If you’re wondering what a Gorillapod 5K or even a Gorillapod is full stop then it’s that mini (or not so mini in the case of the 5K) tripod that can be wrapped around anything to hold your camera at impossible angles, pretty much anywhere there’s something to hang it from.
It’s the original and we think still the best, with excellent build quality and durability, although that comes at a hefty price above auction site specials. The Gorillapod line includes options for point and shoot cameras and heavier DSLR and mirrorless cameras.
The 5K is named as such as it’s capable of holding up to 5kg of weight, which is an excellent payload and should be plenty for most travel photographers, videographers and vloggers.
What the rig adds over the standard 5k Gorillapod though is a couple of extra bendable arms for your LED light, microphone, phone, GoPro or whatever else you might want to attach. These arms and indeed the plate they screw to are completely removable and the Rig only adds about £7 of cost over the standard 5K tripod plus ball head kit so it’s a no-brainer to go for the Rig setup for that extra versatility it adds.
The Rigs 5K tripod base has much longer legs than the much smaller 1K which makes it ideal for manipulation into a selfie stick for photography and vlogging, in fact you’ll see a lot of top YouTuber's using this exact set up. Flip the camera and the Rig can be nestled into your chest to act as a stabiliser if you’re looking to capture smooth, buttery shots hand-held.
We used the Gorillapod Rig with a Canon M50 and Panasonic GH5 over the testing period and it stood up to vlogging, run and gun shooting and travel photography perfectly over that time. Used as a tripod it works as expected, the legs can be a little stiff and cumbersome to bend into place, but that stiffness translates to stability when the camera is dangling off a tree branch. We attached mini LED lights to the Rig for a quick and easy set up for basic vlogging style YouTube videos and loved the extra flexibility and versatility that these arms added and at times when you don't need additional arms it only ever takes a minute of so to remove them.
Overall this is an absolutely genius product that we wouldn’t want to be without, it's always in our camera bag and will be for a long time to come.
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