Pole Cam?

I am participating in a fairly exciting research project next spring that will take me to the Arctic Ocean to live in an ice camp for a few weeks. We will be measuring features beneath the ice and we would like to have some images of under ice features. To do this, I hope to build a pole cam to operate my Olympus point and shoot. I am not brave enough to send my D200 under the ice...

Before I begin randomally trying stuff, I was hoping for a few ideas to get pointed in the right directing. I would beed to fit the camera through a 12 in dia hole. The ice will be between 6 and 8 ft deep. I think I will only need to operate the shutter.

Has anyone made a similar device? if so, any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

John

Hi John -

I made a pole cam with Ryan at reef photo for my Nikon d70s... Used an aluminum extendable deck pole outfitted with ULCS ball adapter at one end that works with standard clamps on camera and strobe arms. Ryan used Nikons remote shutter control and wired through the bulkhead...Im sure this is available on the D200... We also have a security cable that connects to housing and pole...just in case...

I'd send a picture but everything was shipped to Mexico...

Contact Ryan at Reef photo...he did the complete setup.

M.

Many Thanks!

I will be in contact with Ryan.

John

Hi,

I searched about pole cam. I can give you two web site adresses.

http://www.jmk.com.cn/ey/productShow.asp?id=579

and

http://sharpvision.en.alibaba.com/product/...era_System.html

http://sharpvision.en.alibaba.com/product/...era_System.html

Here's a link to an old thread on pole cams:

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...&hl=polecam

I'm trying to put one together now myself. I like Vizarts post about half way down the first page suggesting a boat antenna holder that has a metal clamp/release to allow the connection to rotate. This way you can customise the angle of the camera relative to the pole securely. I fear a ball joint connection may not be stiff enough to hold the camera at an angle relative to the pole. Of course this is pure speculation.

For the pole, i see people suggest telescoping pool skimmers, but i find those flimsy. I found this fantastic telescoping aluminum/plastic gardening pole thats solid & light and has a strong connection in the middle. The end is also reinforced with plastic on the inside. Its built with a mount on the end to attach different tools, like a do it all gardening system. Its made by a German company called Wolf Garten. I'm not sure what the metal pieces are made of in the latching mechanism connecting the two telescoping pieces. They may rust, but I haven't tried mine yet. Still need the antenna clamp thing to attach to the housing. Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Chris

Hi,

 

I searched about pole cam. I can give you two web site adresses.

...

 

http://sharpvision.en.alibaba.com/product/...era_System.html

 

http://sharpvision.en.alibaba.com/product/...era_System.html

(Unrelated) I would probably avoid using alibaba for anything, seeing as how they are a major facilitators of the trade of shark fin soup.

Apologies for the unrelated post. Continue talking about polecamming now.

Hi everyone,

I read the old thread about polecams and it seems that only canon users can have their camera remote triggered via the flash contact. But when i looked on the Nikon website i saw that they have The MC-22 remote cable which should enable Nikon users to remote control their cameras. This cable can be connected to a Flash contact relatively easy

Does anyone in the forum know how this remote cable works? What kind of signal is required to trigger the shutterrelease?

Furthermore i was wondering whether anyone knows where i can buy a Nikonos 5 pin plug without a cable, so i can attach a long cable myself.

Another option that i also considered is the MC-36 RC.

Is there anyone who knows how many wires are inside the cable? If it's 5 or less, it might be a very luxuary RC for a pole cam. But i'm affraid that it'll use more that 5 wires.

cheers, Udo