Over the holiday weekend I did a photowalk in Cleveland Metroparks Viaduct Park where I had the opportunity to put my new Platypod to work.

My regular tripod is fine in many situations, but a few shots I wanted to be down close to the water and the rocks made use of a tripod challenging. The Platypod with spike feet installed provided excellent support for my Canon 5DS R with a 12mm lens attached.

Canon 5DS R mounted on a Platypod Ultra with an Oben BA-113T ball head.

Thanks to rubber caps on the opposite end, the spikes are easy to adjust and provide grip on the uneven surface of the rocks. It is important to make sure the surface is stable. You don’t want the rock (or whatever surface) to move after you setup your camera.

The Platypod has a hole for attaching a carabiner clip. This was really helpful when moving to new locations. I attached the Platypod with the ball-head to my gear bag (backpack), saving the hassle of detaching the ball-head each time. For transport and storage the ball-head unscrews and fits nicely in my bag.

A few days prior to this hike I used the Platypod at the beach to hold my iPhone while recording a timelapse of the sunset. It setup beautifully on a piece of washed up driftwood.

So far I am very impressed with the build quality and usefulness of the Platypod. I have a trip coming up later this month and plan to use it a lot there.