup off the shoulder strap.
The small black strap on the cup has a snap coupling, found these days on nearly
every camera bag (and any other kind of bag for that matter). The black strap webbing
and the snap couplings were purchased from an REI outdoor outfitter, and was quite
inexpensive. It's the only place I've found these items, but I'm sure it's available
from other sources. Alternately, you might be able to salvage a strap from some other
bag you're not using, and adapt its length for this purpose. This allowed me to adjust
the strap length to the optimum length, and also to simply unsnap the black
strap from the shoulder strap to remove the cup.
ONE LAST USEFUL HINT:
This last photo shows how I used
some camoflage tape (camo-print "duct" tape) that was left over from my camo
net blind frames project to cover the shiny metal parts of the Manfrotto
strap loop and the base of the tripod head.
Well, that about does it for the tripod camoflage information. I hope this will prove useful, and will at least give you some ideas and inspiration tor keeping your tripod not only camoflaged, but comfortable, protected, and easy to carry.
. . . . AND THE BEAN BAG:
There are times when the tripod
is simply impractical, and that's where this simple gadget comes into it's own. You
can steady your telephoto shooting out the car window by draping the bag over the
car door/window. You can put it on a fence rail or fence post, top of a wall, back
of a chair, across a pipe - you name it, it will likely conform to give your lens
a
steady
base
to sit on. Buying one is a problem because they're pretty hard to find. B&H
Photo sells one that's sort of an oversized change purse with a zipper. You fill
it yourself.
An outfit called Kinesis Photo Gear sells
the "Safari Sack", a nice cordura bag with
belts and buckles, with or without filling. It comes with a nice price
tag too ($30 and up!). The Arthur Morris Birds
As Art web site sells online what they call the BLUBB, but this bean bag is huge
and heavy (16 lbs.) and meant for the monster lenses. If
you
search
long
and
hard
enough
you
can
find
something
to buy on
the
web, but don't bother walking into a camera dealer and ask for one. Oh, they know
what they are, they just don't carry them.
Of course, you can always make
one. I made this "double
bean bag" from
another do-it-yourself article from
the web by Scott
Fairbairn and John Reaume. They also have more tips on this
page. Since they've done all the work making instructions, I won't try to repeat
it. Just read their article. I do have a couple of additional photos here of the
bag with my camera, one of them showing it's use on a fence post (well obviously
not a real fence post, just a 4x4 simulating a fence post). |
