Now, you would think that finding a quality holder
for your phone that you can use with your tripod would be easy.
But I've wasted way too much money on #&!$ meaning.
you don't have to, because now I have this,
and this is brilliant.
So with the cameras on mobile phones
getting better and better, more and more people,
me included, are using them
at times when ordinarily you'd use your real camera.
I'm loving using mine
for landscape and seascape photography,
and I'm really enjoying doing more
and more long exposure photography.
Of course, doing long exposure means your camera,
I mean phone, needs to be as still as possible
during the time it's taking the photographs,
so it needs to be on a stable platform like a tripod.
Now, if you type in phone holder for tripod on somewhere
like Amazon, you'll get loads and loads of makes and models
thrown back at you,
and some of these unfortunately, I paid good money for.
First off, I got one of these.
This one is made by NEEWER, but I've also had an identical
one in the past made by Manfrotto, but it broke.
To fit your phone into this you just pull open
the spring loaded jaws and then these clamp down on your phone.
But this is plastic and the build quality is, well,
listen, awful.
Would you really trust this to hold your expensive camera?
I mean, phone?
Next I got one of these from JOBY.
Now reading the description and looking at the pictures,
it looked great, but again, the build quality is not good
with the majority of the build being plastic.
To fit your phone in you undo this dial on the back
and that releases the clamp that you then pull apart.
You then push it to the sides of the phone
and then turn the dial to keep it secure.
However, the jaws aren't very deep,
so it doesn't have the best grip on your phone,
and to change the phone from vertical
to horizontal orientation, you have to undo the dial,
but this also loosens the grip on your phone,
so there's a big risk of the phone falling out.
Also the build quality is, well...
This other one from JOBY though had real potential and despite
being all plastic, is actually quite sturdy.
To fit the phone, you prize open the spring loaded jaws
and put it in place.
This circular back piece here contains a magnet,
so if you're using an iPhone with MagSafe,
that's another point of contact making it more secure.
To go from vertical to horizontal
you just rotate the phone and the holder has
very satisfying notches you can feel engage as you rotate it
and that will hold it in position.
However, if you use this outside and there's a breeze ...
and I'm not talking about gale force winds here,
the phone does tend to wobble a bit.
So good, but not great.
My favorite until recently has been this
the Universal holder for photo and video by SmallRig.
All metal construction and well-made like most SmallRig
kit. This comes with handles you can screw into the sides
and this is great for capturing video content.
I screwed some ARCA Swiss plates, one on a long side
and one on a short side so that I can use it with my tripod.
To go from vertical to horizontal
I just undo the ball head and reposition it, and
this has worked great.
To attach your phone
you fit it between these jaws and then tighten down this dial,
which is small and quite tight up against the frame,
making it hard to tighten down to the point you feel confident
it has a good grip.
The jaws just grip on the sides as opposed to around the sides
a bit more,
and there's been many times I've knocked the holder
and the phone has shifted.
With it also being quite tall when in vertical
the phone sits quite high, so it acts like a sail
and you can get movement in just a bit of a breeze.
The best I found though, and now use
is this one the ST-27 from ULANZI.
All metal construction and it really does
feel like quality which is always good
especially as this isn't exactly cheap but as a wise
man once said buy cheap buy twice
and you are trusting it to hold your expensive phone
so it's well worth the price, in my opinion.
To fit the phone, you open the spring loaded metal jaws
and when you do this just feels solid.
These then clamp down on the phone
and you secure that even more by turning the red dial
90 degrees.
The jaws are plenty deep enough to have a great grip
on the phone,
whether it's in the case or not, and this is going nowhere.
The base of the holder
is designed to fit in an ARCA mount,
so you don't need to attach any further plates
and to rotate the holder from vertical to horizontal,
you loosen the black dial a little
and then when you have the phone in position,
you just rotate the dial to tighten it.
This doesn't interfere with the solid grip
on the phone unlike the JOBY one that I mentioned.
I've also used this holder in some pretty windy conditions
and it was rock solid.
So this is now my go to the ST-27 from ULANZI.
I've added a link in the description.
Right, a couple of things before I go...
Now, if you do like doing long exposure with your phone,
but you don't always have your tripod with you, then
definitely keep an eye out for my next video.
And also this, the Photoshop Creativity Virtual Summit.
19 World class instructors teaching 36
Photoshop classes over four days, covering
such things as special effects, textures, blending, lighting,
drawing, painting, compositing, and much more.
I've added a link in the description
where you can register for a free pass
to all of the content.
Right, that's all for me so as always,
I'd really appreciate a thumbs up,
and if you haven't yet, click on subscribe
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you can support this channel, and it really does help too.
But that's me. I'm done. I'll see you in the next video.