pack/hiking/light weight tripod
- This topic has 15 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated Mar 15, 2011 at 4:02 pm by
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Think I’ve found my new light weight, back pack, hiking,biking, in a pinch tripod thanks to Joby.
Had looked at gorilla pods in the past and had even tested their “heaviest” pod. It collapsed under the weight of my body and 180mm f3.5 macro so I wrote them off and hadn’t thought about them since.
Yesterday was in my local store for another minor item and happened to see a new version….Or at the least, one I’d not seen before. The packaging says good to 11 pounds, and testing with in store 5D and 70-200 f2.8 IS was promising. So I paid the $160.00 brought it home and gave it the acid test.
This thing (Gorilla Pod Focus) will be with almost always I imagine.
Seeing is beleiving as they say.
Jobu Gimbal (2.5 pounds)
1DmkIv ( 3 pounds)
800mm f5.6 (10 pounds)15.5 pounds and its holding steady
Matt I’m just more than a little tickled. Even
my carbon adds considerable weight to a pack, not to mention size and bulk. The days of wanting a pod on hand “just in case” but dreading lugging one around are over.I’m not even sure I’ll need my ball head (1+ pds) anymore due to the articulating nature of the gorillas.If it can hold that rig, it will hold anything else I can throw at it.
It’s not perfect, lacking heightHi John
That looks like an interesting macro field option. Have you figured out the angle of failure ( how low to the ground does it go before it stops being usefull?)
Will
Hey Will, macro was one of my first application thoughts. Where before I didn’t like lugging my mountaineer when wading streams, and trying to fish, this will be cake to throw in a small pack or jacket pocket for that matter. I’ll do a few more trials tomorrow. Im very interested in how it will hold when the body/lens isn’t centred over it. It held up fine using the gimbal and angling the big lens, s as the center mass was above it. I think in all I left it sitting like that for 20-30 minutes with no creep.
With the weight of the above rig, I either had keep unit vertical ( legs positioned similiar to a traditional tripod ^). Or ss you see above where they are soft S shaped, or just a few inches vertical and the legs splayed out along the floor, or folded back in on themselves. Basically anything other than roughly 60degrees or less with straight legs.
So I imagine, if your willing to lie down and mount it straight to a lens foot, you could use it such that the plane is just a few inches off the ground, if you fold the legs back in on themselves or at 90 degrees on the ground and then a few inches up to form the support.
When I said the 5D and 200 f2.8 IS was promising, in truth it was rock solid. I plan on testing it upside down on branches or sideways to thinner trees etc. Other uses I can see are attaching flash heads on branches, up n trees etc for remote triggering. I’m also thinking I’ll be able to mount it to my tripod so in the fall when Im chasing white tails, I can have my long lens on my tripod and a second with a shorter lens ready to go right there beside it.
Anyways, I’ll fool around tomorrow with a few different lenses and a few configs and post a few more pics so you might see and imagine some applications.
sorry for th double post.
Heres the manufactorers link to it.
http://joby.com/gorillapod/focusFew shots for you will with the 180 f3.5 macro and flash bracket mounted.Im guessing total weight of rig around 7pds, maybe 9pds factoring in the ballhead, flash bracket, flash head.
Few words, I have no doubts it will hold the weight of anything I can put on it. It will slip around depending on what your setting it up on. For example, trying to attach it to the chair arm, the weight of the camera caused it to rotate around the horizontal until I used an arm to prevent gravity pulling down on the rig. (see pics 3 and 4)
Long story short, the possibilities are endless, some time and care may/will be needed securing it depending on the variables.
I generally don’t recomend much, but if your like me and do various activities where carrying a full size tripod isn’t always desireable or doable…cost aside, this thing is nothing to pack/carry even for ultra light hike,back country trips,air travel and it works in so much as being able ti support the weight of your rig without creep or collapsing.
Hey Neal.
The Ball Head I have on it is Markins Q20 (their heaviest and compares extremely well to RRS’s biggest). Yesterday I had a Gimbal on the Gorilla. I use plates on everything ( thats a RRS L plate on my body) so arca swiss dovetailed compatible ball heads/gimbals are a must for meThe Gorilla comes with a bushing which allows you to mount ball heads, pan/tilt heads, Gimbals etc…..or you can mount directly to the camera body, lens foot. So yeah you could use your BH-40.
Apple.
Im a sucker for them. They just make good products if over priced in some cases. The magic pad is one of their best accessories imo.Couple pics with it in action.
Set up: Took a little adjusting to get it to hold.
MKiv with 180mm f3.5 macro + 68mm ext tubes, flash and bracket, on the Q20 ball head with cable release.
ISO 800
f/16
5 seconds
That image appeared a bit soft. whether due to vibration, or manual focus or some other factor theres no way to know, although I suspect simply missing manual focus.
2nd image, same tech’s
About the magic track pad, does it click and otherwise behave just like the track pad on the macbook pros?
Except for a couple very minor differences it behaves exactly the same. In fact, once it’s detected by your bluetooth, when you set it up or make changes your doing so with the same utility (track pad) in the mac sys preferences.
Thanks for the informative pics and tests John- that looks like a handy option in a number of circumstances.
Will
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