by Dee Delaney

Created on: March 06, 2011

My husband is a keen amateur photographer. When I first knew him he owned a rather cumbersome extendable tripod; awkward to carry around and difficult to assemble quickly. Since that time he has always managed without a tripod, but has often wished that he had one to steady his camera in low light conditions, or when using the self timer. The Joby GorillaPod is an innovative method of solving all of these problems.  It has three flexible legs which either act as a very short traditional tripod, or cling onto branches and chairs, much like a baby gorilla clings onto its mother.

As soon as I saw a very miniature version of the Joby GorillaPod in action I was hooked. It was cute and very effective, and I quickly had a larger model earmarked for his birthday present.

Having researched the GorillaPod on the internet, I found several versions on Amazon, ranging from the very tiny original, designed to hold the smallest digital cameras, to the biggest SLR Zoom which claimed to hold the heaviest cameras. It was not clear from the information which one was right for my husband’s Cannon EOS 40D, and some of the customer reviews had complained that the tripod was not strong enough to support the weight of their camera, causing a gradual descent for the lens.

I decided to go for some specialist advice and bought my GorillaPod from Jessops, paying about  £3 more than the £32.95 it was advertised for on Amazon. Jessops reassured me that this size would be right for the Cannon EOS.

~~Appearance~~
The GorrillaPod looks a bit like an octopus. Three very flexible legs are made up of a series of black balls with grey rubber rings around them. At the bottom of each leg is a round grey rubber ball for stability and traction, and at the top of the tripod there is a stainless steel metal plate with a 3/8" adapter screw to attach the camera or ball head.

~~Use~~
Once the camera is screwed onto the tripod, the GorillaPod is extraordinarily flexible and versatile. The legs are very strong and can be wrapped around trees or poles, locked around chair tops or fences, or wedged in between rocks.  The legs are quite difficult to move and it takes quite a lot of pressure to put them into the correct position.

The flexibility of each leg means that no angle is impossible, and the strength of the joints mean that there is no movement once the tripod has been placed.

The rubber balls on the bottom of the legs provide a very good grip, which means that if the tripod

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