Joby Suction Cup & GorillaPod Arm

I recently bought the Joby suction cup with GorillaPod arm mainly as a replacement for numerous suction based in car phone holders which have frankly been terrible. The Joby cup can be had from between £18 and £25.

The first thing I noticed is that this thing REALLY sticks to whatever glass or shiny surface you stick it too, it's really not going anywhare without some pretty solid effort. However there are surfaces that It won't stick to at all, such as wood, bricks, wallpaper or leather etc.

The GorillaPod arm I am slightly less impressed with, but only slightly. Overall it's solid and absolutely does what it needs to do, but In find it slightly clunky in operation.. which is only a minor complaint and hardly unexpected at this low price point.

Though I initially bought the Joby as an in car phone holder, I am sufficiently impressed with it's sticking ability that I am going to [carefully] venture into using it as an external camera holder for moving car shots.

Manfrotto Pixi Tripod

I have been using this mini tripod now for a couple months, it retails from £15 to £18 which I think is entirely reasonable. The first thing I like is the build quality, the body is very solid feeling yet still quite light. The ball head is controlled by a button which has a firm press and a good amount of travel to engage, it also locks nice and firmly when not pressed.

I tend to use this with a holder for my phone, though i have also used it with a couple compact digital cameras and a Panasonic G5.... I probably wouldn't use it with a large and heavy DSLR however. 

I find the Pixi great in use and it slips into my messanger bag quite nicely, the really great thing about the Pixi is that it double's as a pretty good handle for taking slightly more stable video. It won't replace a product specifiacally designed to steady video footage but it is great in a lightweight setup.