Many things are passing through the transom these days, but when this little unit came in, complete with magnetic feet, we couldn’t wait to place it onto something in a Spiderman type pose.

The Gorillapod Video Tripod‘s size is small, but the usefulness is mighty. As long as you pay attention to weight.
Point and shoots, and the simple vid cameras live best on this unit.

Built for the new generations of Flip Video cams and others in that category, the biggest complaint about those vid cams is the shaky cam effect: they are so light that every hand movement is amplified on video. First of all, putting it on a tripod of any sort will help.

By having a built-in ballhead with a panning arm function, you have a better chance at getting a smooth shot.
If you want to pan though, you will still have to hold onto the legs and steady the unit to get a smooth move.

Made of aluminum, we were surprised at just how “damped” or fluid the head was.

Plus the arm was designed to easily be adjusted to fold in for packing.

One of the other touches we like is that the tripod mount is removable and allows you to screw that into your camera before you attach it to the Gorillapod video head.

Now, we are about photography here and that’s where we saw the potential for this tool.
Recently we have been experimenting more with time lapse photography, and specifically using the GOPRO HD camera for it’s intervolameter function.
This camera has the ability to do 2,5,10, 30, or 60 sec interval 5 megapixel single shots, and when tied together, make a pretty cool time-lapse sequence. Very Koyaanisqatsi.
Plus it can shoot full 1080p HD video, with audio, if that’s what you need.

As you can see, it’s a tiny unit, and when we saw the Gorillapod Video, we knew they were made for each other.

We have heavy duty suction cups that came with the camera, but the infinite maneuvering capabilities of this perfectly sized tripod, make it a “go to” bit of gear.

Of course, this will also be used for our point and shoot cameras on the road. It may not shoot out webbing like Spiderman, and swing from buildings, but it will stick pretty darn good to metal surfaces. Like a fridge perhaps.

Overall, we are really happy when a company comes up with a smart addition to a solid roster of products.
And at a reasonable price. About $30. USD.
We are big fans of the entire line, and this new addition will be going right into the bag.

(hmmmm….future weekly giveaway?)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 4th, 2010 at 11:56 am and is filed under Photo News, Product Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.