Cellphone to Tripod Adapter

I wanted to take some video with my cellphone but, it is difficult to hold the phone steady to get some good video.  I have a galaxy S2 phone which does a good job taking HD video.  With the right lighting it is very impressive.  I looked on the net at what was available for adapting a cellphone to a tripod and saw many different solutions.  I decided on a very simple adapter and thought I would show it to it.

Necessary Parts

This adapter is simply a piece of metal bent at a 90 degree angle and attached to a cellphone and a tripod.  I went through a local hardware store looking for something that would work.  I ran across this metal strap that was about 1/16 of an inch thick.  I thought that would be great.  I already had a nut that would secure this strap to the tripod and after spending $2.01us I headed home.  I also found some rubber bands and some foam tape to pad the strap with.

Construction

The first thing I did was bend the strap at about 1 7/8″ .  This leaves almost 2 inches to attach to the tripod which is plenty.  The strap I bought had three holes in each end.  I thought the center hole would be a good place to start drilling bigger to accommodate the tripod screw.  I had to go up to 1/4″ to clear the screw.  When I tried to attach the strap to the tripod I didn’t have a lot of the tripod screw left above the strap.  A thinner strap would’ve been better but, this is my first attempt.  There was just enough screw showing to get a couple of threads of the nut on to the screw.  This should hold it well enough as the cell phone is fairly light.  I attached the cell phone using rubber bands.  I used 2 rubber bands in case one breaks.  That way the phone won’t fall.  That wouldn’t be a good thing.

You can see the bent strap, nut, and tripod adapter that my particular style of tripod uses.  This is handy and wish I had more of the red tripod adapters.  It would make it easier to switch between cameras.  I only have one of those right now.  You can also see some foam tape that I put on the strap to cushion the cell phone and keep it from being scratched.

Finished Product

In this picture you can see the cell phone attached to the adapter.  It is already to go on the tripod.  You can see the way the rubber bands are placed around the phone and the metal strap.  One thing I might suggest is smoothing out the strap with some sand paper or such.  My strap has some rough edges to it.  If you look close you can see the camera I used to take the picture reflected in the screen of the cell phone.  Yes, I know the rubber bands do cover the screen a bit but the lens on the other side of the phone is totally unobstructed.  It is a small price to pay for the small price of this adapter.

Hope you have fun with this idea.