Interfit INT309 Wall Mounting Boom Arm

Oh My God.... I am trying to figure out how it is I never knew about these wall mounted boom arms before now, and furthermore, how I managed to live without them. I just finished renovating a home photo studio. Much of what I photograph are very active dogs, cats and children. I was always worried that something four legged or worse little children, would trip over wires or light stands and injure themselves (or the lights, or both). When I renovated the studio I was tempted to purchase a ceiling track and scissor pulley system but it wasn't quite right for my purposes and the way the studio is set up. So I did a fair amount of research and read the reviews here on Amazon and finally settled on a pair of these as well as a longer boom made by another company.These are fabulous, absolutely fabulous. I have them mounted midway up the left and right side walls. The main challenge was figuring out the best way to mount them since the mounting holes are further apart than the width of the studs (I should have just doubled up the studs when we had the walls open but I didn't think of it. If you are renovating and thinking of using the mounts, add an extra stud wherever you plan to mount this. What I did (thanks to one of the reviewers here who was very generous with his time and photos of how he mounted these) was to first mount a wood block onto the stud and then mount the boom onto the wood block. These things are sturdy mounted that way. They feel rock solid.You get almost a full 180 degree swing up and down and almost 180 degrees left and right. And of course, the arm telescopes out so there is not much that your lights wont reach and for those needs you can always use a tripod mounted light. For my purposes I think these will work almost a hundred percent of the time giving me full on front light, side lights and hair light. And with the longer arm from the other company I can even pull off some back lighting.When we did the renovation we had the outlets mounted up high on the walls as well as in the ceiling so there are no cords on the floor for babies, children, parents or four legged fur creatures to trip on. It is just such a relief to not have to be chronically worried about accidents.These arms are hollow so they are nice an light for easy maneuverability and yet they feel so so so solid with good adjusting hardware onboard as well. If I had one wish for future incarnations of the product it would be that they somehow found a way to air cushion the telescoping arm. Not sure whether its possible though.I will try to photograph the setup so you can see what I am referring to in this review. For now, suffice it to say that these are a MAJOR improvement in the studio and I don't know how I lived without them.BOTTOM LINE: Great boom arms. Get things off the floor and onto the wall. Perfect for small spaces as well.EDITED a few months later.... I still love these and for my purposes they are the best option, but they aren't quite as easy as I originally thought. Maneuvering them can at times be cumbersome and there are some angles that are difficult to achieve. I ended up purchasing an odd little extension bar that helps me achieve some angles that were difficult. I still really really wish these were air cushioned. I've added a couple of photos so you can get an idea of what they look like in use and how they look when the shoot is over and I fold them up.I still consider these an amazing purchase... they have freed up so much floor space in the studio and there are absolutely no wires to trip on. Still highly recommend

The July 2018 version of the Interfit INT309 articulating telescopic swinging wall mounted boom arm is no longer available in aluminum, which by the way does not scratch easily, because it is not painted, but now the seem to only be available in black, which is not what the product photo displayed when I bought this. The black is paint, and like all paint, it does scratch off. I bought two of these a year or so ago, and they are Aluminum poles, and I love these. They are just as functional as the Manfroto's, for 1/3 of the investment price. You can mount them upside down, or right side up, or from the ceiling, they are versatile.mthey hold the weight too, I maximized the specifications with my cameras. I also use them for lighting. When I mounted them, here's my trick, I aligned one side of the mount bracket holes onto the center of the wall stud with a pair of wood lags (pre drill a smaller pilot hole), then used a pair of Cobra DrillerToggle 367R heavy duty screw-in anchors for the drywall (1/4 inch X 3 inch) It needs all four corners secured for balance, but the two lags in the stud will hold the weight. The anchors aren't cheap, and if one snaps, Home Depot will replace it. I was sloppy and found the stud "center" with the nail method. Tap a Sheetrock nail (small nail) into the drywall onto the 2x4 wall stud, then pull it out, move it over slightly to the left (and afterwards, to the right) until you have determined the edge of the stud on both sides, in the middle is where you want to pre drill the pilot hole with a drill bit half the diameter of the lag, so the lag wood screw fits tight. Yeah, I said sloppy, if you have an accurate stud finder, go for it. So, would I use the Cobra anchors on all four corners of the mounting plate? Sure, but I didn't test these for the weight, however, each anchor supports 110 pounds, so, yeah, it shouldn't be a problem. Be sure to grab some washers for the lags and anchor bolts, you'll need them. Now, be sure to inspect your product once it arrives, make sure the bracket "box" that hold the extension poles is a tight, snug fit with little or no play from side to side. I had to send one back due to too much excessive space on each side of the pole (see comparison photo). The replacement was better, but still, I added an additional washer on each side of the main extension pole, inside of the mounting "box" to take up the slack, now it is perfect! I didn't have any problems with the smaller support pole with its accompanying plastic bushing spacers. I did not use the supplied mounting bolts. These Interfit Boom arms are truly awesome to have in the studio, plus, you can add an Impact (brand) Super Clamp to attach additional gadgets along the pole as well, those are like $20. Look for the Impact brand model number CA-102 3/8inch Rapid Adapter mounting accessory, or look at the Pergear TH3 tripod ball head camera mount for like under $20, solid product too! I have older heavy Sony HDR-FX1 high definition broadcast cameras, and have no problems at all. Great and very versatile boom arm, and the quality is still there for an unbeatable investment price. Love mine, and I will buy more for the other studio spaces. I just wish the Aluminum poles would at least be an option, I would pay $5 more to have them.