Avalon boom poles
 

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.

I did a thread endorsing this pole about a year ago and I didn't get many replies...

CLICK HERE for my initial impressions.

You'll also see that the one reply I DID get will make you glad you got the K-Tek over the LightWave.

I'm sorry about the rattle issue, but I think this is still easily the best value boom. That pole you have there is 6 OUNCES lighter then the LightWave pole... that's a lot! Especially considering they're the same price.

To knock another 6 ounces off that K-tek you'd have to spend at least another $180 for the graphite version... or even more for some other higher end pole.

You already have the two highest priorities for a boom covered... lightweight and stiffness... plus the thing is dirt cheap.

I got the graphite pole at $399 and I think the extra cash is almost a waste over the aluminum pole... I guess the quiet nature of graphite was one thing I got included that I didn't think about at the time.