Store
The one accessory you need for the DJI Pocket 3 (or small cameras) — KraftGeek Variety Tripod Review
🔗 TRIPOD https://geni.us/kraftgeek-tripod. Get 15% on the KraftGeek store using "LOICBELLEMAREAL" at checkout.
🔗 PGYTECH Quick Release https://geni.us/pgytech-plate-v2
📹 What's in my camera bag video https://youtu.be/oSYGIox69cg
In this video, I review the KraftGeek tripod, highlighting its compact design, quick-release system, and travel-friendly features. It’s a small, durable solution ideal for creators who need flexibility and portability in their gear.
► COME SAY HI!
https://loicbellemarealford.ca
► GEAR I USE ON YOUTUBE
https://loicbellemarealford.ca/gear
#kraftgeek @kraftgeek #KGvarietytripod #varietytripod #kraftgeek #AllinOneTripod #djipocket3
► CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
00:56 What's the issue with my Peak Design Tripod?
01:52 Why the Ulanzi TT52 didn't fix my issues...
02:42 Could this be the perfect tripod?
03:31 Size, Weight & build Quality of the KraftGeek Tripod
04:18 Why I love this tripod so much!
05:07 PGYTech Quick Release Plate
05:44 Hot Shoe Mounts
06:05 Issues in the adventure :'(
08:25 Usability & Height of the KraftGeek Tripod
09:20 The main issue with this tripod
11:24 All Metal Phone Holder
12:07 Tablet Holder
12:45 Bluetooth Remote Control
14:00 Price & Final Thoughts
► MY MUSIC
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound: https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/iu5gau/
- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:56 What's the issue with my Peak Design Tripod?
- 1:52 Why the Ulanzi TT52 didn't fix my issues...
- 2:42 Could this be the perfect tripod?
- 3:31 Size, Weight & build Quality of the KraftGeek Tripod
- 4:18 Why I love this tripod so much!
- 5:07 PGYTech Quick Release Plate
- 5:44 Hot Shoe Mounts
- 6:05 Issues in the adventure :'(
- 8:25 Usability & Height of the KraftGeek Tripod
- 9:20 The main issue with this tripod
- 11:24 All Metal Phone Holder
- 12:07 Tablet Holder
- 12:45 Bluetooth Remote Control
- 14:00 Price & Final Thoughts
[Music] Hello everyone. If you're like me, you really enjoy the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, but there's one accessory that I really wanted to get, but weirdly enough, it was really hard to find the right one. Now, let's go on a hike to talk about this. [Music] For those of you who are new to this channel, I'm Louis Ben Alford, a young photographer and filmmaker on the journey to become better at this art. If you're like me, you love using the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 because it's small and compact and a great tool for NA adventure like the one today. But there's always one question I have and it's which tripod should I use? Spoiler alert, this tripod is not the answer. [Music] If you've seen one of my videos in the last few years, you've probably seen this peak design inside of it. And even though it's considered to be a small and lightweight tripod, it's ridiculously big compared to the DJI Osmo Pocket 3. I actually bought the Fujifilm XT50 a few months ago because I wanted to have a lighter kit when I was traveling around, but this really became an issue when I was in Italy and I had a bag with my Fujifilm XT50 and the J O Pocket 3, but the Peak Design tripod was still bigger than that bag. I'm also planning on doing a lot of hiking this summer and carrying this Peak Design tripod is actually kind of ridiculous because it's too heavy and too big to put on my backpack. If you want to see how bad my gear situation became with when I was hiking, you can go see my last what's in my bag video. [Music] When I came back from that trip, I started looking for some alternative tripods and I found this Olanszi TT52 tripod. Uh, it's very small, lightweight, it's just under a pound, so it was pretty much everything I was looking for. Another very important thing was that I had to be able to go up to the height of my face so I wouldn't have to look down to the camera when filming these videos. The main issue I have with this Ulanzi tripod is that there's no ball head on side of it. So if I put my camera, like my Fujifilm on top of it, there's no way of getting the perfect angle and moving it around. I had the same issue with my phone, but it was much easier here to just buy a little adapter for the phone. I get so many emails asking me if I want to review some different products. And to be honest, for most of them, I simply ignore them. But one email caught my attention and I was very intrigued and it's this company called CraftGeek asking me if I wanted to review their new tripod. And this is a tripod that they suggested reviewing. It basically fixed all the issues I had with the previous one. So, I definitely wanted to take a look. They sent it to me. They also sent a tablet mount, but to be perfectly honest, they don't get to see the video