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3D printed photography accessories


3D-printed Photo gadgets for everyone

Apparently, you can find quite a lot of amateur and professional photographers in the 3D printing community. And a lot of them have already had the idea to use their 3D printer to make various gadgets and accessories that are either expensive or hard to find. You can produce some amazing things that will make it easier to take better photos for everyone. In this article, we are sharing some of our favorite projects and simple tips that will simplify things, save money, and generally let you have more fun.

Camera backpack mounts

There are many accessories that can be mounted on your backpack, for example, a GoPro mount. But you can also print this cool camera mount that can carry even a heavy DSLR camera. This mount is especially useful for wildlife photographers who need their camera always ready and wearing it around your neck the whole day is rather uncomfortable. If your camera is on the heavier side, make sure to test that the printed part is strong enough to hold it (e. g. shake it in the mount above something soft, like a blanket) or secure it with a strap.

Flash OCF grids and diffusers

Another cool improvement for your camera that can be made easier with our printers is a flash diffuser. Lots of photographers often improvise with folded pieces of paper or other, often very creative ways. Thanks to 3D printing you can make effective and professional-looking diffusers. Plus, you can make them cheaply and in no time. Try to experiment a little with transparent filaments and you can achieve some interesting results. We have already covered printing with translucent and transparent materials in great detail in our recent article.

And if you want to improve your photos in an unconventional manner, try to print an OCF grid for your flash that will narrow the source of light. A store-bought product might cost you about 100 USD, however, a 3D printed part will cost you just a few cents.

The Lens Filter Wrench Set

If you use filters during your photoshoots, you might have realized at an occasion that you have tightened them too much. One of our colleagues came up with this amazing idea that solves the problem elegantly. It’s a quick print that requires just a short piece of a filament strand.

Lens hoods

Original lens hoods tend to be very expensive. Again, they can cost you something between dozens and hundreds of USD. However, if you print them, it won’t cost you more than a few bucks, plus you can produce them pretty quickly. Of course, the result won’t be as tough as the original lens hood but that shouldn’t be a problem. After all – you can always print a new one.

Lens Cap Holders

Another cool gadget that will save you some money and stress is this simple lens cap holder. Lens caps are easily lost and it’s an inconvenience and an additional expense to buy them again. Some cameras have lens caps hanging on a short string, but they can sometimes get in the way (in the wind for example). It’s much better to print this holder that can be attached to a strap. Simply put it on your bag to make sure you won’t lose your lens caps again.

Various GoPro mounts

Thanks to 3D printing you can make a whole set of non-standard parts that are not sold by the official manufacturer. Depending on your requirements for toughness, the number of suitable models available online can be pretty high and there’s a lot of projects to choose from. We recommend printing various GoPro mounts with flexible and resilient materials. One of the toughest (but also one of the most difficult) materials is Flexfill 98a. A suitable alternative is PETG, PC Blend, and other filaments designed for printing mechanical parts.

Cases for SD cards, batteries and other equipment

These everyday items are great not only for photographers but for the vast majority of people. You know the situation when you try to find 4 batteries in your backpack, find only three and the last one is somewhere deep in the pocket. To reach it, you need to empty half of your backpack. Well, you can make it a lot easier with our printer: You can make an unlimited amount of various boxes that will save you from backpack chaos. And it doesn’t end with battery boxes. For example, you can print SD card holders, lens filter boxes, or protective cases for your lenses.

Tripods

Several simple tripods can be found at PrusaPrinters.org or Thingiverse. Most of them are made for smartphones but you can also find some models that are able to support the weight of a compact camera or ultrazoom. We found these three tripods to be quite useful – they can be printed quickly and weigh almost nothing:

The first one (black and orange) is obviously the sturdiest and can carry a device bigger than a phone or GoPro camera. The orange ring serves as a locking mechanism for the legs and although it is not strong enough to carry a heavy DSLR camera, it works well for light-weighted cameras. The holes inside the tripod’s legs also make it easy to hang it somewhere.

The second tripod (grey in the middle) is one of the most space-saving photo-stands we were able to find. However, its hinges are rather fragile so it’s made only for the lightest of cameras.

The third version (on the right) needs a few adjustments when sliced. The wing nut size should be increased to 105% to fit properly on the screws. Or, even better, you should use metal bolts and nuts instead of using the printed ones. The rest of this tripod fits tightly and makes a great phone stand. This tripod is compact and it’s easy to hang from the hooks. Unfortunately, this tripod cannot support a full-size camera.

