NEEWER 30"/76cm Horizontal Tripod Center Axis with 3/8" Screw, Aluminum Alloy 360° Rotatable 180°Vertical Adjustable Tripod Extension Boom Arm for Macro Overhead Photography (Load up to 22lb)

How have I managed without one of these for so many years? It makes some hard jobs so easy. I am thinking especially of the difficulties when photographing a page from a very large book, or a photo, or many other items for which the camera needs to be placed above the subject, pointing down. With a very large item, to get the camera centrally placed above it, the tripod legs intrude into the edges of the image. However, with this boom arm, problem solved! It screwed straight onto the top of my tripod, from which I had removed the ball head. I could have screwed the camera onto the end of the boom arm, but the profile of the arm is not round, so it cannot be rotated, so I mounted the ball head taken off the tripod onto the boom and initially put the camera onto that, so that I could rotate the camera to exactly horizontal. Though the tripod used had a centre column, adjusting the height of this precisely for copying work is difficult, so I then mounted a Novoflex Castel-L focussing slide onto the ball head and the camera onto that. Precise focussing was then easy. Getting the camera exactly above the centre of the image was also easy, thanks to the boom arm. IMPORTANT! Before attaching the camera to the boom , I hung a bag containing a weight similar to the that of the camera onto the other end of the boom arm. I did a quick, simple test with a photo as subject. A quick grab shot with the phone gives an idea of the setup to copy this object. This boom arm was an item from Amazon Warehouse, returned by a customer, and the description warned that the box was damaged and there were some scratches. Well, the previous purchaser obviously found opening boxes a challenge and so managed to do a lot of damage to the box. However, this is just a brown cardboard box for use when posting the item, so the damage was not particularly important. (See pictures of the box in someone else’s review.) It’s difficult to see how the previous purchaser managed to scratch the boom in two places, however he/she did. However, this was less obvious than I had feared, and as the purchase price was a fraction under 53% of the normal price, I decided that this was reasonable and that the Amazon Warehouse description was fair. On the boom arm that I received, the bottom socket for mounting the boom onto a tripod is ⅜ inch, not ¼ inch, as reported by one reviewer. The arm comes with a small instruction manual in English and Chinese, and the English (at least) is printed far too small to be readable comfortably. It indicates that the item is supplied in parts and has to be assembled by the purchaser, however, the one that I received came already assembled. Was this done by the previous purchaser? Given his/her incompetence at opening cardboard boxes, this seems unlikely (although perhaps this might account for the minor scratching on the boom). More significantly, the shape of the polystyrene in the box seems to indicate that it is supplied already assembled. Would I buy one of these at full price? Now that I have handled it and used it, I can say a firm YES. It is well designed, well made and works extremely well. Incidentally, in the one that I received the ⅜ inch to ¼ inch adapters are made of metal, not of plastic as stated by one reviewer.

So far so good and it is enabling me to do macro work on the table. Happily supports a full frame camera, macro lens and ring light if all are placed close to the tripod centre - will overbalance if placed further away. Being able to put two bits of kit on the other side of the pivot point helps, but you might need to hang a more serious counterweight to stop overbalancing. The cross section of the bar is not round, it is triangular with rounded corners, which limits the rotation positions for the additional two mounting points. This can cause issues if you want to mount a screen and set it at the best possible angle for your viewing - you can't, you have a choice of 3 positions rotating around the bar! Note that once everything is positioned and set up I have noticed a little vibration at the camera end which is completely expected - just wait for it to settle, which it does in a couple of seconds, before you take the shots. It has really enabled me to do focus stacking macro work at a comfortable height so well worth the money.

In his spare time my husband does lots of product review videos which involve taking some overhead shots too. We tried lots of crude ways to get this to work but it wasn't really helpful and needed lot of effort. So I was very pleased when this came up as we wanted something more professional and stable. I must say this is exactly what we needed. We already had a really nice tripod so all we needed was the cross arm. The cross arm is really very sturdy and durable and has some weight to it. I really like the fact that it has 3 mounting heads to connect various devices. It gives us the flexibility to attach the camera and lights. It does take some time and effort to understand how to use it but once you are set then its fairly easy. Overall a good product. Would have really helped if it came with a carry bag.

Generally really good product... But better suited to mirrorless/lighter systems. It probably does just about work for 11kg in some weird configuration, but it wouldn't be a great idea. For me the limiting factor is as much the tripod setup it's supported on (Manfrotto 055CLB here) as much as anything. Buy for a relatively cheap option for your overhead shooting needs, but don't expect it to be professional level.

I'm using it to hold a mirrorless camera over a negative holder to digitally photography negatives. The arm has a very long reach and is stable, I do use a counter balance in a small shopping bag.

Does the job and works fine BUT the central gimbal cannot be micro adjusted as the locking mechanism has a ratchet plate, so you are limited with the movement ratio up and down. Some form of friction plate would be much better with a locking option.

手持ちの雲台やら色々組み合わせて構図の自由度が格段に上がりました 剛性や、精度も充分です

I received the package with few scratches because the carton was damage

Perfetto come da descrizione.

Very sturdy and versatile design

Un peu cher mais assez solide Utilisé avec un Reflex Panasonic GH5s + Un petit sac de sable pour équilibrage