AF100 $50 Home-made shoulder mount

ryangschultz

ryangschultz

Active member
So I posted a while back asking for everyone's help about a shoulder mount solution for my AF100...well here it is. Went home this weekend and constructed it. It's based heavily on olof's old design, but I simply didn't have the money to purchase his. It was about $50 in parts and a hard days work, the aluminum being the most expensive. The thing works like a dream and looks pretty good too. I made a mistake while drilling the holes for the tripod baseplate, so it's a little off center so I'm not sure if it will mount on my tripod. If it doesn't I'm just going to use some washers to space it out. I spray painted it black, which scratches pretty easily even though I roughed up the aluminum before painting, but I have a friend who powder coats so I think I'm going to do that in the near future.

I'll be using this for a full days shoot in a couple weeks, I'll post here how comfortable it is, it is well balanced and the padding seems good too, so we'll see!

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Thanks! Works great too, I like having my left hand free to work focus or just hold the bottom for extra support
 
Thanks guys.

Greg Smith said:
Looks good, Ryan. What are the dimensions (width x thickness) of that aluminum stock you used?

- Greg
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Hey Greg,
The aluminum for the shoulder is 2" wide by 1/8" thick and came in 3 foot lengths. The 90 degree bend is 1.5". The current baseplate is a 1.5" piece on top of a 2" piece, but next time I'm just going to double 2 1.5" pieces if I can't get a 1/4" because that's plenty strong enough. I picked it up at Lowes. I wanted some 1/4" but they didn't have any, but the 1/8" turned out to be surprisingly strong (there's really no flex). The baseplate is doubled up for extra support.
 
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Beautiful! Getting a nice compound bend in aluminum without snapping it is no easy feat. I like the side upright, eagerly awaiting an external recorder or whatever to be conveniently lashed upon it.

Your side handle design looks familiar... ;)

Depending what lenses you use/own, you'll want to verify that your side bar isn't too far forward. I can tell you from experience that your current length won't work the Lumix 7-14, and probably not the 14/2.5 or Oly 12/2. Maybe a problem for you, maybe not.

Do you find that your shoulder bar has much sproing, or is it mostly de-sproinged?
 
Yes! As soon as I can afford an external recorder! And for the aluminum...a little blow torch heat and it bends nice and easy :) I did consider the issue you're talking about to. My widest lens right now is the 20mm Panny Lumix, no issues with that one. But yes, I think that it will be an issue in the near future because I plan on picking up a Tokina 11-16mm. I planned on refining it in the future anyway so I'll come up with a better design!

The shoulder part, believe it or not, is rock solid. If you grab the unit and try to physically bend it there's a little spring, but when you get it on your shoulder you;d never know it. I'm pumped to test it out at a wedding next week!

P.S. The camera is mounted so that I can comfortable use the viewfinder or the LCD screen, no bulky expensive external EVF here!
 
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My guess is that the 11-16 shouldn't have problems either, being as it's a fairly long lens even without the adapter.
 
mcbob said:
My guess is that the 11-16 shouldn't have problems either, being as it's a fairly long lens even without the adapter.
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Ah I see, good to know. Just tested it on my tripod, it fits no problem! I just have to really lock down the tripod because of the 3lb counterweight. This will be perfect for weddings, I'll be able to pop it off the tripod and go. Here are a couple more pictures in case anyone is looking to build their own, it's made for a non-v mount baseplate, my tripod isn't a super professional one so it just has the smaller quick release plate.

photo 1.jpg photo 2.jpg
 
on the shoulder portion, are you going to round the corners and add more padding?


why did you use that L piece, does it serve a purpose, or just what was available at the time

after trying it on, do you have to lean your head slightly forward to contact the viewfinder? does it feel front heavy? what is the front to back ratio?
 
Amr,

I am planning on adding more padding to the shoulder portion, then I think I'm going to wrap that in black duct tape so that the adhesive won't come off. It will look nice too. The L piece is to eventually mount an external recorder, but for now I'll probably just clip a wireless lav receiver onto it, which it will be perfect for. I don't have to lean my head forward to look in the viewfinder, but I do have to tilt the eyecup up slightly and tip my head a little to the right, nothing terribly uncomfortable.

And it is a little front heavy but not by much. I think if I added another 2 lbs to the back it would be dead on (I'll have to weigh it to get an exact amount), but the handle is in a position so that I can push my right elbow up against my side which makes for really great support.
 
I love your DIY-RIG!!! Today i´ll try to rebuild it! thanks for sharing! Maybe you can post a picture how it looks on somebodys shoulder?
 
love your work bud.. can you make me one aswell?? ill give you 55 dollars?? haha.. all the best with your new rig!!
 
Hey Ryan, thanks for sharing, here is my slight adaption of your rig. perfect for run and gun...

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i can put the Camera "fully-rigged" (including shotgun-mic) in my bagpack (Kata Beetle-282 PL)
 
Ah sorry guys, I haven't been on the forum in a while. Looks great tobbihe. To be honest guys, I have hardly used this rig. At weddings it turned out to be somewhat cumbersome. I don't use the curved shoulder mount much, but I left the side panel on that the handle attaches to so I can comfortably press the camera against my shoulder for stability.

What the other piece has become useful for, though, is DSLR shooting. Handheld DSLR is just too shaky, so I can throw a Mark II on that shoulder rig and it's great! I swapped out the 3lb plate for a 5lb plate and it's super stable holding the camera like you normally would, but with the shoulder rig attached.

Although...I recently got a job as a staffed university video producer...so I'm sure we'll be investing in some real DSLR shoulder support soon enough! Still love my AF100 though, got me the job after all!
 
Thanks! I wonder if you could talk a little more specifically about how you achieved that nice bend in the metal... You mentioned a torch - any other tips?
 
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