Platypod Extreme verdict
Summary
I can’t help giving the Platypod Extreme a great review because it does what it sets out to do brilliantly. You just have to decide if you want what the Platypod does. It’s an extremely stable support for the heaviest gear yet slim enough to dangle off your backpack. But it only makes sense if you want to shoot from really low angles, or if you can find a convenient surface to place it on.
For
Light to carry, easy to pack
Extremely stable, even with heavy gear
Swap spikes for rubber feet in moments
Belt mounting option
Karabiner for hanging it from your bag
Against
Not all ball heads will fit
Spike covers easy to lose
Needs a surface the right height
The Platypod is just plain weird. From the novelty name to the industrial flat-packed design, it looks like an amazing idea somebody had for something you would never use. And then you pick it up and play with it, and start to use it, and find out that it’s really rather good.
Essentially, it’s a flat machined plate with four little legs, once at each corner. They lie flat against the plate for stowage, but you pull them out against a spring and rotate them to form tiny legs at a choice of angles. The idea to provide a flat and extremely stable surface for mounting your gear.
So your first reaction is probably that this is going to leave your camera way too low to the ground. Well, it might – if you put it on the ground. But the Platypod is equally suited to tabletops, walls and other raised surfaces, and it’s possible to get so fixated with the idea that tripod feet go on the ground, that you forget other surfaces are available.
It might be a raised rock in the middle of a river, it might be a café table on a Parisian boulevard, or it might be a parapet overlooking a cityscape. In my case, it was the realization that I do a lot of tabletop product photography and that it’s a darned sight easier to have the camera on the table than try to wangle tripod legs and a boom arm into position.
The Playtpod looks a giant metal multi-tool, with slots and mounting points everywhere. In fact, many of the holes are alternative mounting points for the four legs, and the slots and holds are for feeding through a strap or belt or attaching the karabiner for carrying the Platypod around.
The key mounting point is the screw, just off-center, for attaching a tripod head. You can get the Playtpod with a small ball head included, but my sample came without one, giving me the opportunity to attach something beefier of my own.
This is where you may hit a snag. Some heads have a pan axis lever which extends below the head. mounting plate and will foul on the Platypod baseplate. That’s nobody’s fault. Tripod head makers never imagined their heads would be fitted on anything wider than a regular tripod spider.
I do have a couple of Gitzo heads that fitted perfectly well, though, even if they are pro heads that look comically large on the Platypod. But then it turned out there’s nothing comical about the rigidity and support this provides.
I tried a setup with my Sony A7R II and hefty 24-105mm f/4 standard zoom, mounted on my hefty Girto off-center ball head, mounted in turn on the Platypod, and the set-up felt solid as a rock. There was no risk at all of it overbalancing (unlike the average mini-tripod), even when I had the camera facing across the width of the Platypod rather than along its length.
The difference compared to a regular tripod is that the width of the plate lens much more stability… and of course the other difference is that there are four legs not three. This does benefit the stability, but it does mean you might need to spend a few moments twiddling the legs (they are on screw threads) to make them all reach the surface below and eliminate any wobble.
The legs have rubber pads on one end – perfect for use on tables and other delicate surfaces – and spikes on the other. I’d seen a video of someone using the spikes on a sloping surface with a suitable leg angle so I thought I’d try that on a sloping wall next to some steps in my garden. It held pretty well. I’m not saying I’d rush to do it again, but it held fine.
So how good is the Platypod and would I recommend getting one? Well I would recommend watching some of the videos on the Platypod website to see how others use it and decide if it’s for you or not. It’s fairly expensive at $149, and while it is really nicely made, that’s still a sizeable chunk of cash.
It’s such a wild concept that it does things you probably haven’t thought of doing, but the more I use it the more I realize how useful it could be. It’s certainly more portable than any tripod, but while a tripod can stand where you stand, with the Platypod you might just have to spend a little more time working out where to put it.