For only $60 this seems like a cool weekend project.
“For about $60, you can build a camera crane for a lightweight videocamera. The nifty thing about this design is that you can not only the move crane up and down and rotate it, but you can also pan and tilt the camera at the end of the crane. Plus, it’s pretty lightweight and can be easily disassembled and transported.
The design is really simple: on both sides of a telescopic extension pole sit a fixture that can pan and tilt, using two hinges. The fixtures are identical, except for the camera mount.
The fixtures are connected to each other by 3 pieces of wire. The resulting effect is that if you move one fixture, the other fixture copies the exact movements.
The range of motion is about +/- 45 degrees left&right and up and down. As there are no pulleys or complex lever systems, the motion is pretty smooth. The hinges need some more work, they tend to stick a little and make some noise. I’ll remove some material to make it smoother.”
