The MantisPod Pro is a tabletop tripod with a twist. Literally. It is designed for vloggers in mind – with 3 cold shoes and extreme diversity. The MantisPod can be handheld, sat on a table, hung from various places, and can hold a heavy camera and even a phone. As someone who loves his SwitchPod, I wonder if the MantisPod Pro is the ultimate vlogging tripod.
Learn more about the MantisPod on Amazon.
Transcription was done by Descript‘s automated transcription services which means it’s an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar
What’s up everybody. I am currently testing a new product that you can’t see right now.
This product is called the mantis tripod. Oh, hold on a second.
It’s actually called the mantas pod pro. The handheld tripod, but I can do a lot more than just what a normal handheld tripod could do.
If you follow this channel for awhile, you know, that I have been using the switch pod for a very long time since basically they released it. And I love this thing for blogging and for just quickly throwing my camera on a table after walking around and capturing footage. Well, the mantis pot is pretty cool.
It’s a, I think it’s a little heavier after. We’ll have to check that. I think it’s a little heavier than the switch pod, but unlike the switch pod that I have, I don’t have the ball head for the switch pod. So if I want to use a ball at it to take off another tripod, the mantis pot has a ball head built in, even has a Mount to hold a camera built in even as a Mount to hold.
Any camera. Even as a Mount to hold a phone built in and it actually came with two methods of mounting a camera. And actually my microphone that you’re listening to me talk right now is also mounted to the tripod, not mounted to the camera. So that’s pretty cool. We’re going to take a look at the mantis pod pro.
So you can see exactly what this thing is.
I also just realized that I am I also just realized that because the microphone is connected to the tripod, that it’s actually not aimed towards me. So I’m going to fix that right now. Does this sound a little bit better, should be a little bit better, tiny, tiny, tiny bit better. Cause now it’s actually aimed towards my mouth, my mouth height, rather than whatever it was shoulder that it was aimed at before.
All right. So let’s look at the mantis pod pro,
if you were a fan of the gorilla pod. Prior to the switch pot coming up, because you could attach it to things like poles and stuff like that. You’re really going to like the mantas pod pro, because right now this is actually hanging on to a small strap at the top of my heavy bag. And I have my Nikon C7, two attached to this sucker, and it’s not going anywhere now.
I wouldn’t try hitting the bag at this exact moment, but that can. It’s on that tripod with a microphone hanging onto a heavy bag. And it’s not a flimsy thing, like a gorilla pod. And if you don’t believe me, there’s a photo of it.
So this, my friends is the mantis pro first things. First is it looks like any other sort of logging style tripod. You can see this. That’s got a Mount for your camera and actually there’s a second Mount for your camera on here. So let’s break down. What is so interesting about this tripod, as you can see, I just popped off that second Mount let’s start from the beginning first and foremost.
Yes. Really? Grippy. You could definitely hold on to this. It’s not, there’s no discomfort. It’s very comfortable to hold. There is a smoother surface right here, which we’ll get to as well. What’s really cool is that I can, with this big button here. And that can actually adjust the angle, this of the camera Mount up here of where it is.
And the reason for that is because I can then open it up and adjust things. So for example, right now, this is in handheld mode mode. And I would have it probably like this, the camera is sitting on right on, right on top. But if I was to open the legs because the legs do open to make it into a tripod, I might need to adjust that and might need to adjust it and make it straighter.
Like, so. You know, I might want it on an angle. You never know. That’s the nice thing about this is that you can actually adjust it for any angle. If you’re hanging it from somewhere, you can also adjust it for whatever angle. So let’s move to the, to the ball head. Yes, it is a ball head. It is right now, locked in here.
Those two cold shoes, actually three cold shoes, three cold shoes on this tripod. The first is right at the top. The second is on the side. The third is actually right. Smoother rubbery piece right here. There’s a cold shoe right there. So the ball head though, it has a lock to take this ARCA Swiss style plates.
So, which means I can actually take a Nikon C7 two, which is right now on a different tripod, because I have an Arcus twist camera plate. I can put it right on here. Ready, and it’ll just go in here and then I can lock it in place. And now this is not coming out and it is there and it is secure. There’s also a.
Unlocked to actually do a complete pan. So there’s a pan at the top of this as well. And then there’s a lever here, which allows you to now use the ball head as a ball head instead of having it very stiff, which means that when you are blogging, you could go like this, lock it there, and then you can have the camera situated exactly how you need it to be situated because you’ve got all that adjustment built right in to the baldhead.
