JOBY...

JOBY is the company name for one of the greatest tri-pod revolutions of our day. JOBY makes the “Gorillapod”. These flexible units are great. I purchased one for my trip to Guatemala last summer. I wasn’t going to schlep a full size tri-pod with me on my trip. I also only took my point-n-shoot Panasonic TZ3.

I was very surprised how well this little tri-pod worked. It was small, compact, light weight, and easy to use. I could stick it in smallest pouch of my backpack. Sometimes I would stick it into a jacket pocket, it is that small. I was very grateful for the small compact size when I was climbing the Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala.

Recently we used the gorillapod on our snowshoeing trip. We set up a shot in a snow meadow but didn’t have a place to put the camera. So I planted one of my wife’s hiking poles in the snow and wrapped the gorillapod legs around the top on the pole, set the timer and shuffled over next to my wife. 10 seconds later click and we had a great steady image.

This week I spent some time at the Macworld Expo. One of the exhibitors/venders was JOBY with their gorillapod set ups. I liked the one I have so much I purchased a second unit (Green) for my wife. I also purchased the largest unit they had for my Nikon D70s. I am sure this will come in very handy.
Side note:

While talking to the JOBY rep. I mentioned that one of the sockets on the leg keeps popping out. He asked if I had the tri-pod with me. I said “Of course I do” since I carry my point-n-shoot with me all the time. I pulled the gorillapod out of my bag and handed it to the rep. Upon closer inspection he noticed a little crack in the plastic. This would be the source of detachment of the ball-n-socket joint. The rep. looked at me, and I being the optimist that I am, expected him to tell me I was S.O.L. and he couldn’t do anything for me. Instead, to my surprise, he offered me an exchange right there and handed me back the old unit too. Now that is customer service.