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View Full Version : My 2 cents on Pole Mounted Camera's



James McKinley
03-19-2012, 10:41 PM
Heard about pole cameras on and off for a while so I decided to put one together using a 25' painters pole, a Kodak Play sport waterproof pocket video camera and an adapter to mount the camera to the pole (sold by polepixie.com) total cost around $200. I was a little weary of using this method but today I used it on my own house here in SoCal and it was surprisingly easy to get great video of the whole roof and spot defects (damn slipped tiles) and the camera is light weight and durable. I primarily work in the inland area of SoCal so I would say 99% of houses I have inspected are tile roofs which makes it difficult to be able to fully walk the roof and most times I end up spotting defects from the eaves on a ladder and having to move and place the ladder to each side of the house especially if the houses are within 10' of each other is a cumbersome task. I think that the pole cam as well as a good pair of binoculars is a thorough alternative to spotting from the eaves.

Ken Morgan
03-20-2012, 07:07 AM
Very clever! Thanks for sharing. It's apparent you are quite resourceful.

Bob Elliott
03-20-2012, 07:39 AM
Heard about pole cameras on and off for a while so I decided to put one together using a 25' painters pole, a Kodak Play sport waterproof pocket video camera and an adapter to mount the camera to the pole (sold by polepixie.com) total cost around $200. I was a little weary of using this method but today I used it on my own house here in SoCal and it was surprisingly easy to get great video of the whole roof and spot defects (damn slipped tiles) and the camera is light weight and durable. I primarily work in the inland area of SoCal so I would say 99% of houses I have inspected are tile roofs which makes it difficult to be able to fully walk the roof and most times I end up spotting defects from the eaves on a ladder and having to move and place the ladder to each side of the house especially if the houses are within 10' of each other is a cumbersome task. I think that the pole cam as well as a good pair of binoculars is a thorough alternative to spotting from the eaves.

Yep,been doing it the last few years.
Just make sure you have a high quality video devise.

$200 ? 30' pole at Menards is $50 and most of us have a tripod plus camera already.

James McKinley
03-20-2012, 09:48 AM
Yea I bought a new camera just to use on the pole because I wanted a waterproof one just in case I used it in the rain(and maybe underwater in the pool just for kicks). The cam was $100 the pole was around $50 and the adapter specifically made for this use was around $50. I knew I wasn't the first to do it because I got the idea on here. I was just impressed with how well it worked.

Bob Elliott
03-20-2012, 12:18 PM
Yea I bought a new camera just to use on the pole because I wanted a waterproof one just in case I used it in the rain(and maybe underwater in the pool just for kicks). The cam was $100 the pole was around $50 and the adapter specifically made for this use was around $50. I knew I wasn't the first to do it because I got the idea on here. I was just impressed with how well it worked.

Great,Been trying to tell guys about it for the last few years and everyone thinks it is complicated.
Going up is better sure,but you can't always go up.You still want to check the drip edge,ice shield,roof/wall flashing ,etc,however I have found it to be a great asset to my business.

Still need to go in the attic which is just as important for reasons you pros already are aware of.

P.S I fogged up my original Sony HXV5 so now I have 2 of them.1890 x 1200 MP video.