Verdict: Five stars ★★★★★
If you need a simple, portable tabletop tripod for your smartphone, action cam, compact camera or even a small mirrorless camera, the Iggy is just about perfect. It’s light, super-simple to use and the legs fold into the shape of a handle so you can use it as a short selfie or vlogging stick. You can rest it on the ground, on a wall or on a table, then fold it up to slip it in a jacket pocket when you’re done.
3 Legged Thing usually makes much bigger tripods than this, so the Iggy is a bit of a departure for this innovative British tripod maker. It’s still got the typical 3 Legged Thing design flair, though, and it shows in all sorts of little details.
First, folding out the legs takes just a couple of seconds, and their flat ‘paddle’ shape means there’s no flex in the legs, and not much in the top mounting either. They have this flat shape for a reason – so that when you fold them back in their edges meet to form a nicely shaped handgrip for shooting video or selfies.
On the top is a simple ball head which you lock or unlock with a quarter turn of the big orange locking ring. It grips pretty well for its size and easily coped with a mirrorless Olympus E-PL9. Anything bigger, like a DSLR, might make it topple, but for a pocket-sized tripod to take a mirrorless camera so easily is brilliant. Just be careful if you rotate the camera to shoot vertically, because that will put the centre of gravity way off centre.
If you’re shooting with an action cam rather than a regular camera, it’s not a problem. The Iggy comes with a GoPro-compatible action cam mount that simply screws on to the ball head.
Or, if you’re shooting with a smartphone, you can use The Cradle – it’s sold separately, but you can save money by getting the Iggy and The Cradle as a bundle.
The Cradle packs away as a flat plate, but when you need to use it you swing out two end panels, or jaws, by 90 degrees. One then pulls out against spring pressure – you pull it out far enough to get your smartphone between the jaws and when your release it the spring pressure holds your phone tight. It opens wide enough for an iPhone 7 Plus – just – but if you’re using a case you’ll have to take it off first. The Cradle has two tripod sockets so you can mount it on the Iggy in two different orientations, depending on how you want to angle your phone.
So basically you get a tabletop tripod for a camera, an action cam or a smartphone that also doubles as a video/smartphone grip or (short) selfie stick, and folds down to fit in your jacket pocket or a spare corner of a shoulder bag.
Obviously it’s not going to replace your regular tripod, but if you’re going travelling, it’s such a useful thing to have that you won’t want to leave the hotel without it. Oh, and you can it as a handy LED light stand for something like the LumiMuse 8, too.
The Iggy is on sale now. The Iggy alone costs £19.99, The Cradle costs £10 and you can get both together for £25. There’s also an Iggy Kit 2 designed particularly for bloggers and bloggers, with two Iggys, two GoPro mounts and one cradle, and that costs £40.
Rating: ★★★★★
Price: Iggy £19.99, The Cradle £10, Iggy + Cradle £25, Iggy Kit 2 (2 Iggys, 2 GoPro mounts, 1 Cradle) £40
More information: 3 Legged Thing website