[pct-l] Would you carry a extra 8 grams on your thru hike?

[Steel-Eye]

Good morning, Carl,

 

At first I thought to keep the hole in the handle open and install the stud only when I wanted to mount the camera but the nature of the plastic was such that the threads ended up very tight.  The tap is intended for steel and the plastic yields away a bit in the cutting process.  I don't think even a slightly larger tap-drill hole would have helped.  As a result, the threads in the plastic were sufficiently snug to keep the stud from rotating.  That also meant I couldn't remove the stud with what I had with me on the trail.  Since I don't really put my hands on top of the pole grips anyway, I just left it there sticking out.

 

On a tripod, a knurled screw or lock nut is handy because it is awkward to spin a big camera onto a stud or hold the camera and spin the tripod into the camera.  With an ultra-lite camera and a light, slim pole installation is not a problem.

 

As it turned out, I didn't use the feature much due to my own screw-up.  I hiked alone much of the time, particularly in the Sierras, and Forrester Pass was the first place I wanted to use the pole mount to take a photo of myself.  I poked the pole in the snow, mounted and aimed the camera, then spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to operate the shutter delay.  I had done it at home, and it seemed intuitive, but on the pass I couldn't figure it out.  As a result I don't have me in any of my Forrester photos.

 

I had purchased that camera at the recommendation of Stone Dancer -- and I really like it  -- so when I encountered her on the Kearsarge Pass trail soon after the Forrester event I asked her to show me how the delay works.  She had to admit that she had recently tried to use it but couldn't figure it out either.  Wonderful:  Two engineers can't figure out how to operate a digital camera.  What we needed was a 10-year-old kid to help us.

 

Steel-Eye



----- Original Message ----- 

  From: Carl Siechert 
  To: Steel-Eye 
  Cc: pct-l 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 7:48 PM
  Subject: Re: [pct-l] Would you carry a extra 8 grams on your thru hike?


  Steel-Eye:

  Sounds like a nifty idea. Do you see any need to add a lock nut (to keep the stud from moving within the grip) and/or a knurled nut (the kind on most commercial tripods, for keeping the camera firmly mounted to the stud)? Or is just a bare exposed stud good enough?


  On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Steel-Eye <chelin at teleport.com> wrote:

    Good evening, Glen,

    I drilled and tapped the top of the grip of one of my hiking poles, and
    screwed in a 3/4" long 1/4-20 threaded stud.  The stud weighs 3.5 gr. but
    the net is less than that by the weight of the plastic I drilled out.