The basic problem is that with the simple PAP rigs that I’ve described in the past (here and here) , like the polster system, is that you can remotely press the shutter but you’d really like to see what the camera is “seeing” so you can compose the shot without trial and error or guessing.

The key to remotely viewing a PAP shot is the fact that virtually all point and shoot cameras (the kind you typically use on a painters pole) come with an A/V output cable like the one connected to my Canon G9 in the adjoining photo. These A/V cables are usually a foot or so long and have a single plug that connect to the camera and two phono connectors (also called RCA connectors) for connecting to a TV. The yellow connector is the video from the camera and the black connector is the audio from the camera. If your just connect these connectors to your TV (and select the right input) you will see the same video on your TV as you see on the back of the camera.

Now to make use of this great TV connection feature on your PAP system you have to do three things:

1. Find a little miniature TV you can attach to your PAP pole. They are all over. Here’s one. Your local Radio Shack is another source of miniature TVs. Make sure the TV has external A/V input. Almost all have external input jacks.
2. Extend the cables to reach from the top of your pole to connect to your miniature TV. Here are some. Since these cables are carrying a analog signal instead of a digital signal the length is not a big deal, you can easily run these cables 25′ or 50′ without a problem. This is not the case with USB cables, they are more sensitive to being extended.
3. Figure out how to connect the miniature TV to your pole so you can watch it and compose the photo. You can use velcro or a small metal bracket, anything so your hands are free for holding the pole and pulling the shutter release cord.

That’s all there is to it. Thanks to Nik for pointing out how easy it is to connect a remote TV to your PAP rig. Note that Nik has added a miniature TV to his Polester from www.longshotcamerasystems.com but you can do the same thing with virtually any small PAP pole.

There are a couple of benefits of the Polester:

1. It’s off the shelf. You get the pole, the camera mount for the top of the pole and the remote shutter release as a complete system for $199.
2. You don’t have to fool around with setting the interval timer to trigger the shutter as I suggested in my previous PAP post. This rig has a “universal mechanical shutter button pusher” that is operated by a cord that comes down the pole. Pretty cool!
3. You get a choice of a couple of different kind of poles.

I haven’t got one of these yet, mostly because I’ve been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. Nik did a fairly detailed review that he has posted on the PAP flickr group. It looks like the remote mechanical shutter release is a fantastic little device that I can’t live without. I talked to Jim over at www.longshotcamerasystems.com and asked him if he’d be open to selling just the shutter release without the pole and camera mount because my guess is that people that already have a pole and mount may like to just purchase remote the release. Jim says, “yes, give me a call and let’s make a deal”. I think that’s what I’ll do since I already have several poles and pole mounts.

Has anyone else used this product? If you have let us know what you think.

John Hokkanen, a real estate broker in San Diego has started manufacturing some painter’s pole accessories that make putting you camera on top of a painters pole much easier. See PolePixie.com for complete details and ordering:

1. The PolePixie ($29.95): This is a nifty little metal plastic adapter that threads onto a painters pole just like a paint roller would. On the other end it has a standard camera tripod bolt. Very cool! No need to mangle the top of your painters pole trying to get a bolt attached. Just screw the pole pixie on and you are ready to attach a camera.
2. Tilting Camera Mount ($24.95): This is the little piece of hardware that you normally find on the top of a monopod. It allows you to permanently tilt the camera downward so you don’t have to guess how much the pole needs to be slanted to get the camera aimed at the home. It also has a quick release plate.
3. Resting Plate ($19.95): This is the white piece of plastic in the photo on the right. It allows you to easily lay down your whole painter’s pole rig without worrying about banging up your camera when you lay it down. There are two versions of this resting plate, one that is plexiglass material and another that is softer, foam padded material.

After refitting my painter’s pole with these three items and using them for the last few days . I think the PolePixie is absolutely an necessity. It’s the best way I’ve seen to mount a camera on a painter’s pole. Before I discovered the PolePixie, I had my camera mounted on my pole with a special bolt. It took a while looking through hardware stores trying to find the right size bolt that would thread into a hole that I drilled in the plastic top of the pole. Mounting your camera on a painter pole with the PolePixie takes about 10 seconds. You just screw it together.

Thanks John for providing a source for much these much needed PAP accessories!

Update on May 6, 2010: Jon’s question below in the comments alerted me to a mistake I made in identifying the PolePixie as metal. I just checked with John Hokkanen and it’s “high density plastic” and he is in the process of creating an aluminium model. John says it will be 30 to 45 days before he gets any production units of the aluminium model.

As long time PFRE blog readers know, I’m a rabid fan of elevated photography for real estate. From a marketing standpoint getting a great looking front exterior shot is a huge factor in successfully marketing a home. Here’s why:

• The front exterior shot is the photo is the marketing hook that motivates potential buyers to look at this property in more detail.
• In slide shows, and on real estate search sites you have only a split second to grab the viewer’s attention. Frequently this attention grabbing must be done with a thumbnail of the front exterior photo. If it doesn’t look good they are gone to one of the other 99 properties their search returned.
• The more compelling features of the property that can be illustrated in that front exterior shot the better. Oh yea, if the front exterior looks butt-ugly find a better angle. No one’s going to know it’s not the front except you and the seller or agent.
• A well done elevated shot can grab a potential buyers attention like nothing else.

Ten to thirty percent of homes are sited in such a way that it is impossible to get an attractive shot of the front exterior by standing on the ground. This means that an effective real estate photographer needs to have some means to elevate the camera off ground level. Frequently 10 to 15 feet is all that’s needed. So for many situations a ladder or standing on a vehicle will get the job done. But there are a few percent of homes that scream for a big mast, RC helicopter or full size aircraft. I actually like RC helicopter shots better than most full aerial shots. You can get in places with a RC helicopter that are illegal and dangerous with a light aircraft. I recommend that all real estate photographers find someone in their area that can shoot from a big mast or RC helicopter when they need it.

