(upbeat music)
- Oh man.
It is windy.
Look at it trying to hover.
(laughing)
Get you out of there now.
Seriously though, how unreal are these colors right now?
I don't even think I have to grade this.
On my little LCD, it already looks graded.
I mean it's all about the location.
When you get the good lighting and good location,
Oh, the shot's gonna to come out beautiful
no matter what you're shooting on.
I wanna tell you guys about this vlog tripod
that I'm using right now.
Now PGYTECH sent it to me a few weeks back.
I've been using it non-stop since
and I am in love with this thing.
There's a lot of features to actually go over.
Yeah.
There's a lot of features to go over on a vlog tripod.
So let's go ahead and just dive right in.
One of the first features that I love about this tripod
is the fact that I can point the microphone
in a different direction.
Let's say I go and film Carrie.
My voice gets a little bit buried, right?
But I can go ahead, turn the microphone around
and look at that.
You get my audio crystal clear.
That's gonna be awesome
if you wanna get this kinda shot
where you're showing something.
Carrie, say something.
- I bet you there's very little difference
because you talk so loud.
(laughing)
- Probably, but you talk kinda quietly,
so I'm gonna turn the mic towards you and talk again.
- Hello.
- Now this is what it looks like.
It's just a hot shoe right here
but I can go ahead and rotate it back and forth like that.
You can also attach all this stuff on here
but I love just having the mic here.
Hi Beulah. Do you like camping?
- She loves traveling.
- Yeah, she does.
This one. Maybe not so much.
Now, the reason why I'm overly excited
about something as simple as the little vlog tripod
is because this setup right here
is something I pretty much use every single day.
So even a minor improvement in performance
makes a big difference in the long run.
Not to mention this tripod
is probably the cheapest thing on here.
Much cheaper than the lens, the camera, the microphone.
When I'm picking out a vlog tripod
I want it to do five things really well.
Number one is a good vlog and walk set up, just like this.
I wanna be able to just walk around,
not be tied down to a tripod like this.
We can come hang out over here.
Do whatever.
A lot of times I want to be able to catch that spontaneity.
And the easiest way to do that
is just have a good grip on the camera.
Now, number two, I need it to be a decent tripod.
So of course I can plant it down on the table
or wherever.
Number three, I want to also be able to hook it on
to different surfaces.
Maybe you wanna hook it onto a tree or a fence.
This can actually do that.
So we'll show you how that works in a bit.
Now the bendy tripods were pretty good at that
but what the bendy tripods weren't good at
is number four, which is, "I want smooth operation".
I don't wanna finesse with it and fiddle with it.
And the bendy tripods,
I kinda stopped using those about two years ago.
Over time, those joints get kind of loose.
And if you don't perfectly balance your camera
it might topple over, over time.
I want my tripod to be easy to store.
I don't want it to get in the way.
I want it to be quick to set up.
And finally, number five is versatility.
I wanna use this in as many different ways I can.
Now let's go ahead and start off
by talking about why I love this thing for handheld mode.
First of all, the grip right here is very comfortable,
more comfortable than any of the other tripods
I've used in the past.
It's not bumpy.
It's not sharp.
It's not hard.
It's also very lightweight.
Now, if you look at this big button right here...
So if you wanna make a quick adjustment to your grip,
you just press it with your thumb
and look how quickly and easily it can adjust.
Now there's different stages
where it kind of pops into place.
So you can kinda hear it.
Sometimes I bend it all the way down like this.
And I actually use this almost like a top handle.
Now the camera's upside down
but that's easy to flip in post.
Sure. You can get one of those top handles
that you put onto your hot shoe.
But I personally don't trust those.
Those hot shoes are designed for attachments of accessories
like a flash or whatever,
but if you're holding the whole camera's weight
on it and it flings off
you might have a real sad day.
But I love this.
Check it out.
Boom, instant top handle.
Now, if there's one thing I could change about it,
is I wish this hot shoe rotated with the camera.
'Cause right now you'll see
that it actually rotates with the handle.
I kind of wish that it rotated with the camera.
So if I turned the camera up,
the microphone would also turn up,
but whatever. It's pretty minor.
And also I think it's designed
to mount other things on here.
Not necessarily a mic
but I love just having this mic on a swivel.
This is awesome.
Now I'm vlogging on a 16 mil.
So if I go to arm's length like this,
then I get a decently wide enough shot.
But let's say I had something like a Sony ZV1,
where your widest is a 24 mil.
You might need to push this camera back
a little bit further.
So this is kinda cool.
So I can go ahead, rotate this, loosen it up.
And there's a safety lever right here.
And I can just slide off this whole head.
Now there's this little button underneath the big one
which you could press
and it actually splits the tripod into two.
