Polecam is a single-operator lightweight, portable jib-arm and broadcast camera system with a 1.5 to 6 metre (five to 20 foot) reach, weighing a maximum of 20 kg (44 pounds), which packs away into two bags with a carrying weight of just 35 kg (77 pounds). It can be rigged and de-rigged quickly - average rig time is just 10 minutes and de-rig 5 minutes - and is unique in that it requires no setup tools. Smooth, floating crane shots can be made quickly and efficiently with fast relocation.
Polecam is designed to be mounted on a standard lightweight tripod and dolly, but can also be used hand-held via the supplied body harness, great for vehicle tracking shots.
The boom is rigged from lightweight carbon-fibre tubes, which slot easily together. It can be rigged using from one to five tubes, with or without the unique elbow section which can be used to get up and over obstacles, or in low ceiling studios.
Polecam provides innovative and unique shots where often other cranes could not go. Polecam enhances production values for virtually any type of program.
Polecam came into being when extreme sports cameraman/director Steffan Hewitt was directing a series of windsurfing kit commercials in Hawaii and found it impossible using conventional equipment to get a shot of the windsurfer, at speed, shot from the front with a wide angle lens. He experimented with a minicam fitted to the end of a soundman’s boom pole. This was not a new idea, but it worked extremely well, and he got the shots he needed. Steffan realized there was a need for a Polecam product, but it would have to be a lightweight, go-anywhere rig with a remote, joystick-controlled high precision pan & tilt head. He returned to the UK, and designed and built the prototype. Polecam now sells successfully around the world, a UK product, hand-built at their base near Bedford.
Polecam distributes TOSHIBA SD and HD remote head cameras and is distributor and European Service Centre for the ICONIX remote head HD camera. It also sells Fujinon prime lenses for these cameras.