DIY II (The Shoe)

Due to a series of circumstances not relevant here, I found myself in posession of a camera tripod (that my good friend Yago gave me for my birthday) which I couldn't use, since the shoe (the piece that links the camera to the tripod for fast release) was lost.

Curiously, one would think such a piece would be cheap and easy to purchase since it is relatively simple to misplace it. Naturally, since Yago bought it in El Corte Ingles (the spanish Mark's and Spencer's), that was my first port of call. I was surprised to learn they don't have spares for this or any other tripod. My next step was to call up the oficial service company. To my amazement, they don't even import the piece because "it ain't worth it" (!!!). I was sugested a Universal shoe. Still dazed at all this, I shopped around a couple of photography stores and found that they not only had never heard of a Universal shoe, but also that the best course of action was to dump the tripod and buy a new one (!!!!!!).

Naturally, and specially considering the little use the tripod had had and that it was actually a birthday present from a friend, I was not willing to give up; and seing the world was not willing to help (I was quite willing to pay the postage from the US!), I decided that help should come from oneself first and that I would make myself one.

First we must observe the link in the tripod and analyze what shape it should be (as trying to remember it was difficult and useless).

With a paper template, I cut a metal soul from a can of a well known and enjoyed beer (niiiice)

Then, using the paper as a guide, plasticine and a metric 6 screw (the standard for camera links) kindly donated by my pal El Prenda, I made the mold in which I would later pour the bi-component resin. I also added the metal soul for reinforcement.

Once the piece is extracted, you clean off the plasticine (if you were enough of an idiot to not lubricate the mold) and you shave off the excess to obtain the first prototype.

As you can see, the piece fits perfectly on the trypod and could be used as it was without problems.

... buuuut, being a perfectionist, this prototype was full of bubles, the metal soul was not needed, the shape wasn't quite right (though it works fine), so we can use this as a template (so we can save on the use of papers and so on) for prototype 2.

... this time remembering to lubricate the plasticine adequately, of course...

Just so not to bore you, I did a couple of tests with black tints (a universal one for paint and some black spray paint) which were a disaster though also funny. The bi-component resin reacts with water (in the tint) and some other component (in the spray paint) which resulted in a completely useless black plastic foam.

So, back to basics, I did a piece in resin (pure and normal) and after extraction and shaving we obtain the following piece. We can paint it with some cheap black spray paint so it's a little more discrete (wouldn't want a white piece between the black camera and the black tripod).

The result, as you can see, is a perfect shoe we can screw on with a simple 1 or 2 cent coint (and leave it on, of course) which will allow us to enjoy our great present from a friend without anybody's help.