before you do. They don't get to give any input about it. So, it is my true opinion about this tripod. It's not all perfect. We'll talk about some of the bad things at the end of this video. [Music] Now, let's talk about the size and weight of this Craft Geek tripod. Overall, it's slightly bigger and slightly heavier than the Ulanzi one, but not by much. It's still under a pound, and it's also very portable. The reason it's a little bit heavier is that there's more metal inside of this one. So, in the ball head here, in the center columns, part of the feet are all metal. So, it feels like a tripod that will last for quite a while. [Music] If you've been enjoying this video, I would really appreciate it if you watch it till the end. This is the only thing that YouTube cares about these days, and you'll also get to know what is wrong with this tripod. [Music] The biggest reason why I was so excited to have this tripod was actually that has a fully articulating ball head right here. So, you can turn around the camera however you want. And it's mostly made of metal, so it's very secure once it's attached to the camera. One little thing here is that the knob in the back here is made of plastic. So, I hope it won't break in colder winters or things like that, but overall, I wouldn't be too stressed about it. Another really great thing about this tripod is the quick access quarterinch screw right here. So you can simply turn it on your different devices. So it makes it really quick to switch between devices without needing a tool, which is really important when you're traveling around. You don't want to be having all kinds of tools on you just to switch your cameras. [Music] You might want an even quicker way of getting your camera in and off. And this is where I bought this PGY tick that I can put on the top right here. And I can then use my Peak Design clips that I have already on most of my cameras to quickly get them on and off. So if we come here, we can simply put on top here. Click in, put the camera. If I want to get it off, clip off. And it's that easy. [Music] [Music] If this tripod wasn't cool enough, there's another feature right here that's pretty neat. And it has two cold shoe mounts on the top here. So, you could add a video light like this one right here, or you could add a wireless microphone. I might not use these two exact accessories, but one thing I'll definitely use in the future is putting my phone on the side here so I can have my notes right beside my camera while I'm filming. This is really cool. So, sadly, we have to cut this uh shooting short. It's already 8:36 p.m. Uh, it's going to be dark in half an hour here in the mountains. So, I'll try to go back to the car before it gets too dark. I'll come back tomorrow morning and finish filming this hike and this video. But for now, let's quickly go back to the car and make sure we're safe. [Music] We made it back to the car. There's a nice little sunset all around here. Another crazy one, but at least we made it back before it's dark. So, now let's get it back home and come back early tomorrow morning. [Music] [Applause] I just made it back to the hiking trail. Almost 12 hours, minute for minute. And let's go back up this hike. [Music] This is a lot harder than I remembered. It's much easier when filming the video and stopping every 2 minutes to film something than having to go straight up. But I'm happy to be out again and enjoying the outdoors. [Music] I made it back to same point as last today. I'll continue going ahead a little bit and find my next spot to continue filming this video. It's a very nice hike, but a lot harder when you don't take breaks. [Music] Probably the most important for me when looking for this type of tripod was actually finding one that was tall enough. And this was surprisingly hard. This one has no issues extending to the height where I can have the camera in front of me and don't have to look down when I set it on top. And this is essential. Another really great thing with this camera is just how easy it is to set up. So, you simply press the button at the bottom here, pull out the legs, and then you can put it down. This is essential, especially like today where I want to get a bunch of shots while I'm walking, but don't want to fuss around with different legs and adjusting the tripod non-stop to get the shot. this one. Just take out the legs, pull it up, and you're good to go. It's super easy. Another use case I just realized that actually is pretty great is whenever I'm hiking and I want to vlog with my DJI, I can actually set it up on here and use this as a selfie stick. This is great because it gives a little bit more room and it's a lot easier to hold the tripod here than having to hold the DJI at arms length. So, this brings me to my only real downside that I have with this tripod and it's actually that once you set