How To Use a Tripod As A Microphone Stand? – Manfrotto Adapters

Hello there, everyone, back again with another article, this time I will keep this review short and sweet. I will be sharing with you the quickest and easiest way to use a camera tripod as a microphone stand. Recently, I purchased a Canon EOS M200 camera along with a pretty standard camera tripod by Rollei. On top of this, I also got myself a  t.bone MB85 Beta microphone. t.bone brand is Thomann’s exclusive brand for microphones and related accessories. They make clone microphones at very affordable prices. The reason I bought this microphone was purely based on the need to record any audio into a DAW without any hassle.

Check out other Thomann’s exclusive brands as well as thousands more. “Is it worth buying from Thomann in the USA & Canada?“

I was also considering a microphone stand, but then I thought I shouldn’t get one, as I just wanted to record some ideas without being worried about the top-notch quality. So this idea came to my mind. I thought there should be a way to convert a camera tripod to a microphone stand.

I did some research about it, but most of the solutions were all about going DIY. To do that, you would have to have some tools and time. But I wanted to have the quickest, cheapest and easiest way to attach my dynamic microphone to my standard camera tripod. Almost all dynamic microphones in the market come with a microphone mount (or clamp), so the answer should be about converting the thread, which would fit into the thread of the tripod. This easy solution was not really easy to find with tech specs or product descriptions, as I don’t have any tools to measure anything. Instead, I tried to collect technical specs of standards and validate them with customer reviews! 🙂

Standard camera tripod (According to ISO 1222:2010) bolt threads usually come with 1/4-20 or 3/8-16 inches. I also checked this information for my Rollei tripod and noticed that it featured a 1/4″ version. Here in the first image, you will see the clamp features a 3/8″ female and the tripod thread features a 1/4″ male end.

Manfratto Adapter: Camera Tripod to Microphone Stand

So we basically need an adapter to connect them. While I was researching the clamps, bolts and mounts category in Thomann, I noticed the Manfrotto brand.

Manfrotto is an Italian company featuring theatre spot accessories, lighting gear bags, lighting stands, lighting bars, trussing sets, background & backstage systems, lighting hardware accessories, video spotlights, video accessories, stand accessories for mobile devices, and various microphone accessories.

So far over 35 cigilovic.com visitors have bought Manfrotto 088 Adapter and managed to convert their camera tripod to a make-shift microphone stand! Be the next!

Definitely recommended to check out their product line as they offer very high-quality products in respected categories. I went through some of the potential Manfrotto products in the related category and also checked customer reviews.

Eventually, I decided to go for the Manfrotto 088 Adapter 3/8″ – 1/4″. This item has been rated by 250 customers with an average of 4.9 out of 5! There were many customer reviews that basically mentioned the same usage of this item. Most people use this adapter to easily use their camera tripod as a microphone stand. As you can see in the image below, it’s just a piece of an adapter that fits right into the female end of the microphone clamp.

 

At first, I was concerned that the Manfrotto adapter wouldn’t fit into the microphone clamp if I removed that female thread from my mic clamp. As you can see in the image, it doesn’t feature threads on the thicker body part that is milled. But then I just attempted to screw it right into the female thread.

Here’s a photo from the actual conversion, featuring a dead-cheap dynamic microphone tbone MB85 Beta here!

As both male and female thread sizes would be the right size, there was nothing to remove from the clamp thread. I believe that the milled portion of the item is designed for something else. But in our case, we are just interested in the male and female ends of it. As a result, now I’m able to attach my microphone to a camera tripod without even buying a microphone stand!

Pricing & Availability

As you may guess, I got mine from Thomann. Luckily, there were many people who bought this item for the exact goal: simply converting a tripod into a mic stand. Of course, you may just get another mic stand instead of dealing with this.

However, if you have extra tripods lying around, you may just convert these into mic stands for different purposes. Thomann lists almost the entire Manfrotto product line, which is great! For the particular purpose discussed here, you need to get the 088 version. But please check your tripod carefully, I’m not 100% sure that every tripod on the planet features the same thread dimensions. I got mine for €3.88 back in 2020. Since then, the price has increased and is currently priced at €4.29, which is around +10%.

Check out the Manfrotto 088 adapters on Thomann here

Although it’s difficult to access the entire Manfrotto product line on other online stores, you may want to check out Amazon and Reverb.

Check out Manfrotto products on Amazon here

Reverb still doesn’t have so many resellers featuring Manfrotto, but sometimes their products will pop up over there.

Check out the Manfrotto products on Reverb here

I hope this has been a short and sweet guide on using your camera tripod as a mic stand. Thanks for visiting my blog and supporting me so far! I will hopefully see you in the next review here!

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