Marco Leavitt
September 7th, 2005, 08:12 PM
I haven't seen a lot written about K-Tek's budget line, so I thought I'd give my impressions in case it's helpful to somebody. My plans to buy one of their top of the line poles just haven't worked out budgetwise, so I went for a KE-110 because we need a second pole pretty bad.
First thought, taking it out of the box was "no way. This thing rattles like a suit of armor." And it does. I knew that was going to be an issue, but man, I honestly didn't think it was going to be this bad. Curious to know if Lightwave poles have the same problem. Somehow though, in practical booming situations, it isn't a problem. A movement jarring enough to induce a rattle would almost certainly incur air turbulence on the mic or a rumble somewhere else. It works, even though you'd swear it wouldn't when you first pick the thing up. No doubt this is going to bite me on the butt someday, but real peace of mind is why you pay big bucks for the fancy poles. Still want to get one of those. Just can't do it today. For now, I'll have to settle for keeping a light touch.
The locking collars are fantastic! Big and easy to grip. You can extend each section all the way out, no problem, and the relatively big tubing feels nice in your hand. Extended to any length, it's way stiffer than our comparable Gitzo (which is still a pretty good pole) and lighter too.
All in all, yeah, I'd say this is a nice pole for a couple of hundred bones, but we haven't really put it through the paces yet. I guess that will be the real test. I may post back here after this weekend's shoot if we use it. We don't usually use any equipment this new on a job.
First thought, taking it out of the box was "no way. This thing rattles like a suit of armor." And it does. I knew that was going to be an issue, but man, I honestly didn't think it was going to be this bad. Curious to know if Lightwave poles have the same problem. Somehow though, in practical booming situations, it isn't a problem. A movement jarring enough to induce a rattle would almost certainly incur air turbulence on the mic or a rumble somewhere else. It works, even though you'd swear it wouldn't when you first pick the thing up. No doubt this is going to bite me on the butt someday, but real peace of mind is why you pay big bucks for the fancy poles. Still want to get one of those. Just can't do it today. For now, I'll have to settle for keeping a light touch.
The locking collars are fantastic! Big and easy to grip. You can extend each section all the way out, no problem, and the relatively big tubing feels nice in your hand. Extended to any length, it's way stiffer than our comparable Gitzo (which is still a pretty good pole) and lighter too.
All in all, yeah, I'd say this is a nice pole for a couple of hundred bones, but we haven't really put it through the paces yet. I guess that will be the real test. I may post back here after this weekend's shoot if we use it. We don't usually use any equipment this new on a job.