Some of the tripods feature 3D-printed screws for attaching a camera. However, we advise against using plastic screws: If you accidentally break them off with the attached camera, you will have difficulty removing the broken part from the socket. Instead, you should make (or find) such tripods that have a hole for a metal screw. Because screws commonly used to attach a camera come with a specialized thread (compared to standard M5 bolts), you will buy them online or find them in a good hardware store.

Please keep in mind that 3D printed tripods will never be quite as durable as professional products. Especially, various locking mechanisms and moving parts tend to be more fragile. However, our Original Prusa 3D printers can still produce some really nice, cheap, and compact tripods.

Timelapse slider

Professional time-lapse sliders are usually pretty expensive, large, and heavy. Luckily, we live in a time when a lot of parts (including Arduino and similar computer boards) can be bought for just a few dollars. With these, you can create a professional slider with just a little effort. There are several models available at PrusaPrinters that can help you with that. The slider we use for some of our videos has just a few 3D printed parts but you can make models that are almost entirely 3D-printed. For example, this simple slider needs just a few marbles.

Props

You can find a lot of models online that will help you to make your photos more interesting. For example, you can use this sci-fi-looking artifact that can be used not only for LARP gaming but also as a stylish prop.

A lot of photo gadgets have two main benefits: They don’t require any tiny 3D-printed parts, therefore they are easy to print and often quite tough. Plus, 3D-printed solutions can save a lot of money. No matter whether you are an amateur or professional photographer, we hope this article provided you some inspiration to print something new for your next photo adventure. Just don’t forget to share the result online.

And as always: Happy printing!

5 Useful 3D Printed Photography Accessories

3D printing is becoming more and more common as this technology has become very stable and relatively affordable. You can pick up a decent quality printer for under $200 these days!

Most people are not even aware that they likely have access to one. Be sure to check your local library. If you’re a big fan of 3D printing however, you likely have your very own at home.

Sale

Official Creality Ender 3 3D Printer Fully Open Source...

  • Resume Printing Function: Ender 3 has the ability to resume printing even after a power outage or lapse occurs.
  • Easy and Qucik Assembly: It comes with several assembled parts, you only need about 2 hours to assemble 20 nuts well.
  • Advanced Extruder Technology: Upgraded extruder greatly reduces plugging risk and bad extrustion; V-shape with POM wheels make it move noiseless, smoothly and durable.
  • Safety Protected Power Supply: Only needs 5 minutes for hot bed to reach 110 degree.

This is a powerful tool for many reasons. 3D printers can rapidly create parts that are very difficult or straight up impossible to manufacture otherwise.

Large companies like SpaceX have been taking full advantage of this technology by installing metal 3D printed parts in their reusable Falcon 9 rockets!

Though I haven’t designed any useable rocket parts, I’ve fixed things around the house here and there. Generally most of my prints are functional and make my life a little easier.

It’s an especially powerful tool for us photographers because there are TONS of accessories and aids that we can print. Depending on what we print, these items can help us with our photography workflow, organization, and simply help us take more creative images as well!

If you like the idea of designing your own custom parts, take some time to learn a free design software such as SketchUp or Fusion360. You can design your very own products, and even customize the parts we will be covering here yourself!

The process of designing and printing parts may take a little longer than simply buying the equivalent part on Amazon (but where’s the fun in that!). Also, after the cost of the printer, prints themselves are very cheap.

You can get over 2 pounds of usable plastic for under $20. That’s a lot of custom parts for $20. Not to mention we have huge potential to make incredibly unique parts.

If you don’t want to go through the trouble of designing and just want to 3D print awesome stuff right away, you’re in luck. Websites like Thingiverse.com have plenty of models ready to print, for free!

They have everything from functional pencil holders to scaled down models of Darth Vader, because why not!

Over the last few years of owning my 3D printer, I have been constantly printing accessories for photography, most custom designed by myself. Today I’ll be sharing my five favorite 3D print accessories that have been the most fun and useful in my photography.

#1 Bokeh Shape Modifiers

If you love shooting fast lenses wide open, this one will be interesting. Because light enters our lenses through a circular profile, the bokeh we see in our images is always circular.

We usually don’t think past this too much because that’s how we’ve always observed bokeh. It turns out, we can actually change the shape of this by adding a shape modifier to the front of our lens.

This is essentially a cutout of the desired bokeh shape that we will place in front of our lens. The result will be bokeh in the shape of our cutout!

This is a whole new dimension of creativity that we can add to our photos. It is also essentially impossible to get the same effect through any type of post processing method.

The main component is the card holder which mounts on your lens. Here we have it mounted on the Canon 50mm f/1.4. The other component is the card itself with the desired shape. The card can have any shape you desire.

Here, I have a simple diamond as an example. Keep in mind however, the more intricate the shape, the more light it will block out. I like to keep the shapes simple with the least field of view interference.

