Digital Home Thoughts: Gorillas In Our Midst: The Gorillapod and Gorillapod SLR Zoom Reviewed

What The Heck Is A GorillaPod?
I heard about the GorillaPod last year. They introduced what has now become known as the standard model and it was received lovingly by the photography community, or at least most of it. Turns out, they forgot a group of photographers who tends to spend a lot of money: SLR owners. The original model is nowhere strong enough to hold an SLR with even a minimal zoom on it. Joby corrected the problem somewhat with the introduction of the SLR model, but even then, a big zoom (like my Canon 100-300) would tip it over, bend it, etc. Finally, Joby introduced the SLR Zoom model, and it's made like a tank.

The crowd rejoiced.


Figure 1: The GorillaPod SLR Zoom and the GorillaPod side by side.

The GorillaPod is a brilliant idea. It's a series of small plastic balls, each with a rubber grip on the outer circumference. Each "leg" can be rotated, twisted, and turned into myriad of positions, giving you the ability to pretty much level the GorillaPod on any surface. On top of that, you can twist the legs around objects, allowing you to take some pretty unique photos from angles you wouldn't otherwise be able to get.

The question is, for all the promises, does it hold up?