Super light boom pole!

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DVX100Shooter

Veteran
I was out in Lititz, PA earlier this week shooting that story about the 18yr old kid that shot his 14yr old girlfriends parents. Well the story made national headlines and the day I was there, there was crew from either Fox News or NBC News. We were all shooting the press conference and one of the audio guys from the network extended his boom pole out to about 8-9 feet. I always see those guys holding those poles with 2 hands but he was holding it with 1 hand and barely holding it at that! I didnt have a chance to talk to him to find out what kind of pole he was using but I am guessing it had to be some sort of carbon fiber....could that be true?
 
K-tec also makes some nice carbon poles. Carbon poles are pretty super light, and even if you could hold it with one hand, I think 2 would be better. It would allow you more control over where the mic is pointed, which is pretty important when dealing with shotguns, because of their narrow path of sound pickup. Carbon poles are also really spendy...
 
I recently bought the Gitzo G557C, over 100 inches and just a bit over one pound, and I'm quite happy with it. Maybe it's because I'm not the one who has to actually wield it... :beer:
 
I've been looking for poles lately, and since the price of those Gitzo's are pretty inexpensive compared to K-Tek, and others, AND they're so stinkin' thin looking, I assumed they were cheap garbage.

But, you're happy with yours, huh? When it's fully extended, are you getting much bend/flex in it, or does it stay really rigid & straight?
 
When used with a light mike (AT 897 shotgun, 145 grams) on the shock mount, there's no discernable bend. When used with a heavy Sennheiser E865 (over 300 grams), there is a very slight bend, maybe 5 millimeters, but I've seen a lot worse on pro sets where people were using aluminum poles.

Overall, I (and, more importantly, my girlfriend, who often does get to handle that thing) am very satisfied with the pole's general performance and lightness. It even has a nice padded foam grip at the end, it's very dark grey and thus non-reflective and it has holes to run an XLR cable through it, although I can't for the life of me figure how to run it without cutting off one XLR plug and having to resold it afterwards, which I have no intention of doing.

At the moment I have a 10-meter cable gaffer-taped to it. I'm going to upgrade to Velcro as soon as I stop forgetting to buy it when I go to the hardware store... :happy:
 
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