I love my desk and office setup, but I noticed a strange problem happening over the last few months. It seems like every few weeks, I have less headroom — the space above my head in the camera frame.

I figured this was just a weird crop on my virtual camera. Then I saw it happen. The camera drooped, ever so slightly.

I’m using the Elgato Master Mount L for my camera mount, and I like it a lot. But they use a proprietary ball head, and the weight of my camera, lens, and Elgato Prompter is ever so slightly too much.

Not so much that it immediately fell — but enough that there was an issue over time.

So I started looking for a solution. I rummaged through my drawers for spare parts I could attach to the mount to support the Prompter. I looked at lens collars to attach to the lens to the mount. I tried to find a platform I could sit my camera and lens on top of instead.

Then I had a thought.

A Solution as old as Time

“Gaffer’s Tape is pretty strong…”

So I tried it. I turned the ball head to give the camera better front-facing support.

Then I wrapped a bunch of Gaffer’s Tape around it. And you know what?

So far so good…

It may not be pretty, but it’s simple. And it’s effective.

And it’s a lot more discreet than the other solutions too.

It’s easy to overcomplicate things. You start thinking through the perfect solution.

Sometimes it’s because the conventional wisdom tells you it needs to be complicated.

But sometimes it’s because no one was there to tell you that Gaffer’s Tape will do.