GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

Want one of those fancy, prehensile Gorillapod tripods but don’t have the cash to buy them? Well, we have good news. Good news, that it, if you have a rather well equipped tool-kit, containing some specialist items that cost more than the Gorillapod itself.

The guide comes from the ever-useful Instructables and user Matth3w. The project uses Loc-Line modular hose sections, bolts and – in this case – a block of mahogany. Loc-Line hoses are designed to carry liquid, and to lock into place so you can, say, get water onto a drilling operation without holding a hose. They also work a lot like the sections of a Gorillapod leg.

The tripod is made by drilling three holes into the wooden block. These are then tapped to give them threads, and then some Loc-Line adapters are screwed in. The Loc-Line segments attach to these (using special pliers which themselves cost $10). A standard tripod-mount sized bolt is fixed to the top to attach the camera.

The home-made Gorillapod looks sturdy enough, but it is also rather ugly and, worse, bulky. One of the real Gorillapod’s attractions is its portability. Add in the cost of tools and parts and you may as well just head to Amazon and buy a proper Gorillapod.

Gorilla Pod [Instructables]

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Have you ever needed to attach “your digital camera to cylindrical objects in extreme conditions”? Perhaps you find yourself cold and shivering in a torrential downpour, Thermos in one hand and umbrella in the other, yet desperate to snap a picture whilst you sip your hot beverage?

With the Flymount, you can do it all, and stay dry, warm and refreshed as you clamp the camera onto either the umbrella-shaft or the Thermos itself. The Flymount is an Australian camera-mount and, being from a land that spawns fit, sporty and outgoing progeny, it is made more for extreme sports than for extreme coffee-sipping (itself a real sport in my run-down Barcelona barrio).

The mount is made from glass-reinforced nylon and stainless-steel, and holds on to your camera in two ways. First is the standard tripod-screw, and second is an adjustable retaining-strap which wraps around the camera’s body and stops it from unscrewing itself as it is jiggled and whacked.

On the other end, the urethane-covered jaws screw-clamp down onto “cylindrical objects in extreme conditions.” Your Thermos will have to be very thin, though: the jaws can only bite down on cylindrical objects of between 20-40mm (0.8-1.6-inches) in diameter. It will, however, hold them tight in non-extreme conditions, too.

The Flymount looks pretty tough, and so it should if you are to entrust your ruggedized camera to its embrace as you do “extreme” things on windsurfers or mountain bikes. Having been out of action for a week due to an “extreme” broken leg, I’m thinking of ordering one of these and attaching a camera to the base of one of my crutches, whereupon it can witness me doing some “extreme” hobbling from room to room, and witness the meteor-storm-like hail of fragile cups and gadgets that rain on the kitchen floor as I lumber incompetently through the house and sweep them from every surface.

Available now for AU$95 ($92), cylindrical objects not included.

Flymount product page [Flymount. Thanks, Tom!]

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Here’s how not to pitch a product for review:

I read your review of the Gorillapod video with some interest. I think you were too kind.

The Gorillapod will only solve the problem of shaky video with pocket camcorders if you happen to be shooting near a table or stationary object.

As an avid Flip and Playsport user, I can tell you this isn’t the case most of the time.

The ReadySTEADY is a much better stabilizer for pocket video cameras. Better yet, it really does fit in your pocket. Try that with a Gorillapod and you could injure yourself.

Check out the ReadySTEADY at readysteadyvideo.com. Better yet, I could send you one. I designed it.

Along with appearing rude, the author also criticizes a tripod for only working on a steady surface. This is, as you know, exactly what it is designed to do. However, the product in question, the ReadySTEADY is actually worth a look, despite this awful introduction.

It’s a kind of poor-man’s Steadicam, and works by adding weight to a video-camera way below its center of gravity. An aluminum puck contains a thick wire with a blob on one end and a tripod screw at the other. Remove the wire, thread it through a hole in the puck and screw into the tripod mount of your Flip or other video-camera. Then put weight on the puck using your free hand.

The ReadySTEADY costs $30. If you have a machine-bolt lying around that will fit your tripod screw (or, say, a Gorillapod) you can just tie a string to that and pull down in the same way, and it will be free. Remember: a hollow aluminum puck will add almost no weight of it’s own, so your string version should work just as well.

ReadySTEADY product page [ReadySTEADY Video. Thanks, David!]

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Congratulations are in order for Joby – there’s a new addition to its Gorillapod family, the Gorillapod Video.

The bandy-legged tripod has the same jointed, prehensile appendages found on its bigger and smaller brothers, only it now has a different head. Designed for small pocket video-cameras like the Flip and the Kodak Zi8, The new ‘pod has a quick-release plate that attaches to a smooth-moving ball-head, giving 360 of pan and 135 of tilt.

