Homemade swing-out bracket for under £20 (1 Viewer)

[Condor305]

Chris, it should last several days, shooting on and off throughout the day, or putting it another way for several hundred photos.

Obviously, as with all rechargeable batteries, it takes a few cycles of charging/discharging before it's at its best.

John

Hi Guys,
I have been using rechargeable AA Energizer NiMH batteries with my A95, and I have been getting 300 to 400 pictures before having to use the second set that I carry. And I always use the screen although I will turn the screen off if I anticipate time will pass between shots. I usually change batteries about every ten days and I am out a lot.

Peace,
Don

 

[Andrew Rowlands]

What is a 'gutter bolt'? I went to my local farm supplies and tried the bolts they had to try to determine the thread. 1/4 UNC was the only one that 'fit'. When I screwed it in (and I've had the camera on and off a few times) I kept an eye out for excessive resistance and/or swarf, but didn't see any. I did a Google at the time (you can try this yourself) and as many more threads (if you'll excuse the pun!) said a camera tripod thread was 1/4 UNC than said Whitworth. I'll admit you've got me worried though!

Well, it's been thirty years since I worked in an engineers suppliers but I do recall that some (very few) of the threads were interchangeable (maybe this is one pair?).

A gutter bolt is the bolt used to fix gutters (water troughs under the roof) to gutter brackets - they probably have other names ...

Andy.

 

[Yelvertoft]

1/4" UNC and Whitworth

I went to my local farm supplies and tried the bolts they had to try to determine the thread. 1/4 UNC was the only one that 'fit'. When I screwed it in (and I've had the camera on and off a few times) I kept an eye out for excessive resistance and/or swarf, but didn't see any. I did a Google at the time (you can try this yourself) and as many more threads (if you'll excuse the pun!) said a camera tripod thread was 1/4 UNC than said Whitworth. I'll admit you've got me worried though!

Hi Bagpuss,
Looking in my vintage but trusty Zeus guide, both 1/4" UNC and 1/4" Whit. have the same outside diameter and the same number of teeth per inch/pitch. The shape of the tooth profile is different which gives a different tooth height/thread depth. As you have found, a 1/4" UNC screw will fit into a 1/4" W nut, but the teeth will not be matching in profile and thus only fitting where they happen to touch and not giving a particularly strong hold.

Given that you are talking about holding a lightweight digicam onto a platform here, this is probably good enough for your needs so I wouldn't fret over it. There's no way I'd trust a much heavier, and more expensive, dSLR and big lens to be secured via this mismatch though. Also, I'd be wary about doing up this thread "tight". As the thread profiles do not match, there is much more likelyhood that the thread will strip if it's done up tight. As long as you don't heave it up tight with a spanner and stick to a finger tight wingnut arrangement you'll be fine.

As for Google reporting that it's a UNC thread in the base of a camera, I suspect this is because of the predominance of USA users on the internet who have gone through exactly the same process as you, found that a UNC fits and assumed therefore that it is a UNC thread. If you offer up a set of thread gauges to a good quality tripod thread screw, you can clearly see that the thread profile, the shape of the tooth, matches the Whitworth threadform, not UNC. They don't have Whitworth threads in the USA so no USA users will have tried it. Shame really, the Whitworth thread form is considerably stronger for the same diameter than a UNC but the industrial might of the USA during WWII saw the demise of the Whitworth thread which had been the norm in the UK until then.

I take a small crumb of comfort from knowing that it is a good old-fashioned, British Empire era thread, used on even the most complex of today's technology packed cameras.

Regards,

Duncan.

 

[Robert L Jarvis]

John
Congratulations on making your adapter. I think I will have a go at doing that.

Another point which has some meaning for DSLR user, your home made adapter could be fixed up for them so I hope they take note as well.

On the base plate for the camera instead of one drilled hole or several for different cameras you could make a slot so that the camera could be slid to and from the eyepiece with that mod a DSLR could be used.

 

[john-henry]

John
Congratulations on making your adapter. I think I will have a go at doing that.

Another point which has some meaning for DSLR user, your home made adapter could be fixed up for them so I hope they take note as well.

On the base plate for the camera instead of one drilled hole or several for different cameras you could make a slot so that the camera could be slid to and from the eyepiece with that mod a DSLR could be used.

Hi Robert,
Give it a go, it's pretty simple to make, the only bit to be careful with is the angled arm which needs to be as close to 45deg as possible to lie at the same angle as the scope eyepiece.

I think with a little bit of adaptation it can be used with any camera with or without a lens thread, internal or external zoom etc.

The only problem you may find with a slot is the distance between the tripod bush and the centre of the lens would have to be the same to line up with the scope eyepiece.

Any problems or advice give me a call.

