This gadget lets you rig up your iPhone with lights and mics without a cage

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It’s called the Shoulderpod G2, it’s made in Barcelona, and I bet you’ve never seen anything like it (well I haven’t, anyway)

Shoulderpod G2
(Image credit: Rod Lawton)

The iPhone is an extremely effective filmmaking tool, with terrific features and stabilization but has a slippery body and nowhere to mount accessories like lights and mics.

So you could get a cage, and these work well. I have a SmallRig smartphone cage with all the cold shoes and screw thread mounting points I could ask for, but it’s not exactly compact and it does look a bit like something out of a Terminator movie.

But then I saw the Shoulderpod G2 and I just had to have one straight away. It looks as weird as heck, but it’s not very expensive and has some really clever design touches.

For a start, fixing your iPhone is easy. There’s a spring-loaded clamping lever that locks really tight with a solid ‘click’. When it’s in place you grip the ShoulderPod using the two vertical rectangular handles that form the sides. Need to swap from horizontal video to vertical video for social? That’s easy – there are no clamps or pivots and you just turn the ShoulderPod G2 on its side. It’s just as easy to hold that way, too.

Your iPhone is held tight with a sliding lock that takes only a moment to use and clicks securely. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

The Shoulderpod G2 has tripod mounting points on the base and side, and no fewer than six cold shoes on the top and sides for lights, mics or anything else. (Image credit: Rod Lawton)

There are six cold shoes, two on the top, three down one side and one on the other side. There are also two mounting points for accessories or attaching a QR plate for a tripod, one on the base, one on the side. This means you can mount accessories in the best positions for either horizontal or vertical shooting, and with a QR plate attached you can swap from tripod to handheld filming in a couple of seconds.

You might have to shop around a little to find a reseller that stocks Shoulderpods (I got mine from UK reseller CVP) but you can also buy direct  from the Shoulderpod website.

Take a look at it online and see what you think. It’s probably not for everyone, but I think it’s just one of the cleverest bits of design I’ve seen in a long time.

Check out the best iPhone microphones and the best smartphone gimbals

Rod Lawton
Rod Lawton
Contributor

Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com

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