Along with its grip-anything legs, the Gorillapod Video also has neodymium magnets in its feet for sticking to metal surfaces. Once you have stopped zooming during shots, the next best thing you can do to make your home-movies look more professional is to use a tripod to get rid of nauseating shake. Now you can do that for just $30, and remember, all the Gorillapods make great iPad stands.

Gorillapod Video [Joby]

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Gary Fong, the company behind those plastic-cup-like attachments you see atop many a photojournalist’s flashguns, has come up with an iPhone 4 tripod mount. The plastic adapter looks like it was given roughly a minute’s thought before a back-of-the-napkin sketch was put into production.

Thanks to the squared-off shape of the iPhone 4, almost no custom-shaping is needed to make a snug-fitting holder. Thus, Fong’s adapter is little more than a C-shaped plastic strip with a metal tripod-bush in the base. That is it, and it’s just the kind of thing that you’d make were you scratching around the junk-drawer for a home-made solution.

But despite its basic design and almost complete lack of fancifying, it could be the most practical iPhone tripod mount we’ve seen. There is no need for suction cups, permanently-attached stick-on adapters or even damage-inviting dock-connectors. You simply slip the iPhone in when you need to take a steady picture. Easy. The adapter should be live on the Fong site on Friday September 3rd for $20.

One final thing: The product pictures raise one really big question. Just where on Earth did Gary Fong get ahold of a white iPhone 4?

Fong website [Gary Fong. Thanks, Zach!]

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After publicly declaring a search for the perfect iPad stand yesterday, Gadget Lab’s benevolent dictator Dylan Tweney put this questio out over Twitter: “@mistercharlie Think you could use a Gorillapod as an iPad stand?”. I rushed to grab my trusty Joby Gorilla Mobile, pausing only to set down a bottle of cold German beer. Blinking as I moved out of the bright sun and into the cool dark interior of Gadget Lab’s Berlin outpost, I bent the jointed tripod into shape…

The result is best summed up by my reply: “Dylan, you’re a genius. Tested and it works great. 2 legs curled to hold iPad, one pushed out back as a stand. Steady.”

Further testing and photographing this morning led to some deeper insights. As you can see from the pictures, the stand is fashioned from the smallest of Joby’s grab-anything tripods, meant for compact cameras and cellphones. Two legs are splayed and bent up at the tips to hook the iPad’s bottom edge. The head in this case the tripod screw is bent back to stop scratching, although removing the screw or replacing it with the soft suction-cup attachment would also work. The third leg is bent back to balance the whole thing.

I’m amazed how well it works. The Gorillapod is sturdy enough to hold the iPad at any angle, in both portrait and landscape orientations. In normal use typing and tapping it is rock solid, but you can also push the iPad back to adjust the angle. For proper typing, you need to lean it back a little further. This is best done by flattening the front legs a little and curling the back leg up to meet the head, like a scorpion’s tail, providing extra support and a narrower angle. You’ll need to do some jiggling to get it rock-steady.

Because all you see at the front is the two feet curling up, it is minimally intrusive. And it even works in bed, letting you prop up the iPad on the mattress to watch a movie. Best of all, the Gorillapod folds up tiny, and is worth carrying along with you anyway because of its multi-tasking abilities. To see how it did in our testing (grimly hanging on to the basket of a bike while it supported a Canon G9 shooting video), follow the link below.

If you already have one, this could be the best iPad stand yet: it’s effectively free. If you don’t, it’ll cost you $30.

Product page [Joby]

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Clearly “inspired” by Joby’s popular Gorillapod, the RM-110 Spide (yeah, we know: spelling fail) from Fotopro is another flexible, ball-jointed camera tripod. Unlike the Gorillapod, the Spide looks like a Terminator’s skeleton.

The Spide has a few other differences. First, the feet are interchangeable. You can choose from spikes, suction cups, magnets and regular soft-stepping rubber. Another addition is locking balls: The Gorillapod hangs on tight enough, but the Spide’s joints can be completely immobilized by clamping them shut with a screwdriver. This is probably less useful than it sounds: one of the best features of the Gorillapod is that it is so quick to deploy.

I wonder, too, about the build quality. A look at Fotopro’s site isn’t exactly confidence-inspiring. Amongst the odd sections (“shooting-sticks” and “working sticks”) you’ll such wonders as the “Charming Red Tripod” and the “Self-Fotor“. If you’re interested, the Spide will make it onto US soil in the last part of the year, for around $60. Those of you who are annoyed by bad spelling might want to save up a few Rs (or even a Y) in the meantime.

Fotopros fully adjustable flexible tripod with interchangeable feet [Gizmag]

Product Site [Fotopro]

Image credit: Gizmag

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