Gorillapod

Who Should Buy It?

Anyone who owns and uses a camera

the Cost

$24.95 - 54.95, depending on the model

the Good

Nice construction, great price, extremely flexible tripod solution

the Bad

Nothing bad here!

A few weeks ago, I reviewed a tripod by Gitzo, which is regarded as one of the premiere tripod manufacturers around. While I love my Gitzo, the Gorillapod tops its rating!

If you haven’t already seen the Gorillapod, it is a compact tripod (coming in at about a foot tall). Unlike other tripods, it has flexible, gripping legs, allowing you to put your camera almost anywhere. It comes in three sizes, depending on the size/weight of your camera.

I bought mine primarily for my new G9 point and shoot. The smallest version is meant for point and shoot cameras, but because the G9 is a little larger than others, I decided to get the medium version, which is meant for light SLRs. You can also purchase a heavy-duty version meant for SLRs with zoom lenses. Check out the site for full information.

The Good

Simply put, this thing rocks. It is small enough to fit in a backpack, but is still very solid. Knowing that the legs were flexible made me a little hesitant to put my expensive camera on it. But, after seeing it in person, any concern was removed. It easily holds my camera in any position, allowing me to set it on uneven surfaces, or when needed, wrap it around something like a car mirror or tree limb.

See the picture at the right of my Gorillapod in action at a recent family outing (click on it for a larger version). We wanted to take a family self-portrait and set the Gorillapod on the windshield of our van. It worked like a champ.

The Bad

After several weeks of use, I can’t find a single downside. Over time, I’m a little curious to see if the hinges will loosen up to much and become less effective - I haven’t heard anything about that from other reviewers, though. I expect that I’ll continue enjoying this great product for a while!

The Interesting

Joby (Gorillapod’s manufacturer) does a few interesting things. First, they seem to be a very environmentally friendly company. While I’m not as green as I probably should be, I do appreciate a company’s solid effort. And, they’ve turned it into a price savings for you. When at their web site, you can actually order any one of the products for about $3 less if you choose to not have it packaged (thereby saving packaging waste).

Also, they provide a Flash clip for the SLR versions that slides into the clip area and holds a portable flash like the Nikon SB-800 or Canon 580 EX II.

The Verdict

Do you own a camera? Then you should also own a Gorillapod. It’s low cost, low profile and high versatility make this an amazing purchase.