I've seen quite a few videos about this monopod on YouTube,
and pretty much every video that I saw had nothing
but positive things to say about it.
But they did mostly mention the same things.
So rather than document everything that I like
about this monopod, I spent the last couple
weeks trying to find something wrong with it.
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music] ♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy.
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone,
and I am the Egg Man. Goo goo gachoo.
So I was wandering around NAB last month when I came upon
the iFootage booth, which had a whole forest
of these monopods sitting there.
And then I remembered, "Oh, yeah, those are those
monopods that everybody thinks are the greatest of all time."
So I was like, "Gimme one of those!"
And I snatched it up and I ran home to Canada.
Now, I've used monopods a lot. My wife and I ran a sports
photography business, and we used monopods daily to keep
us limber while supporting the weight of our giant lenses.
And so I feel like I know everything about
a monopod that annoys me. And as a video shooter,
I also know what I like about tripods,
and about shooting handheld.
So I immediately started beating the hell
out of this thing to see where its faults are.
So firstly, I'm pretty tall -- often too tall to use
a regular monopod without hunching over.
So I got iFootage to give me the tallest one
that they had, which is -- this is the C180,
the Cobra 2 C180, which is 180cm,
that's what the 180 stands for, which is about 5'11''.
Now I'm 6'4'', which is about 193cm,
so I didn't think that this was going to cut it.
But I think that they do the measurement not including
these feet that you can also attach on the bottom,
but instead maybe do it with just the length of the monopod,
because when I brought this thing up with the feet attached
it came all the way up to my eye level
without even a camera on. And if you put a head on it,
like the Komodo K5 Fluid Head that iFootage makes,
it should be tall enough for even someone approaching 7'.
So, nothing wrong with it so far.
Now, two other things that I hate about monopods
is the twisting locks and also the clamp locks
that require you to tighten them so much and put so much
force on them to stop the monopod from sinking,
because anything less than that and if you put a heavy camera
and lens on it they just tend to slide down over time.
But the Cobra 2 uses very robust buckles that are easy
to open and close, and even when loosened
using the included tool, are surprisingly resilient.
I put as much force as I possibly could to try
and get them to sink and they wouldn't budge.
Another thing that I dislike about monopods
is that terrible clanking sound that the extensions make
if you deploy them without controlling
their descent, like this. [clanging]
And it's even worse sometimes if you do it upside down.
Well, the Cobra 2 seems to funnel the air in a way,
and when combined with the O-rings that are between
each segment, makes for a much smoother and quieter collapse.
[whooshing] And while we've got this here,
another thing that annoys me about monopods is how chewed-up
the rubber ball on the end there can get.
And sometimes it even gets sheered off
and stuffed inside the tube.
Well, on the Cobra 2 it's a solid piece
with a 3/8" thread on it, so you can actually unscrew it,
move it, and potentially replace it if necessary.
And this brings me to a weird complaint I have about monopods
which probably isn't that relevant for a lot of people.
But if you've ever tried to use them as a boom pole
or to extend another device somewhere
you always have to mount that to the head
because you usually don't have the option on the bottom,
because like I said this is usually a fixed piece.
Which then requires you to have the heaviest
and thickest part of the monopod deployed
away from you while you try to hold it by the foot.
And that doesn't really make a lot of sense
when it comes to distribution of weight.
Well, because the fact that this is a 3/8" socket
on the bottom of this monopod, you can actually attach
a device to that end, and I suppose this end too,
if you wanted to put a monitor or something on this side.
But then you can actually put the business end
in the right direction
and use this more effectively as a boom pole.
And that little inclusion makes this monopod
exponentially more useful. So at this point I started
getting pretty desperate for things to dislike about it.
I thought, well, you're likely to lose
this rubber foot if you take it off.
But then I realized that you can attach it
to the bottom of these little feet here,
which also has a 3/8" hole on the bottom,
so you're probably never going to lose it.
And then I thought, well, maybe because the ball head
is on the bottom here it's going to require me
to bend over in a weird way which will cause problems
with my height and everything like I was saying,
in order to make adjustments to the ball head.
