If you’re looking for the best smartphone tripod and are a little overwhelmed with which one to pick, I narrow down my top 5.
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Best Smartphone Tripods for Mobile Video – Video Transcription
Hello and welcome to the live stream, whether you are watching me live now, thanks for joining me, or if you are catching me on the replay. In today’s live stream, I really want to talk about what are some of the best smartphone tripod options for your mobile device, whether you are looking to create videos with your mobile device, to upload to YouTube, or if you’re looking to live stream on Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media platform. Really, really stoked that you’re here.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sara Nguyen, and I help coaches, consultants, and creative pros build their business using video online with ease. I also live stream a lot about live streaming. Make sure that you check out the description, if I get through this live stream, because I’ll go back and I’ll also add all of the links to all of the tripods that I’m going to talk about today, as well as any other resources that I mention in this video. I feel like I haven’t live streamed for a while, so it’s kind of good to be back, even though I’ve tried to do this three times. But let’s see how we go this time.
The first favorite, because you can have favorite, the first favorite tripod that I want to talk about is this guy. This is the GorillaPod Mobile Rig, and I love the GorillaPod Mobile Rig. I have an in-depth review of this tripod, and I think it’s one of the most versatile, easy-to-use amazing tripods for your mobile device. Let’s talk about why. Joby makes tripods, as we know, and the Joby tripods were pretty much made famous by that YouTuber Casey Neistat. But I liked this tripod because of how versatile it was.
You get the option to add your mobile device to the top of the tripod. Yes, I realize that my screen is dirty and upside down. I had a comment the other day where someone was like, “Your screen’s so dirty.” I’m like, “Oh, okay, chill. Everyone chill.” I like that you have your mobile device in both portrait mode or landscape mode, which is really handy, whether you want to go portrait mode in order to do your YouTube or Facebook or Instagram stories, you have that option there. It’s really easy to just pivot it from the top of the tripod.
The thing that I really love about this rig is that you have these arms, and it makes it look a bit like a monster. With the arms, you can add all of your accessories. I would, for example, add a light. This is the Manfrotto LED light, so that you can have some more lighting on your actual mobile recording. You can also add a microphone. You would slide it into either-or. It gives you a really versatile way of having all your accessories.
It’s also bendy, so it’s got their famous bendy option, which means that you can wrap it around a tree, which is what they say to do. But who really wraps anything around a tree? Or you can wrap it around a pole, or you can just do what I do and have it stand on your desktop. This is definitely one of my favorite options for a mobile tripod or smartphone tripod, the GorillaPod Mobile Rig. I also think the price is not too bad as well. That’s my first favorite one.
Let’s talk about the next one, and I’m dropping all of my accessories. This one is really underrated, but also gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of having accessories on your mobile device. This is a video rig, and this specific one is by Ulanzi. I think in terms of video rigs, it isn’t going to stabilize your video completely, but it does give you the ability to add accessories. I’m just adjusting my microphone.
Like any mobile tripod, you can add your mobile device to the actual rig and tighten it. Then on the top, you have two mounts. You can slide in accessories, such as a light. On the other side, you can add a microphone, like the one that I just dropped on the floor and can’t pick up right now. Then you’ve also got quarter-inch threads here, so you can add more lights, more microphones. That makes it just this really versatile, I guess, device where you can attach everything, use your accessories so that you can have lights, you can have better audio on your mobile recording. I really like it.
The video rigs are also quite cheap as well. You can get this lean, mean recording tripod device machine that gives you the ability to add all of your favorite accessories. That’s definitely one of my favorite options as an alternative. The video rig, really, really cool. You can also attach this thing to a tripod as well. Just lots and lots of versatility, and also really cheap. We like affordability for stuff.
Now, let’s talk about the third option. The third option is this guy. This guy is the PolarPro tripod. You may not think anything of it. You may be thinking that’s a little underwhelming, but just check this out. You get a really sturdy base, and it’s this rubbery base that will sit nicely on your desk or on whichever surface. It also has a ball head so that you can attach a phone mount and then you can go, once again, portrait and landscape as well.
