Transplanting a Sony Remote on a Bogen 501
 

Anybody transplant a Sony Remote Pan Handle onto a Bogen 501/503 pan handle?

I have a Sony VCTD680RM Remote Tripod, the tripod itself sucks, but the remote is fairly useful

Any ideas or pictures on how this handle could be used with a better tripod system?

Thanks

I put my Sony 870 handle on a 501 head and used it that way for several months. See if this works for your Sony.

I found a piece of wooden dowel about the same diameter as the bogen handle (the closer the better since it needs to be snug). Cut it to length, maybe 1.5" (check this against you Sony handle), then drilled a hole through the center lengthwise (a tricky operation without a drill press), making the hole wide enough for the long screw from the Sony handle to pass through.

To get the dowel into the bogen head I had to remove the handle and mounting clamp from the head. The handle clamping screw is kept from falling out of the clamp with a rubber O-ring. You can remove the screw pretty easily, just watch for the O-ring (and the small flat washer) so you don't lose it and remember where it goes when you reassemble everything. Now slide the handle from the clamp if it hasn't already fallen out.

Now that you have everything apart, notice the groove on the end of the bogen handle. This groove is needed so the clamping screw can pass through the clamp to the head. You need to create a similar groove in your dowel.

Now it's just a matter of reassembling the clamping mechanism with the dowel in place of the bogen handle (don't forget to replace the O-ring) and screw it onto the head.

With the dowel in place, you have essentially recreated the handle mount from the Sony tripod onto your bogen and can easily attach the Sony handle.

One more tip. Be careful when tightening the long screw from the Sony handle. If you over tighten it, you can damage the handle. In fact this was the weak point of my solution. What I discovered later was that I should have cut some teeth into the end of the dowel (the end towards the handle) to mate with similar (plastic) teeth on the Sony handle. This would help keep the handle from spinning without resoting to over tightening.

Sorry but I have no pictures I can share. I got the Canon ZR-1000 a few months later and put the Sony handle back on the original tripod.

Good luck.

I made a steel sleeve on my lathe to increase the diameter of the Sony handle up to the diameter necessary for the various heads I use.

A less elegant method is to clamp the sony handle to the existing hangle with a couple of geared hose clamps. Cut off the Bogen handle if you want to clamp to a stub and only have a single handle.

Or you could clamp a dowel in place of the bogen handle and hose-clamp the Sony to the dowel. Probably loosen over time as the wood compresses.

Might be able to go to a hardware store and find a long bolt or a steel rod of the right diameter for the Bogen and then clamp the Sony handle to that.

Got it to work.

Using a piece of Hydraulic hose, some gaffer tape, some crazy glue and shaving cream!!

Here is the finished results

http://members.rogers.com/digitaliso/remote1.jpg

http://members.rogers.com/digitaliso/remote2.jpg