But no, you can actually make adjustments quite easily
and accurately with just your foot.
And having it on the bottom like this
allows you to make smooth leaning shots.
And these little legs have multiple levels
of locking adjustment,
and are surprisingly strong for their size.
So at this point I figured the only issue would
probably be the price. I heard a lot of those
other reviewers say that it was just over $200,
and I thought, well, that is a lot to pay for a monopod.
But then I looked up a current price on B&H,
and it's only $150,
which is actually $80 less than the Manfrotto equivalent.
And those prices are for the carbon fibre version,
which is actually only 1.35 kilos, or around 3lb
with the feet attached, and only about half that
at about 670g, or 1.5lb, without the feet.
But the value calculation wouldn't be complete
if I didn't mention just how freakin' useful
this little mini tripod is. It absolutely destroys
the JOBYs in terms of reliability,
and it can hold 10 kilos or 22lb,
so you can actually put a cine rig on here.
In fact, I've actually been using it more than the monopod.
I have it holding B cams, lights, microphones, whatever.
It's super handy and I'd happily pay double
the price of the Manfrotto PIXI just for this.
And this little tripod actually righted
another complaint that I might have potentially had
about the monopod, which was that you can't
take long exposure shots with the monopod
because it's just a bit too wobbly.
You'd have to use a cable release, and even then,
even if you set a 10-second self timer, it still wobbles
a bit too much in my opinion for a long exposure.
Now, most of you are probably thinking,
"Why the hell would you use a monopod for a long exposure
in the first place?" And I get it, I was reaching here
to try and find something wrong with it.
But it didn't even work, because the kit
does provide a solution for long exposures.
If you use just this little tripod you can do
long exposures, even on uneven or rocky terrain,
and it's surprisingly stable and you don't even need
to set a self-timer and you can do a pretty good job.
So I can't even really take points off for long exposures
with this kit because it does provide a work-around.
But it was in this dual-purpose testing that I did find
kind of a flaw, albeit that I am a bit reaching here.
So you can't actually use both the monopod
and the tripod separately at the same time.
So because there's only one quick release plate included
in the kit, and you need the quick release plate
in order to attach anything to the monopod
or to the tripod, you can't actually use
the devices at the same time, separately.
It's kind of hard to fault a company for selling a product
that they intended to be used as a single device
for not allowing you to use it as two separate devices,
but it would be outstanding if they put two in the kit.
Or even if they just made the quick release plate
available for sale on their store, and you could just
buy it as an add-on when purchasing the monopod.
I think that would be a great solution, too.
But the kit is quite complete as it is,
and it even comes with a really nice padded bag,
which can be extended if you want to keep the head on it.
You can just un-Velcro that part.
It's great, it's nice, and overall I would say that
this package is worth well over $150.
Now, the Komodo K5 Fluid Head is also $150,
but I wasn't as excited about it.
There's nothing really wrong with it.
Again, I like the design, I like the way that it looks,
but at $150 the price is only fair,
and appropriate, and it's about on par
with what you would expect to get from the competition.
It uses Manfrotto plates which makes life easy, but there was
one issue that I had, which is that the position
of the rosette next to the quick-release button
for the plate actually conflict with one another.
And so if you use your handle on an angle lower
than 45 degrees, like say about here, you'll notice
that it actually starts to scrape against the button.
And it can actually make it impossible at times
to push the button all the way in
without adjusting the handle position first.
And my button is now pretty scored up from this issue.
But it's pretty minor and probably won't affect
a lot of users, so I would say that if you can find them
in a combo at a reduced price I would definitely go for it.
But even at full price I do like the fact
that it matches the Cobra aesthetically,
because I really like the look of the Cobra.
I like the red metallic touches, and the pattern on
the carbon fibre is awesome as well. And the grip
is nice and does reasonably well to resist getting cold.
iFootage really nailed it with this one.
I tried as hard as I could to find something
to legitimately complain about, and I just couldn't.
It's terrific.
Our search for the perfect camera may be far from over,
but at least in the meantime we have the perfect monopod.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found
this video helpful or at least entertaining.
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All right, I'm done.