What do you get when you cross a Joby Gorillapod SLR- Zoom and a Noga HOLDIT 3-Joint Locking Articulated Arm? A GORILLA NOGA!!
It’s a mini tripod!! It’s a DV stabilizer!! It’s a mini steadicam!!
Just before the GH1 came out there were lots of folks exploring ways to stabilize the GH1. Because of it’s small size, many folks this summer looked at the Joby Gorillapod as a possible GH1 stabilizer.
Of course many GH1 users continue to tinker with their gear to create modified rigs with bastardized parts from our old 35mm adapter rigs that are sitting and collecting dust. Inspired by retroleum and folks at DVXUser forum, I started to tinker too. I bought a Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom (you can find them for $30-45 bucks) and I felt it was useful but it didn’t have the flexibility of use that I needed it for my work. I wanted to create a simple rig that could be put in a small camera bag and used for the documentary that I am working on about the Jook Songs Asian American performing group at Yale University.
It’s the 10 year anniversary of Jook Songs and we are putting together a little doc to commemorate the groups existence. What I’m currently doing is sending a GH1 in a small camera bag all around the country to members of Jook Songs past and present for a portion of our documentary called “Video Check-Ins”. Each member will get the GH1 package and film a day in their life as well as give reflections on the impact of the group on their lives today.
I wanted to put everything they needed in a small camera bag including a tripod, stabilizer, and steadicam. Ha! Of Course we all would to put all our gear in one small bag. At least I tried…
So I rummaged through my gear and found a heavy duty Noga arm that I wasn’t using and found a 3/8-16 and 1/4-20 Universal Converter kit that I purchased from filmtools.com. Then I attached the pieces together to a Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom Tripod and I put it all together and viola! The GORILLA NOGA!
This little guy folds down and pops into my GH1 camera bag. It’s super light weight, flexible, and gives you the ability to have a small tripod, a camera stabilizer and a mini steadicam, all in one, all fitting in a little bag.
In fact, all the footage shot for my c-mount zoom Angenieux tests were used with the little GORILLA NOGA mainly as a mini tripod and GH1 stabilizer. Some footage was a little shaky but that’s at the higher focal ranges where having a tripod should be the norm. You can view a little bit of the Angenieux footage with the GORILLA NOGA abilities here on this blog.
One of the great things about using the GORILLA NOGA with the GH1 and Angenieux Type L2/L3 zoom lens is since the lens is so small it does not create a top heavy feel to the GH1 allowing the use of the GORILLA NOGA’s flexibility to create a counterweight to allow for a pretty successful steadicam feel.
Here is a tutorial that I put together for the Jook Songs group who will be using the GORILLA NOGA and the GH1. You can just skip through my simplistic explanations on GH1 use. I apologize in advance for my simplistic tutorial on the GH1′s use but I just needed to convey the use of the GH1 to users who may be technically challenged.