Joby Gorillapod Focus review

Summary

The Job Gorillapod Focus is marketed as “a flexible tripod for professional camera rigs with large zoom lenses weighing up to 5kg”.

It’s not. It’s flimsy in use, prone to slipping, and won’t wrap around things as you’d expect. Avoid.

Rating: [star rating=”.5″]

In use

You can’t use the Focus to hold a DSLR. It’s just not strong enough and the legs will slowly twist and bend under the weight of the camera and lens.

I’ve used it with a D700 and various large lenses. While the Focus is better than nothing, it’s not really that great – you’d be better off with a Manfrotto Super Clamp.

Don’t think you can wrap the flexible legs around things (e.g. a pole) and expect them to grip – they won’t/don’t.

You’ll need a tripod head

To get the best out of the Focus (or to make it somewhat useable) you *will* need to add a decent tripod head – but you need to make sure that the size and weight of the head don’t overload the Gorillapod.

I thought it would be possible to skip adding a tripod head and to bolt the Gorillapod directly to an Arca-Swiss quick-release clamp – but the bolt provided to attach the Gorillapod to a camera/tripod head isn’t long enough, isn’t that easy to get to, and to be really tight requires a really *big* screwdriver.

Overall

The Gorillapod is a great idea poorly executed. It will work fine with small point and shoot cameras but I wouldn’t use it with a DSLR.