- Sturdier aluminum-reinforced sockets support professional equipment and help you get a steady shot in virtually any environment.
- Flexible joints bend and rotate 360° to form the perfect shape. High-quality, injection-molded plastic ensures snug joints that stay firm.
- Rubberized ring & foot grips provide extra gripping power to grapple wherever you want to go.
- Bigger and better means you can shoot with heavier cameras, lenses and video camcorders up to 11 pounds.
- Adapter screw allows you to mount both the standard 1/4-inch cameras and other 3/8-inch professional cameras, tripod heads and video cameras.
Product Description
For the semi-professional shutter bug that likes to monkey around . . . the Gorillapod Focus tripod. Okay, so gorillas aren’t monkeys, but that doesn’t stop this innovative tripod’s two-dozen flexible leg joints from twisting, wrapping, and bending to secure your camera to virtually any surface. Experience the perfect level of stability wherever you take your professional camera or camcorder with the Gorillapod Focus tripod from Joby.
Joey @ 4:58 pm
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2003A56BA7LHM The gorillapod foucs is a great tripod for slr owner’s with large zoom lens. I use a Nikon D80 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body only) and have a Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens attached to it. Even with the lens fully extended the camera doesn’t shake or drop down. The tripod is also very light weight which makes it ideal for travel.
The only CON of the product is that the legs are a bit stiff and makes it a bit hard to wrap the legs around an structure. If you can live with that this is the best travel tripod for slr users
R. Cole @ 6:02 pm
Gorillapods are great, but you need one thats one-model stiffer than what Joby says. For example, get this one if you have a D300, and dont expect it to hold it up very well with a 600mm/2.8 lens on it. But it will hold it up with medium size lenses. My previous one, one model down, was not strong enough for me to be comfortable putting a D300 on with anything heavier than the 18-200 mounted. Just be careful – its easy to dump your camera with this thing if you’re not.
Andrew Weiss @ 7:08 pm
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R7TVGXVD3XU3V The gorillapod is a great alternative to carrying a standard tripod and as long as you use a sturdy ballhead it can handle a full frame DSLR and a heavy lens. I’ve provided a video example using the gorilapod with a RRS-BH30 ballhead and L-bracket mounted to a Canon 5D Mark 11 24-70 f2.8
M. Piel @ 9:26 pm
Within its intended niche, the GP8 is an extremely cool and useful accessory. Will it replace your Gitzo series 5 carbon fiber tripod and Markins ball head? No. But if you’re hiking in the mountains or flying across the country to visit family, this is what you should take with you. It’s small, light, versatile, relatively inexpensive, and with some clever use of your surroundings, it will achieve 95% of the benefit of any other tripod.
Negative comments about Gorillapod’s stability are overstated, in my opinion. If you hang a coat with 60 lbs of bricks in the pockets on a coat rack, it’s going to tip over. As long as you understand that it has a small footprint compared to larger tripods and that you consequently need to be more aware of the center of gravity of your camera rig, you should be fine. If you need to shoot portrait, use an L bracket. If you need to shoot off-axis in a hurricane, use your Gitzo. While it’s true that you probably shouldn’t trust the Focus with 11 lbs of gear, I do use it regularly with a gripped Nikon d700 and 70-200mm which weighs in at about 7 lbs.
Overall this is a fantastic accessory and I highly recommend it to anyone who sometimes needs extreme portability and versatility but doesn’t want to sacrifice the benefits of tripod shooting.
But I'm feeling much better now... @ 9:41 pm
7 pounds is pushing it. I put a D300 with battery pack and a Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 lens on this and it’s OK if not stellar. The lens has a tripod collar, so the weight is pretty evenly distributed, but I had to widen the legs of the Gorillapod, with one leg facing front, under the lens, just to be sure it wouldn’t tip over. Altogether the combo is just under 7 lbs. I was going to try it with my Sigma 150-500, but the weight is too far forward and I don’t want a busted lens mount. Or worse. In any case, the camera is hard to aim on the tripod, you have to aim up from the intended target, then let it come down to shooting position. There is also a lot of wobble, a cable release (or timer) is a necessity. So, you really need a head to aim it right, but the head will add height and make it more unstable. Catch 22.
I don’t think I will try to wrap it around a tree branch or fence pole with $4K of camera attached. I tried wrapping it around a light stand and different parts of a ladder, without my camera on it, and it held, but really needed something to keep it from sliding down. Since the legs are not necessarily under an equal load, they will not hold as much weight. A light camera would probably be OK. That being said, I wouldn’t mind walking around with this stuffed into a deep pocket or in my camera bag, it’s better than nothing, and the only tripod I can carry on the subway is one that nobody can see. I used to shoot with one of those tiny pocket tripods under a P&S. The hardest part was finding a ledge or something to put it on so it would be at eye level, at least at a squat. Without finding something you’re on your belly, which might make for an interesting perspective (and good with animals), but is hard in the rain and snow.
So, I’m glad I bought this, and I’ll carry it (it’s light by the way, just over 1 lb.), but it will not take the place of a real tripod or even a monopod.
This review was for the Focus GP8, rated at 11 pounds, as the reviews seem to have been messed up.