Joby Gorillapod Focus GP-8 Tripod

Comments about Joby Gorillapod Focus GP-8 Tripod:

I have found the Gorillapod to be a versatile and invaluable addition to my kitbag, I take it everwhere I go, it is especially helpful when you can not take all your kit with you and have to leave your main tripod behind.
It is very strong and can easily hold my camera with large lenses.
Highly recommended.

Comments about Joby Gorillapod Focus GP-8 Tripod:

I am firm believer in the old adage that the sharpest lens is a tripod. The fact is though that sometimes it's not convenient to carry one "just in case", and in some situations a tripod is out of the question. Low light and small apertures mean lengthy exposures, and in these situations a tripod mandatory. Put this all together and the only solution is either a bean bag, small tripod, or one of these jobbies (pun intended).
On its first serious outing I got the shot I wanted - in the London Natural History museum. I was using a Samyang 8mm fisheye on a Nikon D200. Now this lens is great value, much cheaper than many others, but it does suffer from very soft images wide open. I have found that f16 gives good results, but that means long exposures when in doors.
Mounting the Nikon on the Gorillapod enabled me to shoot exposures of several seconds - and not fall foul of the Museums "No Tripods" policy.
It is not as sturdy as my £300 Manfrotto, which is why I only gave it 4 stars for stability. But the reality is that it performs very well bearing in mind its limitations.
Of course for flexibility and ease of carrying around it deserves every high mark I can give. I got the shot, and that in the end is what counts.

Comments about Joby Gorillapod Focus GP-8 Tripod:

This is a great little device, very light and easily fits in the camera bag. You really need to use it with a tripod head, mine weighs more than the device itself. I take it every where now - don't know how I ever managed without it!!!

Comments about Joby Gorillapod Focus GP-8 Tripod:

The build quality is top notch, made from metal rather than plastic as compared to the smaller models.
Supports our 1D with a 100 to 400 IS lens fitted.
This is a fun bit of kit, you need confidence to trust it with your camera, but it does work and so far the camera is OK.
We added a small ball head to make it easier to set up and align.

Comments about Joby Gorillapod Focus GP-8 Tripod:

I bought this to support my video cameras- one, a lightweight Samsung VP-HMX20C, the other a more hefty Panasonic DVX100B. And it has plenty of stiffness in the legs to manage this, great for low-angle shots, or for when you can't bring a full tripod- there's nearly always *somewhere* to place it. You can bend the legs into hooks to make use of windowsills and doors, too.

I teamed it with the Manfrotto ball-head MN486RC2 to give maximum ease of positioning- really, it's nowhere near as useful without something like this, it's hard to level off the platform in some configurations, otherwise. I wish I'd gotten the 488 with separate pan lock.

It is expensive though, quite a jump up from the other Gorrilapods, and I think it is priced mainly on the basis that if you need this, your camera and lenses probably cost into the thousands of pounds, so they thought they'd get away with it! Also, being so stiff, it doesn't fold up much to fit in a bag, you'll likely end up strapping it to the outside.

Overall though, it's totally essential to me, and I don't regret the purchase one bit.