My brother sent me this today:

"So, how do you take a picture of a large family at a table and get all of them in the picture? Well, you could shoot a digital panoramic and have a long, wide image with everyone at the table, Or you could shoot from the corner and get everyone at a triangle shaped table with the people closest to the camera being washed out from the flash, or you could hover above the table where everyone is the same distance from the camera, and the table actually looks square, and nobody suffers from wide angle distortion. Difficult you say? Well not if you have the amazing, the astounding, Kitco CamPole! Yes, with the Kitco CamPole, you too can get those amazing shots from ABOVE the action! Now you too can share in a godlike perspective! Fully featured with remote air release, wireless video viewfinder, and fully automatic exposure. Buy your CamPole today! Only at authorized Kitco dealers!"

Receiver and LCD television at base of pole.

Camera head assembly. Head is at a 45 degree angle.

Shutter release. The bulb release is screwed into a nut that is brazed onto a flat washer. Whole assembly held by gaffer’s tape to camera. Bulb release pushes the shutter release button on camera. (more pictures of that soon -John)

Video camera/transmitter taped to viewfinder. The viewfinder frame is about %50 smaller than a normal 35mm camera viewfinder, so the video camera has no problem ’seeing’ the whole frame.

Video camera/transmitter setup again.

Entire Assembly

Christmas tree pic- top down view taken from floor level.

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I’m looking forward to seeing more photos from this rig. Maybe if I prod him a bit he will add a tilt ajustment to it.