Decorators pole

[zigzag]

Hello

Im thinking of using a decorators pole to get some elevation in some shots - does anyone have any experience of these and what set up do you use.

My thoughts are a telescopic decorators pole (say 3m) preferably push button release, mount a tripod head on the end of it (not sure how this will be done - advice please if youve done this), use wi-fi gadget to link to tablet at bottom of pole so that I can see whats going on and be able to shoot the shot using the tablet.

Early days for this idea and was wondering if anyone had any expericne of this.

 

[Stevie-]

Monopod. I wouldn't trust the catch/screw on a decorators pole.

 

[cw318is]

I've yet to find a 3m monopod......

A lot of the car rig shot chaps use a long aluminium or carbon fibre pole which is probably going to be a lot more rigid. With all the weight up there any movement is going to be amplified meaning you'll need a high shutter speed or some method of setting/bracing the pole. Providing you attach a safety line to the camera it should be okay but again with the weight you might want to put some stainless steel hose clips on the telescopic sections so prevent them sliding back in. As for mounting the camera I'd use a clamp on bracket with ballhead like this one

I did a shoot with my old 20D gorillapodded to a fork lift once and sent very high into the air but I did it tethered with a 10m cable I got off ebay. Sorry have no experience of wireless tethering to a tablet. What is it you are planning on getting elevation shots of?

 

[Wissel]

I've never added a camera to a decorators pole but I've had a Wi-Fi antenna mounted to one for ages on my motorhome and it's really solid.

Not sure if your camera already has Wi-Fi but if not I use an app called DSLR Controller on my phone with a USB cable to my camera that works great.

 

[Barnbear]

You could try an extending pole from Wolf Garden tools, they click lock at various lengths. No wobble and you can use it around the garden too.......

 

[st599]

Drill a hole in the top and epoxy a 1/4" British Standard Whitworth bolt in.

Test thoroughly at low heights whilst holding strap before extending and be aware that the torque of a heavy camera on a 3 foot pole may be quite high.

 

[bcjames]

I've got a Harris roller pole with a camera mounted on the end that is used for above/underwater shots for swim video analysis. I can't remember what the joint between pole and camera is, but the pole itself works perfectly and is sufficiently rigid.

 

[zigzag]

Thanks everyone, some good advice here, Im going to give it a go (low heights first, dont want a costly camera repair on my hands)