Description
The Impact 7' wall-mounted boom arm provides an overhead adjustable location to mount photography equipment to in a studio environment. In this House of Hacks episode, Harley unboxes a new boom arm and gives his first impressions of it.Purchase on Amazon: Impact 7' wall-mounted boom arm (Affiliate link)
Impact web site: http://www.impactstudiolighting.com
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For a written transcript, go to Impact 7' wall-mounted boom arm unboxing and first impressions
Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com
Transcript
Today at the House of Hacks we're going to unbox some studio equipment.[Intro music]
Hi Makers, Builders and Photographers. Harley here.
My buddy Rich ordered a 7 foot, long-arm, adjustable, wall mounted bracket for studio lights for his photography studio.
And this is going to be an unboxing of that unit and kind of first impressions; see how I like it based on initial impressions.
I expect two follow-up videos from this.
One will be where I'm making a bracket that allows us to mount it in different locations in the studio in different rooms so it's not kind of a single fixed location.
It'll give us a little bit of flexibility in the studio.
And then I expect a second follow-up video of real world experiences with it. How we like it once it's in place and we've put it through it's paces.
So if this is your first time here at House of Hacks, welcome! I'm glad you're here.
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So let's get to this.
He ordered this from B & H. It came in a box. It's not terribly heavy. I'm guessing probably less than 20 pounds. I probably could look on the packing list if I really was that interested in it. It's not terribly heavy.
It's got some bubble wrap.
Lots of bubble wrap.
Wow! Lots and lots and lots of bubble wrap.
So, this box, big huge box, it's only about a third full. We've got a box inside a box.
And the official name for this is an "Impact Wall-Mounted Boom Arm, 7' HD." I assume that refers to "heavy duty."
It's got mounting hardware included. One year limited warrantee.
And I'll leave a link to the manufacturer's web site in the description below.
So now we'll just kind of slice open the inside box.
It's also got B & H tape on it. Makes me wonder if it's been opened once before.
It doesn't really make a big... probably a big difference, as long as it's in good shape. Somebody may have ordered it and it wasn't quite what they were looking for.
Trying to figure out how this box opens up. There we go.
And there's the good stuff. It's of course wrapped in plastic. Boy, it looks like it's all already assembled. There is a little bit of hardware and a manual.
So we've got a little, couple page instruction manual. Basically says loosen these knobs, specifications.
Maximum extension 7 feet.
Minimum extension 3 feet 9, or 3.9 feet.
Maximum recommended load at full extension is 12 pounds. So it should handle a light without any problem.
Pan movement 180 degrees.
Tilt movement 180 degrees.
Attachment type is standard studs.
And that's pretty much it. A couple other minor statistics. That's it.
And then some mounting hardware. Basically just some screws, washers, drywall anchors, a Allen wrench, probably for some adjustment somewhere that you set once and forget it, and some sort of bracket that we'll probably figure out once we get more into it.
And now we have the unit itself. It is just wrapped up in some plastic. Big plastic bag.
Like I said, it looks like it's fully assembled so, besides mounting it, I don't think there's much you need to do to it to put it into use.
It's not like there's assembly of different pieces required.
So this piece mounts to the wall. It's a little bit stiff, but that's probably adjustable.
We have these brackets here that I expect will allow it to tip. There we go.
And there's some bubble wrap on here. It doesn't look like it's ever been taken apart so even if the box was opened, I don't think it's probably an issue of any sort.
OK, I got the bubble wrap off of this. Just a little bit of packing stuff to keep it from getting scratched up.
There's two sliders on here that control the angle up and down. So this slider slides on the bottom part that's kind of a supporting bracket for the main top piece. And it slides up and down this way which allows you to get a whole lot, a huge range of motion on it this way.
Then on the end, there's another adjustment over here that allows you to extend the reach out this direction.
Overall the whole thing seems really well built. It's high quality, heavy duty metal all the way around.
It's got metal screws everywhere. Lock nuts. Metal inserts where the screws go in. I can't tell, this is either really high grade plastic or aluminum brackets where all the screws go in and hold everything together. So overall I'm really impressed with the build quality on this.
On the end here, it does have a mounting stud that has both 3/8ths and 1/4 inch studs on it so you can mount cameras... any kind of camera gear on it that uses those two standards.
This stud can be mounted on either side of the extension tube or on the end. And since the extension tube swivels, you can put it anywhere full 360 degrees all the way around. You don't really need to have... put it on both sides because you can swivel the light around. Or swivel the bar around. But you can also put it in the end if you want to.
Overall I'm really impressed with the build quality on this.
So now I need to make a mounting bracket and mount it in the studio and get some real world experience with it.
Until next time, go make something.
Perfection's not required. Fun is!
