1/8/09: I can’t figure out why this post is getting so many hits. Leave a comment if you know.

This is the Santa pole that so many Elves and Santas admired. It is obviously less exciting up close.

I took a bit more care giving my lightweight monopod the ability to tilt. But this quickly made version was just as functional. Use 1/4-20 bolts with machine threading (a very common size in the US). The wood is 5/8" thick, which let me bend the plumber’s strap and align the holes just right. The washer under the wingnut helps with smoother operation. The two nuts on the same bolt will lock against each other, and keep the bolt from spinning. the washers on the bolt space the depth the screw goes into the camera. You may have to play around with it a bit to get your camera pointed straight forward.

I was surprised at how steady an image a pocket camera on the end of a pole can provide. I suspect the length of the pole somehow dampens the handheld jitters. I did have to guess at what the camera was seeing, so this is less than ideal. But for crowd events having the ability to go smoothly from eye level to ten feet up is pretty cool.

gammablog.com/2008/12/14/santacon-nyc-2008/

I’m not sure why a tilt mechanism is not standard on all monopods. It increases the functionality tremendously. You can buy heads for your monopod, but they increase the minimum length by a couple of inches. This mod kept it the same length it was. Without being able to tilt the camera, I couldn’t have looked down on the Santas without holding the pole awkwardly.