Anyone here use Mountain King Trekking poles, especially interested to here if you use the Expedition Photo pole?
What do you think of them?
J
What do you think of them?
J
Mountain King Trekking poles
- Thread starter Quixoticgeek
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No experience with those poles J sorry.
One thing i will say is, i would never buy any twist lock type poles again, every pair i've had either ended up locking up or slipping, so i only use flip-lock types now.
Best hiking poles i've owned so far are my Locus CPS3's
Quick-lock, really light at 148 grams but they've also proved to be really strong so far, enough that they've dragged my 90kg up hills
No camera mount, but have you seen the Stickpic?
One thing i will say is, i would never buy any twist lock type poles again, every pair i've had either ended up locking up or slipping, so i only use flip-lock types now.
Best hiking poles i've owned so far are my Locus CPS3's
Quick-lock, really light at 148 grams but they've also proved to be really strong so far, enough that they've dragged my 90kg up hills
No camera mount, but have you seen the Stickpic?
One thing i will say is, i would never buy any twist lock type poles again, every pair i've had either ended up locking up or slipping, so i only use flip-lock types now.
Best hiking poles i've owned so far are my Locus CPS3's
Quick-lock, really light at 148 grams but they've also proved to be really strong so far, enough that they've dragged my 90kg up hills
My current poles are twist lock and I've not had any issue with them really. I overloaded them recently when trying to use one as a tent pole and pushed it into the ground to hard, which made the twist lock unhappy, took it apart, fettled it, put back, all good.
The camera mount is the most important feature for me. The Stickpic won't take 2kg of camera.
Julia
Have you seen Pacer Poles? A few folk on here use them, after having a go on a set they seem very good. They come with a camera mount point.
When I need to upgrade I'll be getting a set I think.
When I need to upgrade I'll be getting a set I think.
Yes, I had a look at them, but the handle design doesn't work with how I use walking poles. I tend to (ab)use my walking poles in something not to dissimilar to the Nordic Walking style. For this the funky ergonomic handle of the pacers doesn't work unfortunately.
Julia
Beat me to it Kit, I was just looking for the link
I love my Pacers but they've started to jam up recently, I think using them as shelter supports for a few years probably hasn't helped. The expanding bolt is starting to lose it's grip inside the tube ends, and the plastic wants to slip rather than making the bolt reduce or expand. My ideal pole would be the ally Pacer but with flick-locks, I've picked up a 2nd hand set of Lekis on OM which I might take the flick-locks off.
EDIT:
oops, got sidetracked writing that
I love my Pacers but they've started to jam up recently, I think using them as shelter supports for a few years probably hasn't helped. The expanding bolt is starting to lose it's grip inside the tube ends, and the plastic wants to slip rather than making the bolt reduce or expand. My ideal pole would be the ally Pacer but with flick-locks, I've picked up a 2nd hand set of Lekis on OM which I might take the flick-locks off.
EDIT:
oops, got sidetracked writing that
Big thumbs up from me bud.
Beat me to it Kit, I was just looking for the link
I love my Pacers but they've started to jam up recently, I think using them as shelter supports for a few years probably hasn't helped. The expanding bolt is starting to lose it's grip inside the tube ends, and the plastic wants to slip rather than making the bolt reduce or expand. My ideal pole would be the ally Pacer but with flick-locks, I've picked up a 2nd hand set of Lekis on OM which I might take the flick-locks off.
EDIT:
oops, got sidetracked writing that
I've been thinking of same thing. I wonder if these would work?
Beat me to it Kit, I was just looking for the link
I love my Pacers but they've started to jam up recently, I think using them as shelter supports for a few years probably hasn't helped. The expanding bolt is starting to lose it's grip inside the tube ends, and the plastic wants to slip rather than making the bolt reduce or expand. My ideal pole would be the ally Pacer but with flick-locks, I've picked up a 2nd hand set of Lekis on OM which I might take the flick-locks off.
EDIT:
oops, got sidetracked writing that
Take a gander at the Locus CPS3's, light, flick-locks plus they seem to be standing up well so far.
They're £4 each at Rock & Run I think, I pinged off an email to Heather earlier to see if they'll make me a new set up with flick-locks. Not sure what they'll say as they can't really do it commercially with the BD bits I wouldn't have thought
Let me know how you get on bud as I would be very interested in switching over to the flick locks. Mainly because the poles/twists are a pain in the **** to move when wet so the flicks should make things much easier.
Have to agree with you, have managed to jam/lock several (admittedly cheap) twist locks now that flip-locks do seem the way forward.
And to make it worse I've never been able to unjam any of the poles.
Not used the MK poles, maybe something like this could work for you though? Can't see it being any less stable than the MK photo pole?
Doesn't work, it's only rated to 1lb, and I don't really fancy risking my camera to something like that.
J
Thinking from the other side, is it not possible to use a lighter camera and still get good results?
Or use the heavy camera for most your pics and have a smaller lighter one for using on your hiking pole?
I use a minipod with a velcro strap to clip my phone to the end of my hiking pole, certainly no where professional quality wise, but it does snap the memories.
Or use the heavy camera for most your pics and have a smaller lighter one for using on your hiking pole?
I use a minipod with a velcro strap to clip my phone to the end of my hiking pole, certainly no where professional quality wise, but it does snap the memories.
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Re the carbon tripod, looked at, drooled at, ran away from the several hundred quid asking price...
J
J
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Nomad
Guest
If grit gets into the threads of twist locks, they can get messed up (ie, ruined). Lever locks can work loose, but good ones allow you to adjust the tension/friction.
If I wanted to use something like that, I'd make one that can. (Well, one that can take much more - a 2kg camera on a 2kg gizmo is one shock load away from failure.)
Are you looking for something to use as a monopod, or to rig up some sort of tripod? How long for long exposures? Hands-off remote release, or a steadying aid with the camera still in the hands? Do you need tilt (ball head or whatever)? You and the support (or the support itself) free-standing, or you leaning against something to increase stability?
What camera/lens? Where is the centre of mass?
Thought my rant elsewhere might make this thread spark back up.
My current camera is a Canon 650d with a 17-85mm IS lense on the front.
I am after a monopod, so that I can stabilise the camera when taking shots. It's not for massive long exposures, it's not for taking self portraits, it's just so I can stick the camera on it to take some weight and make things steadier when taking that little bit longer exposure than my hand holding alone would allow.
Hence asking about the mountain king poles.
I currently hike with a pair of Mckinley Evolution Lite AS poles, which as a trekking pole are great and have served me very well since I got them 3-4 years ago. A friend uses Mountain King poles for hiking and rates them highly, I just wanted to know if anyone had used the mountain king expedition photo pole.
Which appears to be not the case.
Julia
