Using Your iPhone on a Tripod

I have tried to use an iPhone and an iPad to shoot video, but the results are not great. What I really want to  is to mount the iPhone on a tripod. A standard tripod has a bolt to connect a camera, but the phone and tablet do not have the threaded hole for the bolt.

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I’ve made a bracket to connect the phone to the tripod. It is reasonably straight forward to create the bracket.
I have found the hard case I needed for the iPad, so now I can use the ipad on my tripod to shoot video. The iPad cover just needs to be a hard case, so you can stick the velcro to it.
 

I have been having trouble recording movies on my phone and tablet devices. I searched youtube and found a great idea using velco to mount your phone to a tripod, but what I really needed was instructions on exactly how to mount the phone. I spent the day at my local hardware store and I have found a way to create the bracket I needed to make my phone mount.

At my local store I found a series of useful brackets. The are all 2” wide (50mm). This bracket is the smaller of the ones I bought and is suitable for a phone.

 This bracket is going to become my ipad bracket…

A standard tripod has a 1/4” NC (National Coarse) bolt to connect a camera. This has been a standard for many years, and every camera I’ve ever owned has had the same thread in the bottom. To get your new bracket to connect to the tripod, you have to create a treaded hole to suit the 1/4’ bolt.

The actual bracket i found has a hole in the centre. This can be used to create a threaded hole. You need a tap set. This set cost me $16.00NZ, it is not really high quality, but it was suitable for this project.

The tap needed was 1/4”.
Place the bracket in a vice, so you can tap the hole.

Gently screw the tap into the hole to create the thread. Do not be worried if it is hard to turn the tap, it is cutting through steel, so expect to have some resistance. Turning back and forth is the usual way to tap the hole.

When hole is tapped, you can screw the bracket to the tripod.

The way to get the phone or tablet connected to the bracket is to use velcro. Usually the velco has an adhesive backing. Stick several strips on the bracket.

Stick the matching velcro strips to the phone or tablet case. I have used an old, spare case for this. This will work best if you use a hard case.

Mount the phone or tablet on the bracket and you are ready to shoot steady video.

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