So this culture over here actually turns, I’m going to put this on here as, as you can see this culture, you actually turns. So this has meant for a light it’s meant for a, a microphone it’s been for anything that you might need to put on the side, maybe right under your camera. You could also swap these.
You can take this one and put it on the side and put this one on top. You can do it however you need. The options are really endless of, of where you could go with it and what you can amount to it and things. And then of course, as I said, you have another one under here. So if I want to, I can actually put this down there for a whole different setup.
So for example, I can actually unlock this as a button over here to unlock the leg distance, adjust the head, and I can actually do it like this. I can log, imagine this was not here. I could actually have logged with the one on the end. I can move this to the end, whatever it is I need to do. You’ve got a lot of options for.
Something else. That’s really cool. It’s built in, you’ve got two things right here on the inside of the stiff leg. The one that does not split this one splits, this does not, this one has two things built in one is this, which is actually a phone holder for the top of your tripod. I now have a phone holder that is also Arcus with Mount.
That actually gets locked in just like your camera would with an ARCA Swiss Mount. And what’s cool is there’s actually a cold shoe on top of. So this act does hold my iPhone 12 pro max, which means the 13 pro max, which just came out at the time I’m recording. This is also going to fit inside of this mouse and I can put a light or a microphone or whatever on top of that.
So any mobile of logging is going to get really good. Audio and video quality as well. If for whatever reason you want to screw this onto your tripod head, instead of just mounting it directly, you can do so. There is the thread in there to Mount that directly onto if you, for whatever reason this, or for whatever reason, this, if you didn’t want to use it directly on the baldhead.
The other thing that is sent to the snuck in here, and this is why they call it. The mantis pod is this part. This is a hook that allows you to literally hang it. It doesn’t have any. I thought it would have a grip, but it doesn’t have any grip, but less you to hang on something that is sturdy. And then the tripod will just sit nicely.
You have to spread the legs out and do some adjustments for the angles in order to get that sort of tension. So if you were to hanging it from a pole, that’s going this way, you’d have to have a fence or something down there for these two legs to sit. In order for this to work out how you want. So for example, now this is sitting here.
It actually is not going to go anywhere. Sure. It could just move because it’s not being gripped. It’s not being secured, but the weight of your camera on here, it’s going to make a good amount of pressure to keep this in place quite easily with minimal movement going on, unless there was an earthquake or something that would knock this off.
So they call it the mantis pod because of this and because of the sort of flexible directions that this could be. All the adjustments that you have available to you to Mount, to move and things like that. Very preying, mantis, like this is a really cool tripod for on the go. I’m a big fan of the switch pod, and I thought that that might be my mobile tripod of choice, but this might’ve taken the cake because it is even more flexing.
And I think I’m going to go to the specs to confirm, but I think that this is actually lighter than the switch pod mantis pod pro and the switch pod that actually has the moment max safe Mount for my iPhone on it. Both are incredible. Both have really one purpose to hold your phone or your camera. So that.
Do some blogging, do some video creation and then put it down on a table on the ground, on a shelf, whatever it is, wherever you need to put it. Sure. This might actually be heavier than this. I mean, I can feel the weight difference. This is a tiny, tiny bit heavier than this with a ball head on here. This actually gets taller than this does, which could be better for video.
This is more versatile because it can do different things. It’s all a matter of preference to this. If you just need a good, solid mobile tripod that you can literally clip onto your bag or throw into a bag, and in some cases fit into a pocket of a bag, then this is actually amazing. This can fit into a laptop sleeve and you can barely tell it to there.
If you throw the ball head on here. Yes, it’s getting a little bit heavier. This might be smaller. It actually has the ARCA Swiss mountain built. With the, with the ball head, it has multiple mounting options, multiple configuration. So if you need something that’s more versatile check out the mantis pod pro either way, you can’t go wrong, both a great products, but the mantis pod pro is nicely made full surprises.
The one thing that I have to say that I’m not very happy about is I thought by the looks of the product, in the descriptions of the product and in some of the. Reviews I’ve seen about the product. I was expecting the mantis grip to be more of a grip and not just a use counterbalance and counter pressure to keep the product hanging where it’s hanging little misleading there, but it’s okay.
It still does a really cool job. And I can’t wait to put this to further. Beyond what I’ve already done. There you go. If you like this video, click that subscribe button below. Right now, I publish new videos every Monday and Thursday, whenever possible. You don’t want to miss it and be sure to karate kick the notification bell.
Do it.
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