Assembling the camera mount for bkrpr.org's book ripper

Step 6 Step 6: Attach the camera to the tripod bolt

Screw the tripod bolt into the camera. Make sure that the camera front is relatively flush with the front of the mending plate, this will make the whole mount easier to keep parallel to the pages we photograph later on.

If you are using a different camera than the Cannon Powershoot A590 used here, now is a good time to take a look at how your camera will function once mounted. This particular camera is mounted so that the lens is as close as possible to being on top of the support screw. Since the support screw will go through the hole we put directly in the center of the book ripper, this will help us turn the camera as little as possible, something that will improve the quality of our final pictures a good deal.

The camera here is also lined up so that the wider part of the camera hangs over empty air. This may seem counterintuitive but this model only provides access to the memory card and batteries through an opening on the bottom of the wide side, so hanging the camera off of one end means that we will still have access to the most important parts of the camera without having to take it off the mount. If your camera has things you will need to access on other parts of the camera, test it out on the mount before tightening up all the nuts. Make sure that you can access the power, memory card, USB, or any other connection easily.

Once your camera is lined up, and fully screwed onto the tripod bolt, tighten the nuts keeping the tripod bolt attached to the mending plate.