Gorillapod Mobile Vlogging Kit

[Niobe Hennigan]

Assmartphones advance, mobile vlogging and filmmaking continue to rise in popularity. Thankfully, camera accessory brands have come up with whole systems to support phone vloggers. The Joby Mobile Vlogging Kit is the latest system to hit that market, and it is chock-full of accessories that you can use with your phone (or with other camera setups).

The base of this kit is the GorillaPod Mobile Rig: a small version of the GorillaPod that perfectly complements the size of modern smartphones. I used my copy with a Samsung Galaxy S10 and it fit perfectly.

The Joby Mobile Vlogging Kit also comes with a smartphone clamp that has two extra bendy arms attached. The clamp is very sturdy and adjusts to fit just about any smartphone out there. The bendy arms are great for attaching accessories such as a light and/or an external microphone, but the arms can be removed.

One of the best features of the smartphone clamp is its ability to easily flip between portrait and landscape orientations. All you have to do is loosen the lock and the clamp swivels. This is especially helpful for those wanting to shoot vertical content for Instagram Stories or TikTok.

Another great addition to the smartphone clamp is a cold shoe mount on top for mounting an accessory. Truth be told, I prefer using the Joby Mobile Vlogging Kit without the extra bendy arms; I simply attach my main accessory (usually the microphone) via the smartphone clamp cold shoe.

The Wavo microphone looks like a clone of the Rode VideoMicro. But the nice part about the Wavo mic is that Joby includes two different cables: a TRRS cable so that the mic can be used with a smartphone, and a TRS cable for use with a regular camera.

After the sun went down, the Beamo light came out to play. After using similar light products made by Litra and Lume Cube, I have to declare the Beamo my favorite compact rugged light. It has a solid feel that is still lightweight, and the light quality is incredibly strong.

Overall, the Vlogging Kit is a great deal that gives you three high-quality products in a single package. You can use them together with a smartphone, or you can trade the phone for another compact point and shoot or action camera. You can even mix and match each accessory with different camera setups.

This vlogging kit includes Joby GorillaPod Mobile Rig, a single Beamo Mini LED light, and a Joby Wavo Mobile microphone to aid those using their smartphone device as the video and audio recording platform.

GorillaPod Mobile Rig is a tripod that uses patented GorillaPod ball and socket design with rubberised grips. The main support is a smartphone holder by way of GripTight mount which allows portrait or landscape orientation. Two additional Joby Arm Smart flexible mounts allow the fixing and positioning of the Beamo Mini LED and Wavo Mobile microphone.

Beamo Mini LED is a shock resistant 2 x 2-inch rechargeable Li-Ion powered LED light produces 1000 lumens, 470 lux at 1m; and is locally adjustable in five steps from 0% to 100%, or continuous via a Bluetooth connected iOS or Android app. A strobing mode allows 5 speeds controllable locally, or 8 speeds via the connected app. A fixed 5100K temperature has been designed to best capture skin tones, whilst the battery life enables 50% power for 100minutes or 100% power for 40minutes. The internal lithium-ion battery cell is rechargeable via a USB-C connection.

The LED light has been constructed with a waterproof seal that allows use under water to a depth of 30m. Beamo Mini LED has double cold shoe mounts, compatible with the included cold shoe adapter. The light also has a back panel that is magnetic, therefore ideal for places where floor stand space is a minimum. For instances where stands are applicable, a 1/4-20 thread tripod mount is provided.

Wavo Mobile is a lightweight electret condenser microphone for use with a smartphone device. Manufactured from a mix of aluminium, ABS plastic and Hytrel polyurethane, the mic measures 8.1 x 2.2 x 2.2cm and weighs 70g. It has a cardioid pickup pattern and a frequency response of 35Hz to 18kHz. The microphone has a cold shoe mount that clamps directly to the GorillaPod Mobile Rig, whilst a Rycote lyre shock mount reduces noise incurred by movement. The included deadcat cover also aid wind noise reduction. The microphone connects to a camera or mobile device via included TRS or TRRS cable.

