Interbee 2015: An apple box that takes your tripod head, not your fruit. Demonstrated by a Ninja.

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. Historically wooden apple boxes are used to support all kinds of film equipment on set. Japanese company Metal Toys have been making high quality hand made apple boxes for some time. They noticed that camera operators were routinely mounting their cameras on top of apple boxes using hi-hat tripods. It struck them that it would be more convenient and more stable to mount the tripod head directly to the apple box instead. Hence the apple box with built-in tripod bowl was born.

The apple boxes come with either one, or two tripod bowls

The custom made bowls come in two sizes, 100mm and 150mm. An apple box can have one, or both of the sizes on the top of the box. Because these are handmade the prices aren’t cheap. They start at around $250 US and go up to around $450.

A craftsman works to assemble more wooden boxes

Many thanks to the friendly samurai who was on hand at the Interbee show in Japan to run us through the features.

Newsshooter's Matt Allard films the Ninja with the apple box — Newsshooter’s Matt Allard films the Ninja with the apple box

Metal Toys don’t have a website, but if you want to order you can try dealer System5 in Japan.

The range of colours and finishes available — The range of apple box colours and finishes available

By Dan Chung

Co-founder of Newsshooter, Dan Chung has over 20 years of experience working behind a camera. His career started in photography but evolved into documentary, multimedia and broadcast TV. He shot the first news video on a DSLR and has been on staff at Reuters, The Guardian and CNBC. Dan heads up the editorial team at www.photogearnews.com.