Wooden Ball Camera Handles with ARRI Rosette — Handmade in New Zealand

Pair of handmade wooden ball camera handles with ARRI rosette mount, 60mm diameter, rosewood finish
Big Balls — premium handcrafted wooden ball camera handles, made in New Zealand. Comfortable, durable, beautiful. Designed and hand made by a cinematographer for cinematographers and camera operators.

Grab your camera by the balls!

Now available from my cineAKS store!

Harrie’s Big Balls

Made by cinematographer Hendrikus De Vaan in Auckland, New Zealand, these wooden ball camera handles are designed for comfort, durability, and a lifetime of use.

Each pair is made from solid hardwood — typically padauk or beech — finished with natural oils and homemade paste wax. Every handle is paired with 304 stainless steel hardware and a copper washer, built to last as long as your career.

No CNC machines. No mass production. Just one filmmaker making tools for other filmmakers.

Handmade wooden ball camera handle attached to a cinema camera rig via ARRI rosette
My personal set of Big Balls!

Comfort from Any Angle

Traditional rosette handles often force your wrists into awkward positions, needing constant angle adjustments. Ball handles solve this.

The 60mm wooden sphere sits naturally in your palm, comfortable from any direction, no matter how you hold your rig. The rounded shape relieves strain — especially important for long days on set or for anyone (like me) with wrist injuries.

Cinematographer holding a wooden ball camera handle, demonstrating comfortable ergonomic grip
The 60mm diameter ball sits naturally in the palm of your hand, reducing wrist strain during long shoots.

Over time, the natural oil and wax finish develops a unique patina, making each handle even more personal the more you use it.

  • Handmade in New Zealand — by a working cinematographer, for cinematographers.
  • Solid hardwood construction — padauk or beech (other woods in limited runs).
  • Natural oil & wax finish — no varnish, no crap, just naturally finished wood that wears in beautifully.
  • Standard 60mm diameter — sized for comfort, larger than most competing handles.
  • ARRI rosette with M6 screw — universal fit for cinema rigs.
  • Built to last — with stainless steel hardware and copper washer.

The Story of my Big Balls

I started making these because I couldn’t find any camera handles that felt right. Everything on the market was too small, over-engineered, or uncomfortable. I made myself a pair — and other filmmakers wanted them too.

So now, I make them in small batches. Each pair is handmade, inspected, and finished with the same care I’d want for my own gear.

I don’t make thousands. I make a few, properly.

Solid hardwood rosewood wooden ball camera handle with stainless steel hardware being made.

Each set gets special attention to fit and finished, and pairs are grain matched individually. Made from premium materials, built to last the length of your filmmaking career.

Follow the Big Balls journey over on IG @bigballsnz

New batch of Big Balls available now, both in Padauk, and European Beech! Experimenting was some storage options. Handles are always an awkward thing to find a space for in the drawer - but you don’t really want a huge Pelican for them either. An early experiment with hand carving a grip texture. The first two full sets are finished. My personal set of Big Balls on my Sony FX6 rig. After the first pair, I set out to make a proper batch. That meant refining the workflow, making jigs, and figuring out how to keep each pair consistent. Here they are — the very first pair of Big Balls I made. The second photo shows them next to my actual first attempt (which turned out way too small). As they say: we’re gonna need bigger balls.