With the continued success of YouTube, Twitch, and other user-generated-content video-streaming services, an opportunity for anyone with a captivating presence and good communication skills is available. But just like the days of the California Gold Rush, those with better tools often (but not always) have a better chance to strike it rich. In today's internet streaming boom, those better tools equate to the high-quality camera optics, noise-free audio recording, and exceptional lighting necessary to capture those captivating mobile moments. Joby has assembled a package equivalent to the prospector's mule, shovel, and pan. Will the compilation of equipment the company assembled into a single kit, aptly called the Joby GorillaPod Mobile Vlogging Kit ($199.95), help deliver vlogging gold? Read on to find out.

The base of the kit (and also the most expensive component when sold separately) is the large GorillaPod base and the two accompanying arms that attach to the main body. GorillaPod's claim to fame is its ability to coil around and anchor itself to posts and angled surfaces, as well as pose upright as a traditional tripod. Because of its literal flexibility, you can mount a GorillaPod on something like a lamp post and shoot the video by yourself with no camera operator required. In a mobile vlogging scenario, this is ideal since it's portable, simple to set up, and easy to quickly collapse and store when done with the shoot. Joby's choice of an extra-large GorillaPod not only provides a more stable anchor and longer wrapping appendages, it also helps support the three heavy components attached to the side arms and top of the main GorillaPod body. These are the included Beamo Mini LED Light and the Wavo Mobile Microphone, along with whatever smartphone or pocketable video capture device you prefer.

The Wavo Mobile Microphone in the package also includes a plastic mount to attach the mic to the GorillaPod, a fluffy windscreen muff (also referred to as a deadcat) to cover the mic in breezy locations and three different audio cables to connect to the video capture device of choice. In the case of the iPhone, a 3.5mm headphone-jack-to-Lightning adapter is supplied for lag-free audio capture. While it would have been nice to have the option to connect to the Wavo microphone via Bluetooth, the mic's mount is close enough to the iPhone that I never felt it was a problem. Still, for those looking to capture wide shots much further away from the camera than a typical vlogging arms length, a separate audio cable extender would need to be attached in order to bring the mic closer to the subjects being recorded. The Wavo microphone doesn't require additional power to operate, so no batteries or pre-charging are required. Audio capture is quite good, and while it's not to the degree of professional shotgun mics that cost thousands of dollars more, its directional capture and effective deadcat muffle wind and extemporaneous environmental noises while staying focused on the audio in front of it.

The bright star of the package is the Beamo Mini LED lamp that pumps out a blinding 1,000 lumens at a 5,100K color temperature to warmly illuminate the vlogging subject. Even with the plastic diffuser hood, a light this bright is hard to look at without squinting. Fortunately the Beamo can be dialed back to 5 different brightness settings. And unlike the Wavo mic, the Beamo light is Bluetooth-enabled, allowing you to turn on/off the light and set the brightness via the free MyJoby app. The app isn't the easiest or most intuitive to use, no thanks to its very non-iOS user interface and tiny touch targets, but at least it functions enough without having to fumble around to toggle the oddly positioned physical power switch on the Beamo lamp itself. The lamp also has an embedded rechargeable battery that can last up to 40 minutes at 100% luminosity, or over 90 minutes at the lowest luminosity before requiring a full recharge. It can also be hooked up to an external battery if the video shoot lasts even longer than that (assuming you have enough storage on your phone for such a lengthy duration).

With these three products separately costing near a hundred dollars each, combining them into a single package for under two hundred dollars is an attractive bargain. If you are eager to start your vlogging career and only have a smartphone or GoPro camera to start with, Joby has assembled quite a useful baseline collection of equipment that will instantly elevate your audio-video capture quality, which in turn will make vlog viewers appreciate the investment made into improving the presentation enough to consider subscribing to your future vlogging content.

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This epic kit includes three amazing JOBY products: the GorillaPod Mobile Rig, Beamo Mini LED, and Wavo Mobile microphone. Just add your own creative flair! This portable combination stabilizes your phone and adds a powerful light and crisp sound capture to conquer any vlogging project.

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