Hiking pole tripod for backpacking?

[peter_wagemans]

This question was asked some time ago on the general forum.

Apologies to people who are seeing the same question again.

So far there are two reactions that don't answer the question. The

thought occurred to me that it might have escaped the attention of

people on the Nature forum that could contribute useful ideas (past

replies have shown that plenty of backpacking experience is around).

 

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Original question:

 

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Leki makes ski poles with detachable grips. Two poles without grips

can be joined back to back with a short tube to make a longer stick

for use as an avalanche probe.

 

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Leki also makes a small and lightweight monopod attachment for those

poles. It is a short tube with a 1/4 inch screw on top that replaces

the grip.

 

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The next idea is to mount three of the avalanche probe tubes together

in a tripod head such that you can attach three poles to make a

tripod. Leki does not make anything like that. I have not been able to

find anyone else who does.

 

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Taking along three poles with two grips, a monopod attachment and the

special tripod head would provide a monopod, a tripod and two hiking

poles to help carry the backpack with the rest of the photo equipment.

The short tripod head without poles can also serve as a tabletop

tripod.

 

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My current plan is to make a first attempt at this by modifying a

rather cheap short tripod. (Maybe it works good enough for my

purposes, maybe I'll learn how to do it properly.)

 

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Has anyone tried something like this before? Are there any reasons why

it would not work? Which pitfalls to avoid? Useful tips and tricks?

 

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I'm not expecting a miracle of stability, just something useful for

35mm camera-lens combinations of up to about 2kg (4 pounds) and up to

200-400mm (experiment will have to determine the limits).

 

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Worries:

 

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Too low for comfortable use.

The poles may be too flexible when fully extended.

The tripod head construction is not stable enough.

My back will complain anyway...

[mike___5]

Peter,

I just came across your question in the Nature forum at Photo.net. I'm an avid mountaineer (although nothing too committing) and rock climber. I've tried this approach last year not realizing that Leki had at least met me half way on it by offering the items you mentioned in your post. Mine was more of a homemade combobulation using telescoping trekking poles with a pan tilt head. It was way to flimsy to use my N90s and 80-200 2.8 on for any length of time, but it was substantially better than what I had without it. I can also combine the poles if I'm taking climbing pictures when rappeling to push myself further away from the wall. Thus getting a different angle than most photographers. If you get a chance, drop me a line and let me know if you tried this at all or not. If you did, I'd be interested in knowing how you made out.

[peter_wagemans]

Here's a report on my experiences so far.

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I found a cheap small tripod with a relatively sturdy top assembly,

with small braces from the legs to the guide tube of the center

column, for extra stability. The center column was removed (too

wobbly) and the legs replaced by three Leki avalanche probe tubes. An

aluminium plate was screwed to the top, with a 3/8 inch bolt for a

ball head.

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After some searching for a suitable ball head, good enough for a 2kg

load, but not too heavy, I decided on a Gitzo 1175 (175 grams). It is

not very user friendly, but sufficiently sturdy for this setup.

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Including ball head the resulting hiking pole tripod weighs 1140

grams. If you include two grips for normal use of two hiking poles and

a monopod attachment then the total is almost 1400 grams.

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Height range including ball head (8 cm) is from 85 to 150 cm (a bit

low for me, but not too bad), with leg end points 60 to 113 cm

apart. Stability suffers below 94 cm height due to the tapering ends

of the lower hiking pole sections (they no longer fit tight in the

second section at those settings).

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Limiting factor for stability is the flexibility of the hiking pole

legs. When shooting with a tele lens I try to keep the tripod at the

lowest stable point (94 cm height) and lower myself behind it. When

there is not too much wind this works fine up to my maximum focal

length of 400mm (with mirror pre-fire on an EOS 5).

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It is a pretty light setup and not too stable, but certainly better

than no tripod at all. It has allowed me to take pictures that would

otherwise have been impossible, e.g., in the forest. And the hiking

poles have already come in handy for companions with knee trouble.