Remote Camera Rig for Cheap, pt. 1 | Blog | Mikko Niemelä - Freelance photographer

With these items I've been able to set up a remote camera rig for not much money. Most of the stuff I already had from either my off-camera flash gear or from my studio.

The base:
Manfrotto 003 is a background stand mainly for background studio strobe. It's made out of three folding steel legs and a huge center-section where a spigot is fastened. It's fairly heavy, since its main purpose is to support big studio strobes. The legs also flex just a little bit, but I feel that it's only good, ie. if you have to place the camera on a shaky club stage with a 9-piece Ska band jumping like crazy.

Spigot:
The 003 base comes with a long round spigot to hold the studio strobes. No problem on using that, just that there will be an exposed section of the spigot visible. Instead I use a spigot that comes with the Manfrotto umbrella adapter (MA 026). It sits flush in the 003 base, with only the 3/8" or 1/4" threads sticking out. That way anything attached to the spigot will also have more support from the base.

Small ball-head / Monopod head:
Actually, you really don't need to have a small ball-head as any tripod head will do. The bigger the head, more stable the rig. But I don't want to lug around any more weight than absolutely necessary, so I'll use a small ball-head that I normally have between a flash stand and a Speedlite.
If you're shooting in a gym or somewhere with a level floor, you can get away with a monopod head if you have one already. In case you also have (and need to have it on a remote camera) 70-200 with a collar, you can set that up on an unlevel ground and use the lens collar to level the camera. With a monopod head or other heavy-duty head, I'm sure the base could comfortably support a 300 2.8 as well, although the spigot should be well tightened to the head. Probably have to test that out...

Remote camera cord:
This is a cord that has a cable release jack (in this case Canon N3) on the other end, and a 3,5mm jack on the other for PW/Skyport. There are versions with or without a switch. What the switch does, is that it enables to you to review the screen and change settings on the camera. When you hook up a PW or a Skyport to the camera, it goes to a Don't-Touch-Me-I'm-Ready-To-Shoot mode, where all the buttons and dials on the camera are not operational. The switch just basically shuts out the PW/Skyport, making it possible to mess with your levels settings.
For Finns: Cords for many camera brands
For everyone with Paypal/Visa: Cords out the wazoo

Angle finder (Optional):
If you have ancient cameras like I do, an angle finder really helps for framing and focusing when your camera is on ground level. It can be rotated, so it works pretty well no matter what artistic angle you've set your camera to. If you have Live View, it should work gravy also.
Brand-name angle finders are sickeningly expensive, so try to find a generic one if you can.

Radio Transmitters:
I use Skyports, since they are cheap, take up little space and are reliable with flashes. They trip the shutter on my 5D pretty reliably also. 500D's and 50D's should work out fine. But Skyport's operation with my 1D-series bodies or the D3's and D300's at work is abysmal. Get Pocket Wizards!

Camera and lens:
The 003 base can support even heavy bodies and lenses, but a body without a battery grip and a wide-angle is usually the best combo. Even the 16-35 is a little bit too front heavy, but not overly so.

In part 2, we'll be looking at ways to take the remote camera set-up even further.