And we could even go wider
but this thing's in the way right now.
So we'll go ahead and press the big button
and the little one at the same time
and see how much it extends.
It's like a boomerang.
Shoo.
(laughs)
On the big leg, there's this little flap
that you can remove and there's a slot
where you can go ahead and slide this into.
Did you hear that click.
And check it out.
Look how much more reach we have now.
Oh, this is still 16 mil
but let's say your camera goes to a 24.
You can still get a frame about this wide, even on a 24.
And to return it, you just go ahead and loosen it.
Everything has a safety on it.
So even if you loosen it, you have to press this release
and then it'll come out and same with up here.
There is a safety which is now in
and then we go ahead, tighten it.
And there we go.
It takes less than 10 seconds
to switch between those modes and check it out.
We're back in the regular mode now.
A lot of times I'll be hiking with a bag
and I just have a hook and I'll just hook into here.
I don't think this is an official recommendation
from PGYTECH but I like it 'cause I could be hands-off
in case I need to climb something on a hike,
and then let's say a chipmunk pops out.
I want to get a really cool shot of it.
I just...
Bam!
(upbeat music)
- We're staying here for the night.
- Oh wow.
Gotta view and the audio quality is going to sound so good.
'Cause I got the mic pointed at me.
(laughing)
This is insane.
Now this might be a good chance for me
to show you my second favorite feature of this tripod.
Chicky, where are you going?
Get out of there.
Might be some weird things under there.
But check it out, with this setup
I can easily hook you up, up here
but that's a little bit high.
So why don't we go down here?
So I'm gonna go ahead, hook you guys up.
There we go.
And let me go ahead and adjust the position.
Perfect. Just like that.
You just have to kind of know what to look for.
For example, this tree.
I can use this and this
and I'm just going to go ahead, hook it on.
Easy. How about something like this?
The back of a rocking chair.
Well, check this out.
You guys are now hooked in
and pretty safely on there too.
See the chair's still rocking.
You guys are pretty secure on that.
Right?
By now you're probably wondering
how is this thing designed?
Let me show you.
We open up the tripod legs
and inside the big leg right here,
it's just a little hook.
That's all it is. Very simple,
but I think this is why they call it The Mantis Pod.
Just this little hook opens up a lot of opportunities.
All you gotta do is throw this hook onto something.
And then the other two kinda support it
into place to make it stable.
Then you can go ahead and adjust the ball head
to whatever angle you're trying to get.
When I hooked it onto the tree
the branches were a little bit further apart
and remember you can split these legs a little bit.
So then what I did is I hooked this on the big branch
and rested these two legs on the smaller branch.
Fit just fine.
You still have control over the camera angle.
I bet you I could even hook it on to this door handle.
If you start looking around for spots
that you can hook it up to,
it's really surprising how many places
you can actually hook this thing up.
And once it's on there, you can go ahead
and adjust the camera to whatever angle you want.
Now, this tripod itself is rated
for 2.5 kilograms just to put it into perspective.
This vlog set up right here is about 1.5 kilograms.
And my Canon C70 setup is right under
that 2.5 kilogram weight limit.
And I think that weight limit is most likely
for this hook right here
but the tripod itself it's super lightweight
which made me think, "Oh, it's some cheap plastic
"and it might break easily."
But a lot of it actually is made out of magnesium
which is pretty cool
because the ARRI Signature Prime's
made out of magnesium and it's super lightweight
and super strong.
So I did a little bit of testing
to see how strong these legs actually are.
And it actually...
How? Obviously it's not designed to hold it
in different positions, but the legs were fine.
And then we decided to push it a little bit further
and we put our own weights on it.
And again, no problem.
I was pretty surprised at how strong this is.
Now the version I've been using is the Pro mode,
which gives you this ball head, which is nice.
And it also gives you a full 90 degree portrait mode.
But there is also a less expensive option
and this is also a little bit smaller and lighter as well,
but this is still going to give you that rotational movement
and it locks into place with this little button.
So that's pretty nice.
And you also just attach the camera with this little screw.
But there definitely is limitation on camera movement
which is why I'm definitely going for the Pro mode
but you could always swap out these heads
because it is on that cold shoe system.
And also now I keep an Arca-Swiss plate
on most of my camera,
so I like that I could just snap that in.
This is the snap lock system.
It's what they're calling it
but it just snaps in which is really convenient.
And once you want to lock it into place
you just turn that lever
and it's nice and securely in there.
Now this is a standard tripod mode,
but I like the option of being able to go into this low mode
in case you need a little bit of that extra stability
and also a lower angle.
And this thing still has one more trick up its sleeve.
So this is where the hook is.
Right above that is a phone mount.
Come on. How well thought out is this?