There are paper versions of these on Amazon. In my opinion, the 3D printed plastic versions feel much more robust for long term usage. They also can be put in a camera bag without worry of damaging a paper cutout.

#2 Hotshoe Flashlight Adapter

Have you ever tried finding focus in very dark conditions? It is pretty infuriating, but we know that autofocus is useless unless there is light in the frame. Here is where the hotshoe flashlight adapter really became useful for me.

When setting up long exposure shots in the dark, I would usually hold a flashlight and try my best to land it on the AF point I am using. This honestly takes more time than it should, and you have to repeat this process again for the next shot.

Or if you accidentally move the focus ring for any reason.

With the flashlight mounted on the hotshoe adapter, the flashlight will always point in line with your field of view. Simply turn it on when you need it, focus, and turn it off.

No need to take it in an out of your bag or pocket. It’s now simply part of your camera setup.

I made my adapter for the Nitecore MT10C, a powerful little flashlight just under 1000 lumens. Highly recommended because it also has red light capabilities which is important if you do astrophotography.

A different type of flashlight that would be useful here, is one with a zoomable beam. This would allow you to either focus the beam finely, or spread the beam to get more coverage.

Wildlife Photography

Another potential use for this attachment is for nighttime wildlife photography. Some of the coolest animals are nocturnal. Owls, cougars, ringtail cats, … raccoons!

A powerful mounted flashlight and a telephoto lens allow us to see and capture these animals at night. It’s tough using a speedlite for the same purpose. Though the direct lighting won’t make the most artistic photo, it will certainly give us the ability to capture unique images of wildlife.

No longer will you need to beg a friend to point the light in the frame of your image. Some serious independence!

#3 Memory Card Holder

There are many memory card holders out there, and chances are you already have one. 3D printing these allows us to have very unique card holders, and also ones that are just more convenient for daily use.

I went straight to Thingiverse for this because there are so many creative designs out there. The first one I printed was an enclosed 6 card holder. This one paired with a screw on cap that keeps everything tidy and protects from dust and debris.

I also printed a small open SD card holder to keep at my desk. This holds the cards I am working with right in front of me for easy access. There are more intricate versions of these. Some hold microSD’s, normal SD’s, and even flashdrives, all together!

#4 Tabletop Tripod

Tabletop tripods are always nice to have around just in case you need a low level shot or a simple camera holder. There is a fantastic 3D printed tripod on thingiverse.  This is actually one of the most popular 3D printed tripod designs.

Personally, I enjoy a good ball head on my tripods. Because the smooth ball and socket feature is not ideal for 3d printing, I designed some tripod legs to be paired with an existing ball head.

Instead of the usual perpendicular folding legs, I decided to design angular folding legs for no real reason. I guess I like this look slightly more than a traditional tripod, though this design does not collapse as well.

As for the ball head, I recently decommissioned my Gorilla Pod legs. The Joby ball head is still fantastic for its size. This paired well with the legs due to its reduced size, but any relatively small ball head should work here. This also works well for holding a GoPro’s and phones too.

#5 Battery Organizer

One place where I knew I can use better organization is with battery management. I sometimes forget what I charged and what I used when the batteries are loosely stored together.

I previously used the yellow snap on battery bases that come with the batteries.

If you didn’t know, these contain a little battery indicator for the Canon OEM batteries. When the batteries are capped in one direction, the battery cutout is blue, from the blue battery label.

When flipped opposite the battery indicator is black. This is a great indicator, but I’ve had these caps come loose in my bag before, rendering this feature useless.

The battery holder I printed below was designed by someone on Thingiverse. It’s a slotted design capable of holding upto 4x LP-E6 batteries.

You can either expose the charge contacts or hide them, indicating charged vs uncharged. I insert unused batteries so the charging contacts are hidden. Used batteries are inserted with the charging contacts facing outwards.

That’s a Wrap

There are endless accessories that can be printed and help with your photography. These were just 5 great examples of how 3D printing can help with your photography!

If you’ve had your eye on 3D printer or are generally interested, check out this article on the best 3D printers for beginners: https://all3dp. com/1/best-3d-printer-for-beginners/. Though there are many super affordable printers out there, you don’t want to go too cheap here.

Very cheap printers typically require more general maintenance and setup. This could take away from the excitement and eagerness to use a 3D printer.

Don’t feel like you need to invest in a 3D printer though. Simply search “3D printers near me” on Google. Often times you’ll find libraries or maker spaces near you that offer 3D printing services at little to even no charge!

If you liked this article and 3D printing interests you, I challenge you to find a 3D printer near you and print your own parts of Thingiverse! Take advantage of the increased accessibility and general awesomeness of 3D printing!

