The Spider Support Ringo Head is a nifty piece of hardware that orients your videocamera in portrait mode. This style of shooting has become more popular with the proliferation of widescreen flat-panel displays. (The fashion world, with its elongated avatars, particularly has taken to the mode for capturing its runway shows.) For producers, the challenge has been finding a sturdy and safe way to mount cameras at a 90 degree angle from a tripod or a jib.
The Ringo Head represents a solution. It's a heavy-duty L-shaped bracket with a second, adjustable vertical element to secure a videocamera on both its top and bottom. The vertical portion of the "L" attaches to a camera's quick-release plate, while the sliding element holds the camera handle. (The sliding element reverses to accommodate smaller cameras.) The horizontal segment of the bracket attaches to a tripod wedge plate – or to a jib or Steadicam-style rig.
The Ringo Head features both 1/4"-20 and 3/8"-16 screws for mounting full-size professional cameras, mid-size industrial cameras, and consumer cameras. It also features an alignment pin for smaller cameras that only have a 1/4"-20 screw receiver and alignment pin hole. The head also has 1/4"-20 and 3/8"-16 screw holes and an alignment pin hole for tripods, jib arms, and Steadicams.