tripod - What kind of "stand" for photo taken from above? E.g., food photography

I want to take photography of things laid on a table (fabric, drawing and painting mainly). So, basically, the lens just above it.
Are there "special stands" for this kind of photo?
So far, I saw 2 methods, both using tripod:

• one with an tilting column:


• one with a simple tripod, but a little bit tilted and secured with a string or something like that.

But does "table stand" or something like that exists? You know, something that works like an enlarger, but with a camera instead of the lens:

It seems like it would be simpler to have that kind of thing than a tripod.

Thanks!

EDIT: apparently this "technic" is called "overhead camera".

Answer

Stands like that do exist. They're called copy stands and as you might imagine they were designed to copy things, usually flat artwork.

There are other options. Camera stands often have overhead arms, though they're bulky and expensive, though very stable.

Tripods do work well if you have a counterweight. They also make jibs for tripods (usually larger tripods) that go even further.

And finally there's the truly fancy stuff they use in hollywood.

You can rent some of the stuff – particularly the jibs – that are too expensive to buy. If you have a local TV or film equipment rental shop they'll have some of this stuff.

Or you can rig something up in another way – I've used a Bogen Magic Arm for overhead shots and Casey Neistat has built his own overhead shooting table out of scrap wood. But mostly I use tripods with counterweights.