Happy New Year everyone! Today I’m going to be showing you six GoPro accessories which I’ve been using recently. Some of these allow you to achieve interesting angles or effects while others are just generally useful and applicable in most situations; all of them are available for under £20 so if you’ve got a little extra Christmas money floating around I can’t recommend these purchases enough.
Ok, so first of all we have the Andoer time-lapse mount shown above. This is a great little device which allows you to pan up to 360° smoothly over the course of 2 hours and it only costs around £12. If you want to pan a particular area you can just twist the top section until the time or angle you want has been set then leave the mount to get going. I’ve been using a home-made accessory (ie. a GoPro mount stuck on top of an egg timer) to do this for a while, but the Andoer mount surpasses this easily. The mount is anodised aluminum and has a nice weight to it which helps to stabilize any camera mounted on top, the build quality is great with the panning motion being considerably smoother than that of my egg timer and there is a universal screw hold on the underside which allows you to attach the mount to any tripod or monopod you like.
Speaking of tripods, we can also see the GorillaPod on which the Andoer is mounted. GorillaPods are great for use with GoPros because they give us a variety of mounting angles/options and their ability to fold up makes them easy to stow away. GorillaPods are easily available all over the place but I would recommend getting an official version (which can still be picked up for circa £15) because the third party GorillaPods tend to be weaker with poorer longevity. If you’d like to see some video where I use both the GorillaPod and the Andoer time-lapse mount then be sure to check out the beginning of the video at the bottom of this post – giving it a like would also help a lot!
Third on this list is the GoPro suction mount. GoPro actually make an official version of this which comes in at a ridiculous £40 however I’ve owned this £10 version for the past three years and have had no reason to complain – go figure! The suction mount is actually very simple to use – make sure that the switch on the base is up, press the sucker hard against a clean, flat surface and then flick the switch down. This mount is very useful if you’d like to film anything from/in a vehicle because you can easily attach the mount to the window although it also works on flat sheets of metal, plastic or other smooth materials.
Next we have something you’ve probably already noticed in the previous two photos – the metal screws. I got six of these for Christmas, two packs each containing two long screws and two shorter screws. Why, might you ask, would you need metal screws? Metal screws are much better wearing than the stock plastic versions meaning not only that they are more likely to survive impacts but that the screw and handle will not separate (which is an annoying feature of the standard screws), they also feature a small rubber o-ring on the shaft which prevents them from becoming undone if they experience any knocks, bumps or vibrations. They look good too.
Fifth we have the Vijim VL81 video light – this is a powerful rechargeable light for use when filming vlogs or taking photos (I’ve used it for the previous three photos). The light costs around £12 and can be mounted on a tripod or camera, featuring a tough ABS plastic housing which contains 81 LEDs outputting 850 lumens. You can adjust the temperature of the light (from 3200-5600K) using a dial on the back depending on whether you want a harsh white/warmer yellow light. This is something I am still playing around with but so far I’ve found it helpful in illuminating small detailed objects; it’s also easy to use – especially when attached to the GorillaPod – due to its portable nature.
Our final accesory is the GoPro Gooseneck mount pictured above. This mount looks a little like the GorillaPod on which the Vijim VL81 video light is mounted and that’s because it works on a very similar system. It is made up of multiple ball and socket joints which allow it to be bent and twisted into different shapes with standard GoPro mounts on both the top and bottom. The Gooseneck mount is perfect for getting the angle you want when it’s impossible to attach any other mount in the desired position, just extend the existing mount using the Gooseneck and you can achieve whatever angle you want.
Here’s to a better 2021! I hope you enjoyed this article and found it useful, if you’d like to be emailed next time I post be sure to sign up below!
Patrick Kyak 