The thing that I think makes the PolarPro tripod really attractive is the height that you get with it. Look at that, it kind of looks like a stick that you would beat someone with. But you get a lot of height, so you could use it as a selfie stick, or you can just use it as a tripod to give you lots of height.
The issue that I see some people have with their live streams is that they live stream, and they will have their mobile either below them so you can see up their nose. It’s just not a flattering look if you’ve got your mobile device down there and you’re recording up. You ideally want to have your mobile device as eye level as possible, so this gives you height, whether you’re putting it directly on a desk or if you are putting it on the ground. You just get all of this distance, and it makes a great selfie stick as well.
I do find, as you’ve seen in this review, that these slidey things here can be a bit temperamental, but you just got to be a bit forceful with it and really twist it, and then it will stay in the right position. This is the PolarPro tripod, which is a really nice tripod as well.
Let’s look at another one because, yes, there’s more. The other tripod which I’ve had for a little while, which I don’t think you can do a tripod review without mentioning, is the Manfrotto PIXI Evo. This guy I really liked for a few reasons. At the top of this Manfrotto is a smartphone attachment, and this is MeFoto, they all just attach together really nicely.
What I love about the Manfrotto is it’s just a beautiful, sexy build. It’s red, it’s quality. It’s not going to break on you. This is not just for recording with your mobile device. It can also handle the weight of a heavy DSLR as well. It’s versatile in that sense. You don’t get a massive amount of height. They talk about these legs that are adjustable, but it’s more adjustable in terms of it gives you more stability for the heavier devices.
I don’t actually think you get massive amount of height. That’s not a lot of height, but you can use it like that, which I’ve seen people do as well. What I like about it as well is that it’s got the ball head here so you can adjust it, and then you can attach things on the side. I also use this normally when I’m recording. I put my microphone on it, and it’s just nice to be able to adjust the ball head like that as well.
These are a little bit more expensive, but the quality, it’s amazing quality as you would expect from a Manfrotto tripod. Italian design and made in China. I really love the Manfrotto. I think it’s a good one for mobile recording. You just want something easy that works. It’s quite a reliable tripod.
Now, let’s go into my last, but definitely not least, of the tripod options. We have this guy. This is the DJI Osmo Mobile 3. That was indeed a mouthful. I liked the DJI, this particular one, because it’s very easy to use. You can’t say that about a lot of gimbals. They take a lot of effort. With this guy, you put your device in, and you turn it on. Then you just have smooth recording. It counterbalances your movement so you can have smooth, smooth, smooth recording.
It also works well with heavier lenses. If you want to get a lens like the moment lens, it works really well and is really easy to use, as opposed to some other gimbals that take a lot of playing around with in order to get them to work.
That essentially wraps up all of my favorite tripods for mobile. We talked about the Joby GorillaPod Mobile Rig. I love how versatile that is, all the arms. It looks a bit freaky, but it’s really, really cool. We talked about the video rig, the Ulanzi video rig, which also lets you attach all of your accessories.
And the PolarPro tripod, which gives you a lot of height so that you can have it on your desk or you can have it on the ground and have your mobile device at eye level, which is what you want when you’re actually recording, so you’re not looking down or up at people.
Then we talked about the Manfrotto PIXI Evo, which is just a beautiful quality tripod that you can use for most things really. You can use it for mobile. You can use it with DSLR. I use it to mount my microphones as well.
Then we talked about the DJI Osmo 3. It’s on the expensive side, but it gives you that beautiful gliding video recording, which is nice to have, and it’s easy to use. That’s why I would use and recommend it.
That essentially wraps up, and we got through the recording. That essentially wraps up today’s little review on my favorite tripods for mobile recording. If you found this video useful, give me a thumbs-up and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel.
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Thanks everyone for bearing with me with this live stream. It’s been a strange day, but we roll with it. I will see you on the next live stream, and bye for now.
