Hands free Camera Mount for wheelchairs, bikes, wrist, and more!

I love to take photographs, but due to my disability, it gets difficult to hold a camera steady, particularly for any length of time.   I've tried various tripods and other means of holding a camera, but nothing seemed to work very well, particularly when I need to use one hand to drive my wheelchair.  Then I had this idea for a camera mount that could easily attach and be removed from a wheelchair, bike, or even someone's wrist.  The first step I did was to draw a design for this concept, then I began looking for materials to make one myself.

This unique camera holder consist of a camera mount and a strap that can be attached to the frame of a wheelchair, bike, or even around someone's wrist like a cuff.  For my particular purposes, I designed it for hooking to my wheelchair, though it would work just as well for many other uses.  It holds the camera on the frame of the wheelchair allowing the camera to be held steady.  It is also perfect for taking action shots, attaching easily to a bike or just about anything with handle-bars or something which you can attach the straps around.

This build requires the following materials.
1 Dollar-store tripod - (Look for a cheap tripod that you can remove the camera mount from.  I choose a common dollar store model that uses a single screw to attach the legs to the camera mount.)
1 scrap piece of leather
4 VELCRO®  strips or other fabric hook-and-loop fasteners( Recommend fabric hook-and-loop fasteners without glue backing if possible)
1 sheet of paper
Hot glue gun
Screwdriver
Sharp scissors
Marking Pen

Estimated build time: 20 min

Step 1 Step 1 Make a template

The first step is to make a template of what you want the leather strap to look like.  You may either print out the image below or make your own template on paper. (Note:  you may have to enlarge the image for using as template.)  Cut out the template from paper first to ensure that the straps you will be making for your camera mount is the right size for your purposes.  The straps are adjustable, but ideally you don't want them too long or too short.

For my camera mount, I made the template into an "H" shape.  The camera will mount in the center of the "H" with each of the straps extending from the center used to hold the camera in place.  You may wish to make the straps longer or shorter depending upon what you wish to attach the camera to.  For example, if you wish to strap the camera onto your wrist, measure how long the straps must be to go around your wrist such that VELCRO®  on the straps may touch.  If you plan to hook the mount to a wheelchair, make sure that your template's straps are long enough to wrap around the frame of the chair where you wish the camera to be mounted.

Please note, for my camera mount, I used two sets of straps.  This alows the straps to attache easier to curved bars.  However, you may be able to get away with a single strap cutting out a simple rectangle of leather.

Comments

[delds]

I am looking at your camera mount, I also use a power wheelchair and am looking for a method of using a video camera with the wheelchair, now with mounting it on the arm how stable of a video image is this when travelling over sidewalks or cobble stone, even though power wheelchairs offer some suppension, you still get some bumping when going over sidewalks / cobble stone, or other creased surfaces. Also is the wheelchair arm too low or is it better higher up the camera.

[DarkRubyMoon]

Hi! Yes, if your riding over cobble stones or even sidewalks, the camera does shake some. My camera has anti-shake, but even so, it does get a little bumpy. On roads, on indoor carpeting and pavement, there is very little shaking unless you start and stop your chair quickly. As for camera placement, I find that the lower position of the armrest of the chair works fine most of the time unless your subject matter is close to the camera. It is a lower angle than what you typically see people filming at, but it can make the film more interesting. Most of the time I have found that if I am filming people, they are at a far enough distance from the camera that the low position does not matter, and other subjects are at about that height. I have made another type of camera mount that I haven't posted on instructables yet in which I attach the camera mount bracket to the end of a pvc pipe. When I want to film from a higher position, I attach the camera to this, and rest the pvc pipe on my knee. The pipe and camera are both very light, so I am able to film this way without much strength.

[firefletcher]

 Nice one! Great to see something that may help other people with disabilities get more out of life!

[DarkRubyMoon]

Thank you!  It works great for me.  In some ways, a wheelchair is a perfect platform for shooting video as the video is much smoother than someone walking with a camera and I have a lot of control over the chair's movement.  I've often wondered why professional movie-makers haven't thought of mounting a camera to a wheelchair. 

[evad]

Hey! Maybe you just thought up a new career for yourself?? Maybe post some of your videos on youtube, and tell folks your idea?

[DarkRubyMoon]

Sounds good to me :) I've thought of marketing it before, but I am much better at coming up with ideas then I am at producing and selling them. Thank You so much for the post!

[tripoli9]

Excellent idea

[lovepirate9]

good idea

[bertus52x11]

Nice one! Good luck with the contest.

[DarkRubyMoon]

Thank You so much!  i had been planning to post this instructable for some time... the contest helped to push me to finally writing it up to post it LOL.

[bertus52x11]

There is a group here on Instructables called "Camera Mounts". You should add it there as well.

[DarkRubyMoon]

When your finished doing this instructable... be sure to visit my store at http://www.cafepress.com/darkrubymoon   for my art on T-shirts, prints, and much much more!