For example if you are in the Seattle area contact Tabb Firchau of AerialPan Imaging. Be sure to check out Tabb’s work. His aerial 360s and videos are awesome! I was very close to hiring Tabb a couple of years ago for a a mega-listing on Lake Washington that we were competing for, but we didn’t get the listing. Maybe next time.

The Elevated Photography Company is both a manufacturer of elevated photography systems and a provider of elevated photography services. Since they both  manufacture and are users of the systems that they design, they can help with any questions that you have about getting started in with elevated photography. Their two main products are a 21 foot system and a 50 foot system.

If you are interested in discussing any of their products in detail contact Joseph Welch at: 1-877-253-8611 or joe@elevatedphoto.com. Be sure to tell Joe you heard about TEPCO on the PFRE blog!

A second example is from Mike Martin of Gig Harbor, WA. Mike uses a Canon SD430 on top of a fiberglass pole. Mike points out that the home in example his has 38 steps from the street level to the front door. This is an example of one of those homes that MUST have an elevated shot. I find that around 5 to 10% of homes are like this. They are sited high above the street. This is why real estate photographers must carry a ladder or be equipped to shoot an elevated home.

The photo above is a PAP shot done by Steve Mather of the Cleveland area. Part of the husband and wife team real estate team at ruthmather.com with his DIY PAP (pole aerial Photography) pole setup.

Here is Steve’s description of his DIY PAP setup:

The pole is an aluminum, 6′-12′, Sherwin-Williams, Contractor Series, Frame Lock Extension Pole; product number 106520000. The name is almost as long as the pole. It’s also available in 8′-16′. They have a spring-loaded pin mount that is ‘compatible with Sherwin-Williams Kwik Release and Heavy Duty Professional roller frames.

The mount, or plug, was removed (2 small screws) from the extension portion of the pole. The spring was compressed and the pin removed (2 men, a pair of pliers and the proper curse words). The coil spring and another piece fell out the bottom, leaving a slightly tapered inside hole, 2 pin slots on the sides and a small, rectangular hole at the top of the mount. They found a 1/4″-20, Phillips head, wall anchor bolt that was the proper length.

Tapped the top of the mount to 1/4″-20 threads. Ground the Phillips head to a smaller diameter so it would fit into the tapered shaft. Screwed the bolt from the bottom into the now-threaded mount until it projected the correct distance. Filled the inside cavity and side pin holes with J-B Weld. A filled side slot is visible under the camera wrist strap.

The ball head is a Manfrotto #482. It has 3/8″ thread and a 1/4″-20 adapter. We used the 1/4″-20 because we had that bolt size, knew it would fit into the shaft and did not know if a 3/8″ bolt would fit.

The camera is an image-stabilized, Canon PowerShot SD700 IS Digital ELPH with wrist strap. It’s our travel pocket camera. 35mm zoom wide.

Steve used a 10 second interval timer to release the shutter, similar to the technique I described in my previous post on using a painters pole for PAP.

Steve’s example nicely demonstrates that you don’t need a specialized camera for shooting on a pole. Almost any small, light weight camera will work. Nice job Steve and thanks for the details on you pole setup.

1. A point and shoot mounted on a fiberglass or aluminum pole.
2. A pneumatic mast that mounts on a vehicle.

There are some off-the-shelf systems of the second type but they cost in the area of $2500 to $12,000. Vince has built his own system that attaches to his car. Check out Vince’s detailed description of how he built his car mounted mast that will handle the weight of a DSLR.

To me, the remote shutter control looks the most interesting because with my G9, I have to set the interval timer, put the pole up and wait for a series of 5 shots to be fired while I move the pole position slightly between each shot. I can tell when each shot is fired because in this mode the G9 beeps each time a shot is fired. A RC shutter control would add the ability to put the pole up and fire off as many shots as I want without taking it down every 5 shots. The downside is this would take two people.

The next level in PAP camera control that I’m thinking about is to use a telescoping 24′ tripod in combination with both of the remote controls that John describes. This would allow a 15′ to 20′ high shot that could all be done with one person.

In the video, John doesn’t give specifics on what RC controller to buy for this project. I did some Googling and found this remote control unit that seems to fit John’s description of what you need. For $40 USD you get a 2 channel radio controller and several servos. This appears to be everything you need for this project.

The final level of control would to be able to view what the camera is “seeing” so it wouldn’t take so many random shots to get what you want. Since most point-and-shoot cameras that are light enough for this kind of application don’t have remote video functionality so, it would be nice to have a remote video camera show you what the camera is seeing. After thinking about it for a while I came up with the perfect solution… an inexpensive, battery powered, baby monitor. For around $170 USD you could mount this on top, or next to the camera and make camera aiming much more accurate.

My goal is to put together a completely portable, lightweight PAP system for my G9 (and other similar cameras) that can be operated by one person. I think this can be done for about $800.

Via: nicephotomag.com

The big news is that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 looks like it (available in Sept 08) has everything the G9 has plus a 24mm f 2.0 Leica lens. Wow!

The reason I bring this up is I’ve talked to several people that are eying the Canon G9 as a potential PAP (Pole Aerial Photography) camera. Only problem with the G9 as a PAP camera is that without a converter it’s widest angle is 35mm and you’d like to have something a bit wider, like 24mm. This Lumix LX3 looks like the perfect pole camera.