- What if you could take
pretty much everything that you need
for your YouTube or at home filming studio,
put it all on one stand, freeing up a ton of floor space
and simplifying your setup by leaps and bounds?
Well, that is exactly what the GearTree
from Ulanzi promises.
And today we're gonna take a look
at whether it actually delivers.
And before you ask, yes, it's called the GearTree
but it doesn't actually grow the gear.
You have to put that on there yourself.
(upbeat music)
I've actually been using the GearTree set up
in this studio for about a month or two
and for the most part,
it does what it says it's supposed to do.
That being said, I have run
into a few little things that I find annoying
and a few things that I think they could improve on
in future versions.
Not to mention, I'm a little nervous to see
if it leaves any damage on the ceiling.
We'll get to that later.
So, let's break this thing down literally,
so that I can show you all the components that I'm using
and talk about what's working and what's not.
(upbeat music)
As you can see, there is one main pole
in the middle and everything is attached to that.
All the different pieces here can come as a package
or you can get them all separately
to build out exactly what you need for your setup.
Right now, I've got two COB lights with light domes on them,
a microphone, a monitor, a camera,
and a cute little table for me to put snacks on.
The lights are on these triangle-style arms.
Since they're the heaviest of the bunch,
it gives them extra stability.
It attaches to the main pole via two baby pins,
which I found a little tough to line up at first.
But once you get it, it really is solid.
On the other end of this piece,
there are three different spots
where you can put a baby pin,
so that you can attach a light:
two on the top and one on the bottom.
This gives you a little bit of variety
as far as how you can place your light
but this is actually something
that I thought could have been improved.
With this specific extension,
you can swivel it back and forth.
And like I said, you can change the height a bit
but you're really stuck
with how far it's extended from the center column.
It would've been really cool
to have the triangle extension be a bit more adjustable,
similar to how my old wall mounted light stand
allowed you to move it up and down
as well as telescope it out a little bit.
Maybe this would create too much pressure
on the middle column
but I feel like they could have figured out a way to do it.
When we pulled the lights and the extension arms off,
you can see that they mount to the center column
via a baby pin clamp.
I've used a couple of the single clamps
for each light stand extension
but there are also triple ones that you can use
for multiple accessories
at the same level on the middle pole.
Moving down the pole, we've got a spring loaded boom arm
that I have my microphone at the end of
but in order to get it to reach as far as I need it to,
I've used a couple of extra extension arms.
They've got a baby pin on one end
and then a baby pin receiver on the other end,
so you can pretty much keep attaching them to each other.
This boom arm itself is actually kinda neat too.
For the most part, it looks like a typical spring loaded arm
that you would attach to your desk.
But at the end of it,
you can use either a quarter-inch screw
or you can flip it to be a cold shoe.
So depending on what kind of accessory
is needed at the end of it, it's flexible.
And because of the swivel piece in the middle,
it kinda folds away when you don't need it.
I'm actually using one more of these same boom arms
a little lower down for my monitor as well.
On the other side,
we've got a couple of those extension arms
and what they call a full motion swivel arm.
This is similar to what you might see
for a computer monitor arm where you can set the tension
for whatever will be at the end of it,
so that you can easily move it up or down
without it bouncing back or falling.
The one on the left side is holding a little table
that's handy to toss my iPad on
if I have notes to keep track of while I'm filming
or, like I said earlier, snacks.
I have also put my laptop on this a couple of times
but it makes me pretty nervous
when it's fully extended on the extension arms.
I also have one more of these tension adjustable arms
and it has my FX3 or whatever camera I'm using
at the time at the end of it on a ball head.
Now it does actually come
with a tripod head style attachment
but it reminds me of something
that you might get with a really cheap tripod
from Radio Shack.
Is Radio Shack still a thing?
Regardless, I replaced it with a ball head
I had laying around and boom, we're in business.
All that being said,
the camera arm is the one on here
that I find I often just prefer to use a tripod.
As much as it is reasonably easy to place this arm
and nice to tuck away, any little accidental bump
of any of the accessories on here
and you're likely to move this arm and screw up your shot.
