A while ago I bought a little tabletop tripod (seen in the background), which is quite helpful for taking photos of Grey Man scale things.
Even with that, I still found myself wishing I could mount a camera or a LED light down lower than it would go. And since wishing for things is for suckers, I decided to make it myself.
I put a cheap Arca-Swiss compatible quick release clamp on top of an even cheaper ball head, and put that on a home made "Tripod", made from oak, with little rubber feet at under the ends. It works, and it'll support the weight of my DSLR/lens combo.
The ball head is the poorest performing part of this setup, but I don't know if I can find a better one that isn't also 2x the height, so I'll probably be sticking with what I've got for now, it's good enough and the price is right.
I now have to take back half the nice things I said about my new lowboy tripod. The little ball head is not quite up to supporting my camera/lens combo, it sags. I'm now shopping around for an improved ball head, but until then, it'll work fine for supporting an LED light panel.
