The Joby GorillaPod 5K tripod is Joby’s professional-grade versatile tripod mannequin. Joby has made a reputation for itself over the previous few a long time as a purveyor of an modern type of tripods that use articulated ball joints that twist round something and the whole lot with a view to provide the flexibility to stabilize your digicam wherever it’s possible you’ll end up.
Key specs:
Materials: Aluminum, ABS plastic, chrome steel and TPE
Leg sections: 1
Weight: 1.6lbs
Max load: 11 lbs
Folded peak: 13 inches
Ball head or pan/tilt head: Ball head
Though it somewhat seems to be extra like a baby’s toy than one thing you may affiliate with a precision bit {of professional} pictures package the selection of supplies and cautious engineering has led to a product that’s concurrently each inflexible and versatile in all the proper locations. Earlier iterations have reportedly fallen quick after put on and tear has led the ball joints to return unfastened however this newest providing guarantees a lot stiffer joints and a ball-head package that may carry the load of a DSLR plus lens.
The Joby GorillaPod 5K Tripod has primarily been designed with Instagrammers and YouTubers in thoughts so it’s ideally suited for on-the-go images and movies in journey eventualities – significantly selfies and straight-to-camera clips. However the query is, does it provide something helpful for the stargazers, long-exposure fanatics and evening sky photographers amongst us? The reality is each sure, and no, relying on what you wish to shoot and the place you’re going to be doing it.
Joby GorillaPod 5K tripod evaluation
Joby GorrillaPod 5K Tripod evaluation: Design
- Light-weight and compact
- Sensible for on-the-go eventualities
- Straightforward to make use of
The GorillaPod 5K is primarily designed to affix itself to railings, timber and absolutely anything within the city panorama in addition to rocks and craggy pure panorama options. The articulated ball joints are product of a mixture of chrome steel and aluminum with rubber across the widest a part of every ball which supplies it a softer and extra tactile really feel than if it was all metallic. It has a sensible dimension, too, because it’s this that enables the GorillaPod to stay on to no matter you select to connect it to with out slipping.
The joints are the proper mixture of flexible and stiff; they’re versatile sufficient to control into place but inflexible sufficient to make sure that they keep there when you’ve determined the place you need them.
The ball head has solely two knobs; a smaller one for securing your complete head into place on the horizontal airplane and a bigger one for rotating the ball head. Like most ball heads, it additionally has a divot to allow vertical-shaped compositions. The ball head is available in a somewhat delightfully zingy pink aluminum and (in our checks at the least) it swivels with ease with out colder situations affecting the metallic and impeding its motion.
We’re testing the complete GorillaPod 5K package which includes the tripod itself plus the ball head. You should buy the tripod with out the ball head and affix your individual, if you have already got one, because it makes use of a typical screw. You can even take away a part of that screw to disclose the usual screw that goes straight into the underside of the digicam so it could even be used with out the ball head hooked up.
The connector plate makes use of the Arca-Swiss design and is positioned straight into place somewhat than sliding out and in. The Arca-Swiss design, should you’ve not come throughout it but, is a superb piece of standardization in tripod design as a result of it means you need to use this plate on tripods by different producers that additionally make use of it (eg. Benro, 3 Legged Factor) and it’ll slot in simply as simply. The plate makes use of a D-ring and is straightforward to screw in and unscrew.
Joby GorrillaPod 5K Tripod evaluation: Performance
The wonderful thing about the GorillaPod 5K is that, at 1.6 lbs, it’s the lightest tripod we’ve examined up to now. It’s one thing you’ll be able to fairly fortunately connect to the surface of a digicam bag and hike all day with out it getting in the best way or including an excessive amount of weight to your load. It’s nice for these days if you assume you may want it however haven’t essentially deliberate to. However that, after all, doesn’t sound very very like an evening sky shoot!
Once we put the GorillaPod by way of its paces after darkish, we found that, opposite to preliminary expectation of one thing so small, it’s not too unhealthy an possibility for evening sky pictures.
The principle downside of the GorillaPod is that it just about needs to be affixed to one thing to make sure it stays nonetheless lengthy sufficient for the lengths of exposures it’s essential to take to seize the milky means or star trails. This implies the composition you select is restricted by the road furnishings, railings, timber and many others. accessible. You may, after all, set it freestanding on the bottom however that isn’t advisable when the bottom is just too flat, moist or muddy as, regardless of the rubbery ft, it could slip. It’s additionally not nice within the wind and also you’d want a gust-free evening should you had been to make use of it freestanding.
As soon as it was hooked up to some railings, nonetheless, its diminutive dimension instantly proved to be fairly helpful in holding nonetheless in opposition to a powerful sea breeze as a result of there was a lot much less of the tripod to wobble within the wind. It was straightforward to control the legs into place and utilizing a mixture of swiveling the ball head on its horizontal axis and transferring the ball head made it straightforward to compose a shot straight up into the sky.
Though the Joby GorillaPod 5K can carry the load of a DSLR with a medium-range zoom lens in panorama orientation, composing in portrait format proved troublesome. When the tripod was wrapped round a railing the digicam was too huge to slot in the space accessible between the tripod and the help. The Mirrorless, nonetheless, was sufficiently small for it to not be an issue.
Must you purchase the Joby GorrillaPod 5K Tripod?
It’s unlikely that this tripod will cowl all of your stabilization wants however should you’re wanting an addition to your package — for instance, maybe you wish to take one thing away with you on a visit on which you may wish to do some lengthy exposures nevertheless it’s not the aim of the journey, it’s a helpful back-up that received’t add an enormous bulk or weight to your baggage. However it’s on no account as versatile for evening sky pictures as different fashions available on the market that are available in at an analogous value level. In the event you’re on the lookout for a devoted tripod for evening sky pictures, this isn’t the one for you.
If this product isn’t for you
In the event you’re after a light-weight journey tripod at an analogous value level, the Benro Slim (opens in new tab) is simply barely heavier at 2.2 lbs and a fraction costlier. It’s a totally extendable tripod to round 64 inches but compact sufficient folded down at 20 inches to not be too cumbersome when out and about or packing for a protracted journey.
In the event you’re a telephone digicam person, curiously, there doesn’t seem like a telephone mount for the Joby GorillaPod 5K. This looks like an oversight nevertheless it is perhaps as a result of they’ve a devoted system for would-be YouTubers with their GorillaPod Mobile Vlogging Kit (opens in new tab) which is designed to carry a cell phone plus in addition they provide quite a lot of different table-top phone-mount options just like the Handypod Mobile Lock (opens in new tab).