So you can go ahead, open it up,
and you could either attach this
with the Arca-Swiss mount,
which locks in right there.
And once you attach it,
it doesn't collapse on itself
because there's this little pin that gets pressed down.
And also we have a quarter inch down there
as well as a hot shoe up here.
Now you guys probably understand why I'm so excited
about this thing.
It's so well thought out.
It's so versatile.
And sometimes you don't want to use your main camera
for a quick shot.
You just want to throw your phone on there,
set it on a self timer
and also a huge shout-out to PGYTECH
for letting me be...
Well the first person to be able to announce it.
That's pretty cool.
I've never been the first to announce a product before.
So that's cool.
Link's down there in the description
and PGYTECH is a company that I've been familiar with.
A lot of you have probably never heard
of them unless you were looking for accessories
for drones or they make backpacks.
But I really started to take an interest in PGYTECH
when I saw their DJI Osmo Actions Cage.
Again it's another thing that was really simple
but it worked really well.
The design was clean and it gave me all the functions
I really wanted.
So even though they may be one of the smaller companies
the stuff they're doing, I'm diggin' it.
So after my trip to Utah,
I can pretty comfortably say
this is going to be my new daily driver tripod.
Sam's also been using it over in Hawaii.
So let's see what he thinks.
- Mahalo Gene from Honolulu, Hawaii
where I'm not ready to tell you my thoughts
on the PGYTECH Vlog Tripod
because Crystal does not let me borrow it.
According to her, and I quote,
"You can't use this. You're clumsy
"and you're going to lose this.
"Here. Some snacks for you and Eric.
"Now, leave me alone."
But what I can tell you is how much she loves it.
She loves that it's light.
She also likes how good it feels in the hands.
And she loves that little cold shoe adapter
where she switches from her to the subject.
And it's easy for her to do that.
- Now, if you're still not convinced
there's one more feature I want to show you guys.
Even the base plate that comes
with the tripod has something special
that I've never seen before.
Now tell me if this sounds familiar.
You have to attach the base plate
of the tripod onto a camera
and, Oh Crap!
You can't find the tool.
Whatever. You're just gonna try to hand tighten it.
Well, first of all, this is the Peak Design Dual Plate.
And I actually like this plate because it attaches
to Arca-Swiss, as well as certain Manfrotto mounts.
But anyways, you can't really hand tighten this
and you don't have time to go and find a tool.
Just need to attach it.
Hand tighten with this
and it's gonna come out in a split second.
Ooh, but look at this one from Joby.
What's nice about this, is you can flip
that little ring out and it gives you a little bit
of extra leverage for you to grab onto.
So I'm going to go ahead, hand tighten this
as tight as I can.
Aargh.
You go and attach it and that's a little bit better
but all it takes is a little "err" and oh oh...
You know, once it's loose, there's no fixing it.
You gotta take it off.
Take that little flap thing, tighten it again.
Aargh!
And then it's just too easy for it to get loose.
And every time it gets loose, you have to take it back off.
Right?
Okay. Check this out.
PGYTECH's plate doesn't necessarily
have a fancy flip up thing,
but if you look closely
you can kinda tell that there's knurling on there.
So it actually grips a lot better.
So I can actually finger tighten this decently, right?
So let's go ahead and attach it.
Let's lock it in and not bad.
Right?
Look, it's holding its weight, but oh oh, loosened it.
Now it's loose.
Right?
But wait a second.
Even if I loosen it, give it a couple rotations
in the unscrewing direction,
check it out. It's still just as tight
as it was when we first applied it.
PGYTECH even went as far as to install
what they're calling a thrust needle roller bearing,
whatever that means.
But when you loosen this by just turning the plate
notice that the screw stays just as tight.
So when you accidentally crank it in a direction
it's not going to loosen the plate.
You actually have to go in and turn that screw
in order to get it out, which is brilliant.
It's such a little thing
but I'm sure we've all felt that frustration of like,
"Oh let's just try to tighten the tripod as hard as we can."
And then, Oops, you cranked it off.
Every other tripod I've tested, see, now it's loose.
Let's try this one.
On there pretty good,
but once you crank it up, now it's too late.
Now it's just like, it doesn't do anything.
Literally every single plate I've tested this with,
it does that except for the PGYTECH.
But anyways, the camera's blinking at me
'cause the battery's about to die in two minutes.
So I better wrap this up.
Let's go ahead and cut to a close
that has been sent to us from one of you guys of course.
And this one's a interesting one.
Sent to us from the bathtub.
(laughing)
Oh, Sam. I meant the other bath tub clip.
(beep)
- Oh. Hi there.
Wasn't that just a great video?
But Gene is such an amazing and incredible person.
And you're not subscribing?
What a shame.
Please like, share and subscribe.
And Goodbye.