Good luck

john

 

[Bagpuss]

Thanks again for pointing out my error. Can I confirm that what I should be looking for is the 1/4" in 'British Standard Whitworth' or BSW, or is that something else again?

 

[Yelvertoft]

Thanks again for pointing out my error. Can I confirm that what I should be looking for is the 1/4" in 'British Standard Whitworth' or BSW, or is that something else again?

You are correct, BSW is British Standard Whitworth. A quick google for 'fixings online BSW', find pages from UK turned up several potential suppliers if you can't source any locally. If your farm supplies shop doesn't stock them, they will probably still be able to order you some in from their wholesale supplier. in a remote area such as yours I'd say it's a good idea to cultivate a good relationship with local trade.

Regards,

Duncan.

P.S. As a completely off topic note, the American standard of using UNC and the British standard of using Whitworth was a major factor in why the US licence built Packard Merlin engines (fitted to the Mustang) were not interchangable with the Rolls-Royce built Merlin engines (fitted to the Spitfire etc).

 

[Bagpuss]

P.S. As a completely off topic note, the American standard of using UNC and the British standard of using Whitworth was a major factor in why the US licence built Packard Merlin engines (fitted to the Mustang) were not interchangable with the Rolls-Royce built Merlin engines (fitted to the Spitfire etc).

They also built familiar things to completely different tolerances. The US 57mm M1 anti tank gun was our 6 poounder, but I think the only thing interchangeable was the ammunition. Ditto when they converted the Swedish Bofors gun for US production - except they also went from metric to imperial with that one.

What I've found that's promising is various suppliers to the vintage and racing motorcycle trade that offer fixings in less aggressive materials than steel - aluminium and nylon for example. Tonight I'll try and track down 1/4" BSW. Thanks again Duncan!

 

[Robert L Jarvis]

John-Henry

I have to consider the bracket a bit more because my scope is a straight not angled.
Which would mean lifting the camera to be inline with the eyepiece. This why some people get things like the Baader adapter with an adjustable X-Y axis as well as reach. Don't like the idea of so much weight being on the eyepiece though even if it was only a compact digitical.

It would also give me problems with weight distribution, need to make something like the Manfrotto slide to move the scope forward to balance the weight out.

Have to bear this in mind to see what I can do.

 

[john-henry]

John-Henry

I have to consider the bracket a bit more because my scope is a straight not angled.
Which would mean lifting the camera to be inline with the eyepiece. This why some people get things like the Baader adapter with an adjustable X-Y axis as well as reach. Don't like the idea of so much weight being on the eyepiece though even if it was only a compact digitical.

It would also give me problems with weight distribution, need to make something like the Manfrotto slide to move the scope forward to balance the weight out.

Have to bear this in mind to see what I can do.

Robert
The weight shouldn't be a problem, if you do make a bracket it's just a matter of where to fit the tripod QR plate to the brackets' baseplate to gain a balance.

I should think the only problem to overcome with a straight-through type bracket would be the height to the centre of the camera lens, perhaps the swing-out part could be stepped if necessary.
Certainly food for thought.

Regards

John

 

[Atricapilla]

John-Henry

I have to consider the bracket a bit more because my scope is a straight not angled.
Which would mean lifting the camera to be inline with the eyepiece. This why some people get things like the Baader adapter with an adjustable X-Y axis as well as reach. Don't like the idea of so much weight being on the eyepiece though even if it was only a compact digitical.

It would also give me problems with weight distribution, need to make something like the Manfrotto slide to move the scope forward to balance the weight out.

Have to bear this in mind to see what I can do.

Sorry just picked up on this thread, pictures of my setup for straight scope attached might help

 

[Bagpuss]

John-Henry

I have to consider the bracket a bit more because my scope is a straight not angled.
Which would mean lifting the camera to be inline with the eyepiece. This why some people get things like the Baader adapter with an adjustable X-Y axis as well as reach.

I made a variant of John-Henry's mount (with his help) to use an A95 with my straight TSN824 scope. I came up with a highly technical solution to the camera height issue - a couple of 'repair washers' from a Screwfix assortment box.

 

[Helwith]

What is a 'gutter bolt'? I went to my local farm supplies and tried the bolts they had to try to determine the thread. 1/4 UNC was the only one that 'fit'. When I screwed it in (and I've had the camera on and off a few times) I kept an eye out for excessive resistance and/or swarf, but didn't see any. I did a Google at the time (you can try this yourself) and as many more threads (if you'll excuse the pun!) said a camera tripod thread was 1/4 UNC than said Whitworth. I'll admit you've got me worried though!

No problem! A 1/4 UNC & 1/4 Whit are interchangable. Without problems

CRF

 

[erniehatt]

If I remember far enough back, they were called tank bolts. My adapter cost zilch, made from bits of scrap. Ernie