I've managed to hide this a couple of times in my videos
but I think I just prefer a nice sturdy tripod.
Real quick, I wanted to say a huge thank you to you.
This video doesn't have a sponsor.
So just in case you're enjoying the video
and you like the content, you find it valuable,
I wanted to let you know a couple of ways
that you can support the channel.
And the best part of it is
you're already doing it just by watching.
But if you wanted to take it a step further
completely for free, you could subscribe to the channel,
hit the like button, comment down below,
let me know you're liking it.
Or the big one, you could share this
wherever you want to share a video.
And if you do wanna support the channel monetarily,
you can buy my presets, LUTs,
or other products on my website.
You can use one of the many affiliate links
that are always down in the descriptions of my video
or you could click the little thanks button
just below this video and send me a little message
to let me know that it was valuable for you.
But regardless of how you choose to support, thank you.
Now, back to the video.
And, of course, once we've removed all the attachments,
we're left with just the pole in the middle
and the pole comes in three different sizes,
depending on the height of your ceiling.
And it goes all the way from the floor up to the ceiling.
On the very bottom, there's a clever way to tighten it
between the ceiling and the floor.
You get it extended close to where it needs to be
and then tighten it
so that it pushes against the boundaries,
so that it stays in place.
You do want to make sure
that you find a stud in the ceiling to push against.
This part made me really nervous,
especially because I'm just renting
and I'd rather not be paying for damages to the ceiling.
But once you've got it set, it's very sturdy for sure.
I've got a ton of stuff in my setup
and it's not even breaking a sweat.
And honestly, the pole is the best part of the whole thing.
One stand, no feet.
(upbeat music)
Before the GearTree, I was typically using a C-stand,
maybe two, sometimes a boom arm for the mic,
tripod for the camera.
So, there were always at least three
or four different stands on the floor.
Basically nowhere to move in my tiny little room anymore
and such a pain to set up and tear down.
The downside to using the GearTree
is that if I want to shoot in the other direction
and use the wall as a backdrop,
it's really not happening anymore.
Or even if I just wanted to
angle my lights a bit differently,
I'm really limited to where I can move these arms around.
So, if you only ever needed your stuff in one place
or if you've got a bigger space
so that you can have multiple setups, this is great
but there are definitely times that I miss the flexibility
of being able to move things around a bit more.
The other thing that you need to keep in mind
is that this whole setup that I showed you here
is close to $1,000 but it's really up to you
whether it would be worth it
for the extra space you gain back and the simplicity
of having everything all in one place like this.
You could do a similar thing on a rolling C-stand
and have the flexibility of being able to move around.
As usual with gear, it's just up to what works best for you.
And now for the moment of truth, let's take this thing off
and see if it left any damage on the ceiling.
I'm a bit nervous.
All right, moment of truth.
When I loosen this part off,
this pole should slide into the bottom portion
and then we'll be able to find out
whether I damaged the ceiling or not.
(soft music)
I must say I'm quite impressed.
There's no damage, not even like really
even a mark up on the ceiling.
It turns out that there's like a bit of a
kind of a rubbery or plasticky kind of washer thing
on the top of that that I didn't notice before.
I'm really glad it's there
and I'm still kind of surprised.
Even with that in place, you'd think that
with the amount of pressure that's needed to hold this
between the floor and the ceiling,
there would've been some kind of mark left on the ceiling.
So, if you're worried about damage,
it shouldn't cause any problems
as long as you make sure to find a proper stud
to push it up against,
so it's not just busting through the ceiling.
So personally, I'm gonna do a little bit of an experiment.
Go back to using stands for a while
and see if I miss having that setup.
And if this is something that's interesting to you,
I'll leave links down in the description.
As always, I want to hear from you.
What did you think of the GearTree?
Is it something that would be useful for you
in your studio setup?
Leave a comment down below and on your way down there,
make sure to hit that like and subscribe button.
Hit the bell notification,
so you don't miss out on future videos.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time.
(soft music)