This is a closeup showing how I extended my 8' "bigbar"
into a 10' "superbar". 1x1" angle aluminum was used. It is
attached to the 1x1" square tubing using two #10-32 screws with
wing nuts. With one screw removed the 2' extension folds
back over the square tube for ease of carrying. (The 8'
section comes apart in the middle too).
Here's a photo from the big day (Canada Day 1999). There
are now 5 cameras on the bar since I let my brother Pat
put his two 35mm SLRs on the bar too. His cameras are placed
over the tripods (about 5' apart) to avoid flexing my bar due to their weight.
I am holding my two new 40" cable releases to trip the two
Ricohflex's at the same time. My two year old daughter Beth
couldn't stand to be without me :) Pat brought his tripod
along so I had two matching ones in this photo. The black wires
dangling in front of me are the electrical cable release for
Pat's two Pentax Super Programs.
This photo shows the original 8 foot bar. It is made from
a single piece of 1x1" by 8' square aluminum tubing. I cut
it in half (for easy transport) and made a bracket in the center to
allow it to be rigidly held together. This photo also shows the
original wood and aluminum "sliders" that the cameras attach to.
They can be placed at various separations along the bar, but need
to sit over one of the holes so that the thumb screw holding the
camera can fit inside. The two nylon bolts on the rear hold the
sliders in place for any reasonable tilt angle (ie. not upside-down).
When I enlarged it into the 10' version I added fixed mouning
plates since I don't expect to use the varible separation feature.
Back to my
Email: greg.erker@shaw.ca
This photo shows the 10' bar supported by two tripods. The
center camera is a broken Diacord and it is being used as the
viewfinder. The end cameras are Ricohflex's (Model VII and
a Super Ricohflex). The plates holding the cameras were
all shimmed so that the three cameras all point in the same direction
vertically and horizontally. The tripod spacing is the
maximum it could be while still allowing me to reach both
tilt handles for aiming the cameras up and down.