Accessories for 3D printers and 3D scanners

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Modern equipment for three-dimensional printing and volumetric scanning opens up amazing opportunities for creating and replicating a wide variety of objects. It is used in a variety of fields, from amateur modeling to medicine. The high performance of modern 3D printers allows you to recreate exact copies of digital models, and if you buy a 3D scanner as an add-on, you can quickly digitize any objects. However, do not forget that the performance of this equipment directly depends on the timeliness of service and the quality of the consumables used. In our shop you will find a wide range of accessories that will allow you to constantly maintain a high level of performance and insure your equipment against premature wear. nine0003

Direct supply from the manufacturer

Our company is the official distributor of leading manufacturers of desktop and industrial 3D equipment (3D printers, 3D scanners, 3D manipulators) - Raise3D, FlashForge, Anycubic, Formlabs, Creality3D, PICASO 3D, Phrozen, Wanhao, CreatBot, QIDI, etc.

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We provide professional services for the selection, configuration, training, warranty and post-warranty maintenance of 3D equipment. nine0003

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Before buying a 3D printer or scanner, you will be able to evaluate the functionality of the model you like in practice in the company's showroom in Moscow, get an online consultation on choosing the optimal equipment model for your tasks.

Free delivery within Russia

We work with the most reliable transport companies and courier services. Delivery of 3D printers is FREE of charge to all regions of the country! nine0003

3D printing accessories - 3DPrinter

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Hardened platform for Sapphire
280 UAH

Hardened durable platform for Sapphire 3D printer

Size*: 310x310x4 mm

Standard glossy and matte platforms of this size are also available.

Check the size of your platform carefully before purchasing! nine0279

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Tempered glass platform for Prime X 3D printer
270 UAH

Platform size: 320x320x4 mm

Used for Prime X 3d printer

Dear customers! Platforms 320x320mm - packed in a box with a volume weight of about 5 kg with additional.
fillers (delivery cost according to NP tariffs)

E3D hardened nozzle for 3D printer
71 UAH nine0270 NEW!

Popular E3D hardened steel nozzles. An indispensable assistant when working with composite materials. Longer life than classic steel nozzles.

Assorted diameter.

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Nozzle kit MK6 for 3D printer
100 UAH

This set consists of 5 nozzles.

Convenient solution for your 3D printer.

Nozzles of any diameter can be purchased individually. nine0003

The set of nozzles can be completed according to your wishes.

Container for tools/hardware – Sale!
25 UAH – 40 UAH

Storage bins for tools or small parts
Rear panel has lugs for hanging mounting.
Medium sized containers stack comfortably and take up little space.
Small containers are placed on top of each other on a special legs and sides.
Colour: black

Dimensions
Small container - 170x100x75 mm. Weight - 94 g
Medium container - 230x160x120 mm. Weight - 153 g
Material: polypropylene

Please note! Containers may have scuffs and scratches.

Magnetic thermal mat for Ender, Tevo, Anet, Anycubic
420 UAH – 550 UAH

The most convenient thermal mat for 3D printing

For platform 235x235 mm, 220x220 mm and 200x200 mm


Contents: adhesive magnetic base + mat
For maximum efficiency, do not heat the mat above 80°C

Matte glass platform 3D printer with increased adhesion
190 UAH – 215 UAH
Frosted glass tops available in most popular sizes.
Platform thickness 4 mm.

Dear customers!

When ordering from 3 glass mat platforms - delivery is free.

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Mini spatula for SLA/LCD printer nine0269 48 UAH

Handy little spatula for removing details after photopolymer printing. It can also be used to work with FDM printers.

Quality engineering and casting resins you can find in our shop.

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Hexagon set for 3D printer
35 UAH

The kit includes the most necessary hex keys for a 3D printer: 1.5 mm, 2 mm, 2.5 mm and 3 mm.
The set consists of 4 hexagons. nine0003

Nozzle MK8 for Ender and Anet
25 UAH

Excellent MK8 nozzle for popular models of 3D printers Creality, Ender, Anet, Tevo, FlyingBear and others.

Various nozzle diameters available.

Nozzle for 3D printer Flashforge and Wanhao (MK10)
35 UAH

Nozzle for Teflon tube 4x2 mm, suitable for Flashforge, Wanhao 3D printers and other 3D printers extruder with heating block with M7 thread. This nozzle is used for printing plastic with a filament diameter of 1.75mm. nine0271

*Different diameter nozzles available.

Steel nozzle MK8 long for 3D printer
40 UAH

Extended steel nozzle MK8 for 3D printers Ender, Creality, Anet and extruders of other 3D printers with M6 thread.

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