Joby Gorillapod Magnetic flexible tripod hands-on
By Ross Miller 
posted February 22nd 2010 5:52AM
posted February 22nd 2010 5:52AM
posted February 22nd 2010 5:52AM
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I bet someone can hack those magnets into something a bit stronger -- say some strong-field Neodymium magnets?
Gorilla pods are awesome. When you want to level your camera on rocky terrain, they are great for handling uneven surfaces.
@r34p3r True! Never left it out of my camera bag ever since i bought!
Makes my original gorilla pod look rubbish.
It also works as a regular Gorillapod, right? I mean, are there any disadvantages of having those magnetic tips?
@eGGnext
Might be a disadvantage if you like attaching your Gorillapod to server clusters... But apart from that it looks the same.
@eGGnext Well, if you're Bender, it can cause you to bust into folk song.
@eGGnext it mite screw up ur camera if the magnets touch it
@ahchar I'm told that magnets don't harm transflash memory like SD cards and the like.
But I'm skeptical that it wouldn't at least shorten the life of the card.
@Ryan Trevisol
"But I'm skeptical that it wouldn't at least shorten the life of the card. "
It won't. The memore cards work with electric charges that are immune to static magnetic fields. With rapidly changing magnetic fields the charges might start moving, but the induced current would smelt the card before that.
The camera on the other hand has moving parts, moved by motors, and possibly parts that could magnetize. So, a strong magnetic field might screw the cameras moving parts.
As soon as one of these is released for my SLR, I'm sold. I've already got a Gorrilapod, but I'd happily shell out the extra to get one of these.
Just don't let those magnets get too close to your memory card full of sentimental photos!!!
Magnet + hard drive = paperweight
@DDragon At least it wouldn't be rendered entirely useless ;)
@DDragon
In theory this is true, but honestly, modern hard drives are quite well shielded. I had a degausser at work and tried wiping a number of hard drives with it, repeatedly, and was unsuccessful. This was with an older hand-held degausser meant for erasing magnetic tape.
It looks like it's surprised or saying "Ohhh shit"!
@Wes Steele
I was thinking more like the camera's like:
"SAY WHAAAAAA?!?!?!?"
Puh, wimpy point and shoot. Lets see a 7D on that thing.
@steakman
i was thinking about the same thing, so i went over to their website and checked out their lineup of products. guess what, their product capable of handling a heavier DSLR (as recommended for my 50D by the website) costs $100, and the ballhead comes at another $80 or so. i dun understand why anyone would go for this rather and my good old manfrotto, at least when it comes to serious equipment.
@kongmw Gorilla pod is meant to be a secondary tripod, not a primary. I use Gorilla pod when i am in a gathering with friends having dinner at a restaurant. It sure looks weird if i suddenly stick out a Manfrotto in the middle of the restaurant to take group photo.
Anyway before buying gorilla pod, i was also thinking why do i need this thing when i have a good Slik tripod that can carry it... but in the end, I uses gorilla pod way more than my Slik because of one thing. I leave the tripod mostly at home since its too much hassle to carry it.... With gorilla pod, i just stash it away on my bag. So it's there when i need it.