Tiny foldable tripod ecosystem for different action cameras

This is a complete ecosystem of parts needed to place a small camera somewhere and fine adjust its orientation around all three degrees of rotational freedom.

The problem:

Using an action camera to capture our wild and crazy activities typically requires the camera to be somehow attached to our body, our helmet, our surfboard, our bike or motorcycle, etc.

However, our post processed videos become so much more professional, if we also add a few seconds of the action that has been taken from a still standing camera. As no-one is willing to carry bulky tripods for our cameras when we are out to have fun, we typically have to improvise to set up our little cameras to point exactly in the right direction and are perfectly level with the horizon.

Additionally, not having a tripod with us, means we have to grab the camera directly and hold it in our hands when we try to speak to the camera directly, which typically does not give very steady and good looking takes.

The solution:

This ultra tiny tripod is about the size of a typical action cam when folded together. It fits easily in the pockets of our jackets, hoodies or jeans. Now there is absolutely new excuse anymore for ill aligned camera takes.

The ecosystem of parts:

The complete "ecosystem" is build around spheres with 16mm (about 5/8') diameter that serve as ball joints. The tripod base part has such a sphere right on top.

There is a part that interfaces directly with this sphere for small action cameras like the GoPro Session 5 or RunCam5orange and another to connect to cameras with a 1/4' tripod screw mount. These two parts are rather small but also simple ball joint parts that rely on friction and cannot be tightened.

For those of you that want a to be able to tightly secure your camera in a certain position, there are also parts that form a double-ball connection that can be tightened with a M3x25 screw with a printed thumb head.

Update:
For this double-ball connection, there is now also a connector to a regular GoPro mount, which is a build-in feature in the latest GoPro models like the GoPro Hero8 or the GoPro Max.
https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/39730-gopro-mount-to-tiny-tripod-ecosystem/files

Print instructions

Printing instructions

All parts can be printed without supports. The only part that I recommend to use a brim for, is the little thumb screw knob. All other parts are rather trivial to print.

I have used PETG from DasFilament.de for all parts, but I am fairly sure that PLA would also work ok. Some parts were printed on a Prusa i3 Mk3S, others on a Prusa Mini. All came out flawless, as usual with these printers.

Assembly instructions

Use M3x10mm screws to attach the legs to the base part of the tripod. The inner diameter of the holes in the base parts are done in a way that the screws can be forced in and will hold by itself without glue or anything like that (nominal diameter of the holes is 2.7mm). This was tested very successfully with PETG, I cannot guarantee that it will work with PLA also, which is less flexible.

The plates for the double ball joints need one M3x25 screw with hex head and one square M3 nut for the assembly (the kind that comes with the spare parts of the i3 Mk3S).

Links to parts that you may be missing

If you need a quarter inch tripod screw, you can find one here. It has a 10mm long thread which turned out to be too long for my action cameras. I found that 7mm is a good compromise that fits for all my cameras. You can adjust the length very simply in PrusaSlicer by doing a horizontal cut and use only the lower part.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4003381

Adapter from typical GoPro mount to quarter inch screw (or simply glue this part on my plate and leave the screw out)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:501766