Bubble Level with LED Light Mod for Gorillapod (and Other Tripods)

Written by mike on November 2nd, 2009

My Canon SD1000 perched on a SF parking garage ledge shooting a full moon timelapse

My Canon SD1000 with Gorillapod perched on a SF parking garage ledge shooting a full moon timelapse

I love my Gorillapod – it comes with me everywhere I go, camera bag, backpack or suitcase. The versatility of it extends beyond “turn-anything-into-a-tripod” – it’s also an amazingly entertaining toy for children, and some people have even looked to hack them into “helping hands” for soldering projects.

One thing with the G-pod though, I rarely get a perfectly level shot when using it. The alternative makes it worthwhile, but Instructable user Zomie took on that same hindrance and devised an LED-lit bubble level mount for his SLR Gorillapod. Cheaply found components make it an attractive addition to us nighttime photography fans.

Have you ever shot in low light conditions and noticed your shots were off level? Well I certainly have! I have been doing a lot of work lately with long exposure photography and when I am out in the field using a gorillapod I find myself running into this quite often.

I know I can buy a shoe mount camera level, but at night it is very difficult to see. I clearly needed to make my own, so please follow along in this instructable to see how to make your own. Here is a quick video walk through showing you what you can build by the end of this instructable.

Read the whole writeup: How to build a light up camera level for a DSLR