The Joby Gorillapod 3K is the last Vlogging Gorillapod you’ll need

Joby sent us their new Gorillapod 3K pro ($151: Amazon| B&H). Now, I’ve been using Gorillapods for a while, from their old 3K kit to the aluminum heavyweight 5K kit… and even some tiny, tiny pods.

I’m going to have a deep look into the Gorillapod 3K pro, and see, how it stands between the original 3K kit and the bigger 5K kit.

Specs

• Head Type: Ball Head
• Base Mount: 1/4″-20 Female
• Camera Mounting Screw: 1/4″-20 Male
• Quick Release Plate Type: Arca-Type
• Number of Bubble Levels: None
• Friction Control: No
• Independent Pan Lock: No
• Material: ABS Plastic, Aluminum, Rubber, Stainless Steel, TPE
• Pan & Tilt Range
  Lateral Tilt: 0° to +90°
  Vertical Tilt: 0° to +90°
  Panning Range: 360°
• Dimensions: H: 7.5 x W: 7.7 x L: 4.2″ / H: 19.1 x W: 19.6 x L: 10.7 cm
• Weight: 6.7 oz / 190 g

New from the Old 3K

I’ve had Gorilla pod 5K, I’ve had it for over 5 years and it’s been around. The rubber wore off a bit, but it is still a very solid tripod. The Original 3K plastic one, however, wore off and now it’s… well…. not performing the as it used to.

The new 3K PRO Gorillapod, looks almost the same as the original 3K,, but if you look closely a part of the joint has been replaced with aluminum. This should give the 3k pro kit the same resilience as the 5k kit.

Another cool think about the new 3K is that Joby killed it’s weird proprietary quick release and has moved on to a standard Arca-type plate.

Unlike its bigger 5K brother, the 3K Pro does not support panning. The head-lock controls both the panning movement and the ball head. So really, you can only use the pan axis to reposition the camera.

The 3K Pro is rated for… you guessed it! 3 kilos. But only in its “tripod” mode.  For the standard vlogger, you’ll definitely be able to get about 1.5kg out of it. But it’s worth mentioning that it may be on the short side for a shoulder rig.

Conclusion

This kit is definitely more travel-friendly and at $160 it’s cheaper than the 5K sibling, so if you don’t need the heavy lifting, I recommend this kit instead.