I have a couple of the GoPro tripods and have never really had much success with them. The main problem is, although they allow the camera to be mounted in various positions, for just about everything I wanted to do – and the tripod allowed by its design – as soon as a GoPro was mounted to it, it would immediately tip over, or at best, tip over at the slightest vibration.
So, when I saw that PGYTECH had released a similar model in its “Mantispod” range, I was curious whether this company had approved on the basic, original GoPro design.
The short answer is yes. But with a caveat – the price difference.
The GoPro version is a very basic plastic unit with 3 spreadable legs, and a cantilevered main arm topped by a fixed standard GoPro mount.
The cantilever is in 2 parts and each ‘elbow’ can be adjusted and secured with a rotary knob.
And that is about it. All you can really do from my experiences is to have the camera raised or lowered on the cantilever. In theory, you can extend the camera forward or backwards via the cantilever arm, but in practice, it is not hard to hit that point of imbalance, and over it goes.
So, over to the PGYTECH version.
Firstly, it is a better made unit and feels a lot sturdier than the GoPro model due to its magnesium and aluminium alloy construction. The hinges are also stronger. The biggest difference is that instead of a fixed mount for the camera, the PGYTECH MatispodZ has a ball head with 360° rotation complete with angular adjustment. This means you can add devices with a standard crew thread, and not just have to use the GoPro finger mounting system
The issue of balance still applies, but due to the slightly lower spread, the centre of balance is correspondingly lower and therefore you can get a slightly better reach before the tipping point is reached.
One thing to note on the PGYTECH MantisPodZ I received, out of the box, with the unit in the fully closed position, the knobs on the screw threads were so damn tight I needed a set of multigrips to undo them. This may (I hope) be an anomaly, and yours may not have this issue.
There is that caveat I mentioned earlier with of course, price possibly being a consideration for some. The GoPro version is $99, which is not exactly cheap for what it is. But the PGYTECH MantisPodZ in comparison, is $79, so far better value too.
See https://bit.ly/4535O09 for more details. For purchasing a MantisPodZ, PGYTECH has given us a Promo code you can use on this websitetoo . Simply enter “Creative10”
