Eric's pole cam

Hi Eric,

I was curious about the Great white shark shots on your web site. Some of them are labeled "shot with Pole-cam" and the EXIF info states that your D60 that was used to take these shots...... then further on I see a photo of you with what looks like your housed camera on the end of a massive pole!

http://www.echeng.com/travel/guadalupe/200...es/dsc_1634.htm

Can you tell us/me what your set-up is and how it operates. I have only ever seen small video cameras used this way.

Regards

Paul P

Bet it'll be a while before we sea the seacam/1ds in the mouth of a Great White!!! Does DEPP cover that?

My questions are (1) how do you activate the shutter, and (2) how do you travel with the pole?

Hmm.. I guess it would be possible to make a bulkhead for the Canon remote RS-80 switch and run it down the pole. Either that or there might be a remote trigger that triggers through the hotshoe. That might be easier to rig!

1) Use existing bulkhead

2) Run 2 or 3 pins to Canon's remote terminal (2 pins to fire, third pin for fancy features found on canon's high end remote switch)

3) Optional: run 2 pins for video out

Get a long 4 or 5-pin sync cord and run it up the pole. Put a switch on the other end for remote.

Optionally, run video out, which isn't so useful. Most people get a waterproof lipstick cam mounted on the eyepiece somehow and use a remote screen/googles to see through it...

Aah thanks Eric.....

That has got me thinking. I have some bits to rig this up with my F90x via the remote terminal, going through one of the bulkheads.

I may try this out on the Basking sharks next year. The skipper straddled the catamaran over one of the sharks. We looked straight down on it.

I can just see my fisheye pictures now.... The shark's huge open mouth, the cat's hulls either side, fluffy clouds in a blue sky through the dappled surface and my rippled sillohette holding a huge banana shaped pole! Doh!

Thanks again for the advice

Paul P