Adding a camera mount to hiking poles?

Hi everyone,

I do a fair bit of hiking and scrambling and for the past few years I have been carrying a tripod with me all the time ... while it's good extra weight for fitness, on days when I just want a quick summit grab it is a bit of a pain.

The reason I carry a tripod is because of the website me and my girlfriend run, we take a virtual tour off of most summits and hiking destinations. Unless I am going on something I specifically need a tripod for, it's really just for the virtual tours.

What I have strapped to my pack or in my hands are hiking poles ... I've looked around for a few options but everything seems to be made for little P&S cams.

My plan is to do something to one of my poles so I get a threaded hole or something on it. Then just carry a mini version of a pano head and mount my 7D with fisheye on that.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could rig up or do to accomplish this? Most products are small plastic flimsy things and I am not interested in buying common basic hiking poles as I am rather particular about them due to the amount of scrambling and abuse I put them through.

Most of the single (not paired) hiking poles I've used have a screw-off knob that hides a 1/4-20 threaded screw you can mount your head to. Why not pick up one of those to replace one of your regular pair. That's what I do.

If you don't like that idea, I'd suggest a solid monopod (though you'd lose any kind of shock-absorption that trekking poles offer). My Gitzo GM3551 will hold my weight on a steep pitch.

I was thinking of that, although a lot of the poles that have those attachments are usually the type of quality I would expect from a walking stick. They also usually have flip style locks and the build quality is not what you get from other models. I don't mind not having shock-absorption as I only get poles that are rigid.

I checked out the Gitzo GM3551, it looks really nice, but I can't see myself using it for this purpose and bashing through rocks. I would feel absolutely horrible about it, and I don't think it would perform quite as well.

My goal is to find something I can rely on with same confidence as something I would get specifically for the mountains, but with some kind of attachment or way to attach a head to it.

Have you looked at these?
http://www.pacerpole.c​om/product/camera-mount

Vladimer wrote in post #16210007
I was thinking of that, although a lot of the poles that have those attachments are usually the type of quality I would expect from a walking stick. They also usually have flip style locks and the build quality is not what you get from other models. I don't mind not having shock-absorption as I only get poles that are rigid.

I checked out the Gitzo GM3551, it looks really nice, but I can't see myself using it for this purpose and bashing through rocks. I would feel absolutely horrible about it, and I don't think it would perform quite as well.

My goal is to find something I can rely on with same confidence as something I would get specifically for the mountains, but with some kind of attachment or way to attach a head to it.

My REI Vibrastop single trekking pole (Komperdell of Austria made it) has the same type of twist-lock that my Leki trekking poles have.So they're certainly out there and not hard to find.

Jon wrote in post #16208633
Most of the single (not paired) hiking poles I've used have a screw-off knob that hides a 1/4-20 threaded screw you can mount your head to. Why not pick up one of those to replace one of your regular pair. That's what I do.

If you don't like that idea, I'd suggest a solid monopod (though you'd lose any kind of shock-absorption that trekking poles offer). My Gitzo GM3551 will hold my weight on a steep pitch.

seall wrote in post #16210028
Have you looked at these?
http://www.pacerpole.c​om/product/camera-mount

I've been searching everywhere online for the last week and haven't come across this. If they didn't have some weird hand grip this would of been perfect!

The part where the camera mount dips into is a few inches off of center unfortunately. With the 360 degree portion of the virtual tours, this creates a problem with parallax as you can see the sides of objects that are close to the lens (foreground).

Step 3 on the link you provided made my chuckle. I'll send them an email and see if they offer it with another hand portion on the off chance.

Here's one at REI - pretty similar to mine. For some reason I had to search "Travel" not "Camping and hiking" to find the single poles. They have a Black Diamond one too, but only ship it within the US. EMS has this from Leki.

Thank you for the links Jon. In your experience with the twist off knob ones, how strong would you say the threaded shaft portion is? I read a few reviews on some (not the ones you linked to) where they broke off or just started free wheeling in the handle after a few uses.

I can't imagine there would be much twisting force on the shaft once it is assembled, just the initial tightening part of getting the head and camera on it. I have a bit more faith in the pole itself when its from Black Diamond, Komperdell, etc... and $70 bucks a pop. I haven't come across any REI products in Canada so can't really comment on that, seems to be popular in the states though.

Seems solid enough to me. The way I use the stick, the knob takes a fair amount of stress (the wrist strap goes through it, and I use the wrist strap as part of my bracing) from my clambering over rocks, and I'm having no problems with it.

How about this one: LINK

As a long time Leki user, I've owned at least four or five of their sticks and have never been let down. I've done loads of hiking and mountaineering with Lekis, as well as used their ski poles, for both backcountry and cross-country.

I also used to sell hiking poles when I was in college and of the top brands we sold, only Black Diamonds had to be sent back regularly for warranty claims. Love their climbing gear, but not their hiking poles.

Jon wrote in post #16210649
Seems solid enough to me. The way I use the stick, the knob takes a fair amount of stress (the wrist strap goes through it, and I use the wrist strap as part of my bracing) from my clambering over rocks, and I'm having no problems with it.

Thanks Jon.

Nightdiver13 wrote in post #16211228
How about this one: LINK

As a long time Leki user, I've owned at least four or five of their sticks and have never been let down. I've done loads of hiking and mountaineering with Lekis, as well as used their ski poles, for both backcountry and cross-country.

I also used to sell hiking poles when I was in college and of the top brands we sold, only Black Diamonds had to be sent back regularly for warranty claims. Love their climbing gear, but not their hiking poles.

Good to know! I like their climbing gear but never used there poles. All my good poles have been from Komerdell.

The Leki you linked looks nice but I'm reeeally not a fan of speedlocks for scrambling. Hiking and alpine it works, but with all the rocks scrambling and crap I stick my poles into, the bulkiness of the speedlocks just likes to snag on lips. You also run the risk of catching it on a rock in a freak accident way and having it collapse as it opens.