About Stringpods

I love tripods – I own several and always like to go and browse through others when at the camera store. Recently, one particular tripod has received a lot of attention. More attention that Gitzos (a particularly great brand) or any of the others. And, to boot, it costs about $2.

What are these popular little things? Stringpods. Recently, I’ve seen at least 5 or 6 articles on Stringpods, a small, very portable tripod-like device. All are DIY (do-it-yourself) products and involve a string, screw and washer-type object. You put the screw in your camera’s mount area (the part in the bottom where you would screw a tripod in), the washer under your foot, connect the two with the string, and pull the camera up until the string is taught. As a result, the camera is supposed to be much more steady, which can come in very handy. I’ve seen reports that it can give you an extra 2 or 3 stops of light.

So, if you are at your camera’s fastest aperture (let’s say 2.8) and your shutter speed is at 1/60 of second. Anything below that can often become blurry (unless you have very steady hands). By using the stringpod, you can handhold the shot all the way down to 1/30 without loss of sharpness. This could be very cool.

Stringpod Results

I decided to put it to the test and build my own. It cost about $2 and took a little over 20 minutes to assemble (I made several – after the first, they went even faster). I’ve tried a few shots and it definately feels more stable and does allow you to handhold at slower shutter speeds. I’m not sure about the 3 stops, but at the price and size, I’d recommend putting one together and tossing it in your bag.

Build Your Own Stringpod

The following are the steps I took when putting it together.

1. Collect your materials. I found all mine in the same hardware aisle at Home Depot. The total cost was about $10 and I was able to make 4 strinpods, and had lots of string left over.

Piece of nylon string. Cut it to about the same height as you are (so that when you pull the string taught the camera will stop around eye level). A little longer is okay – you can trim as needed.
1/4″ bolt with larger threads. Mine was 1″ long and seemed to work well. It also had a nice head at the top for twisting.
1/4″ Washer. This is optional I suppose – I wanted something that would snug up against the bottom of the camera to hold it in place a bit better. I chose one that had metal on side and rubber on the other.
Larger Washer. This is the piece you step on. I choose a $1 carabiner

2. Tie one end of the string to the bolt, leaving about 1/4 of the bolt without string on it. I used a special fishing knot, called the Snell knot.

3. Once tied, I trimeed the string and singed it, along with the other, untied end. It helps keep the string from unraveling. Nylon string singes nicely.

4. Place the washer on the bolt, pushing/twisting it down snugly to the string.

5. Tie the other end of the string to your washer or other item. I chose a carabiner for several reasons. First, it was larger – I played around a bit and had a tougher time stepping on a small washer. Also, it provides some more meat to wrap the string around for storage or to shorten the stringpod when holding the camera a little lower.

That’s it – your stringpod is now finished.