- Hey guys, my name is Matt Johnson
and I am not a vlogger.
I don't do daily vlogs, I don't do monthly vlogs.
Frankly my life is far too boring and if I had a vlog
it would consist of me editing videos at my computer
for 12 hours at a time and also playing with my baby.
That's it.
So why do I have a Switchpod?
And why am I making a review about it?
Well, hear me out for a second.
As I said earlier, I have a baby.
And I want to document her life.
She's growing up very fast
and I wanna try to capture some of that.
I bought this Sony A6400 for recording weddings.
But it also works perfect for recording quick family videos.
I also bought this Rode VideoMic Pro Plus,
for recording audio at weddings.
And here I have this Gorillapod
that I purchased soon after buying the A6400
to hold the camera and mic.
But I also know Caleb Wojcik, Wojcik?
- Wojcik. - Thanks pronunciation site.
And he made this device called the Switchpod
which looked way cooler than the Gorillapod.
So here we are.
Me, the non vlogger making a video about a product
that's normally used by vloggers.
I don't know how that works out, but here we are.
And to be clear, I'm not being paid to make this review,
Caleb doesn't even know that I'm making it.
He did send me one for free though
and I want you to know that.
Back to my story, I've got a Gorillapod and a Switchpod,
and I'm about to take a trip to Colorado with my family
and I wanna make sure that I document it.
Which one of these two devices do I bring?
Well, both of them actually,
because I fly on Southwest, so I get two free checked bags,
so I have a lot of room for camera gear,
which sometimes upsets my wife.
Back story out of the way, here is the heart of the matter,
and really all that you need to know
about the Switchpod versus the Gorillapod.
I started filming with the Switchpod,
promptly forgot I even brought the Gorillapod
to Colorado until two days before we left,
then I just continued shooting on the Switchpod
because it's that good.
Let's compare these two devices.
And I feel like their core differences
really come down to three things.
Grip, flexibility, and speed.
If you wanna vlog with the Gorillapod
you grip it by holding onto these balls.
Make sure you grasp them gently.
I'm sorry, I'm a new dad,
that way a ball joke, I apologize.
Your hand fits around them,
it's kinda awkward, but it does work.
The Switchpod on the other hand has these nice,
smooth grooved out hand holds, and it's light.
It's much easier to hold than those balls.
It's also arguably quicker to shoot
with the Switchpod than then Gorillapod
because you don't need to adjust it as much.
You hold it, and it's ready to go.
The second difference between the Switchpod
and the Gorillapod is their flexibility.
And when I say flexibility, I mean literal flexibility
like the Gorillapod's arms,
and also metaphorical flexibility.
Like being able to be used in a variety of situations.
The Switchpod flips out with three feet
and you can set it on the ground
or any other semi-flat surface.
To even the playing field a little bit,
and add to the Switchpod's flexibility though,
let's add a tripod ball head on top.
I purchased this small Manfrotto 290 RC ball head
and it's super sturdy.
Plus, it works with my Manfrotto travel tripod
that I use when I travel.
You should also know that they just announced
an official Switchpod ball head accessory
and it looks great.
The Gorillapod's strength is that it can literally
be wrapped around virtually anything.
A light post, a tree, your arm, whatever you want.
On paper and out of the box the Gorillapod wins
from a flexible shooting standpoint.
And I feel like that's the argument many of you
are going to make in the comments.
The GorillaPod is arguably more versatile
because you can put it in more places when you're shooting.
But, there is a third point that I wanted to make.
Remember, I wanted to talk to you about grip,
flexibility and speed.
And speed is where the SwitchPod wins for me
basically every time.
The Switchpod is faster than the Gorillapod
when it comes time to set it up.
And the speed is so critical when you're filming
either a vlog, or in my case, a fast moving baby.
With the Gorillapod you have 30 balls,
that articulate in any direction around each other.
That's a lotta balls.
That's great, but in the time that it takes you
to adjust it and have it ready to shoot
you may have already missed the moment
you were trying to film.
With the Switchpod you can literally go from handheld,
to have it ready to be put on a surface in seconds.
I was able to capture more moments with my family
on my trip to Colorado with the Switchpod
than I ever could've captured with the Gorillapod.
And that made a huge difference to me.
That's my story, that's my review and that's why
I recommend the Switchpod over the Gorillapod.
Incidentally, you can order the Switchpod
and all the accessories I talked about
at the links down in the video description.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.