it up here, it's extremely wobbly. Just touching the camera and changing some settings will make the whole camera wobble around. This is unavoidable with a tire tripod like this with a center column. But they did think about a solution for this. So if we come at the bottom here, you can actually extend every feet right here and try to make it a little bit more stable with a larger base at the bottom. I do find this to be a little bit better. It doesn't wobble as much. But the real reason why I like having these feet is actually that on the terrain like this, it helps level out the tripod a little bit, which is usually not possible with these types of tripod. I definitely would not rely on this tripod for astrophotography or things like that, except if you keep it lower to the ground, but it's a really versatile tripod that's great for a day like this where when hiking, I don't need to have the most stable footage, but it's still going to hold the camera nice and steady for these types of shots. Heat. Heat. [Music] We finally got some nice views and some cute dogs along the way. [Music] One very nice surprise that comes inside of the box is this phone mount. I really did not expect it to be all metal and it can easily attach to your tripod like here by just screwing it in. And then you can pull it out and turn it at any degrees you want. uh actually 45° and then to put your phone in, it's simply taking it here, pushing it in with the springs and here you go. You have a secure mount. If I want to be very picky, I would say the two disadvantage of this mount is first of all, there's no locking mechanism. So yes, you have to be careful that back and you don't push it out. And second of all is that there's no hot shoe if you want to attach it to another camera or something like that. Uh but if you buy a little adapter or something like that, you could fix it. Uh but overall, it's nice. is very small and compact and all made of metal which is very important to keep your phone securely inside of it. They also gave me this tablet holder. So, all you have to do is come in the back here and extend it. You can extend both sides here and then you can put a tablet inside of it and it screws on the top here. Uh, I don't really think I would use this that much, but one use case I could see for it is if I'm filming a video inside or something like that and I want to have my iPad as a monitor, then I could easily put this on top here and use it to see uh with more detail what's happening. But personally for me, this is probably not the most useful accessory. [Music] If all of this was not good enough, there's a last little feature that we need to talk about. If you look in the front right here, there this little remote control you can take off here. You can press a few seconds to open it and then it will connect to the phone once it stops blinking. And once it's good to go, so it should connect any time now. We're good to go. You can use it take pictures just like this. This is super awesome to have on the tripod if you want to take a group shot or something like that. It's not an accessory I personally would really buy separately, but the fact it's built into the tripod. I'll probably have it on me and use it a lot more this way. One thing I did notice is it doesn't work with my other cameras. It doesn't work with my Sony camera, my Fujif film or things like that. So, it's a little bit disappointing on that side. Um, but it's to be expected because Bluetooth remotes don't work with all types of devices. [Music] Now that I made it to the top of the mountain, let's talk about the price of this CraftGeek tripod. It cost $60 for the tripod plus the phone mount which is really good value when you compare it to more expensive tripods like the P design which is 10 times more and it's very competitive compared to the Alonzi or other smaller tripod like that. If you want to add the tablet mount on the top it's going to be another $25. This could be $85 in total but they currently have specials on their website. And if you do want to buy it there's going to be links down in the description uh that help me and help this channel if you click on them. Now, here are my final thoughts about this Craft Geek tripod. If you're looking for a small tripod that's great for some adventures that you're going to use with your DJI Osmo Pocket 3 or you're going to use with a smaller camera like the Fujifilm XT50 that I have right here, I think this is an amazing option. Yes, it does wobble quite a lot, so it can be a little bit of an issue, but for most cameras, in most scenarios, if you just wait a few seconds, it's going to be totally fine. If you enjoyed this video, please let me know by hitting the like button below and definitely subscribe for more content on photographing filmm. I'm actually going to be releasing some videos about the Fujifilm XT50 very soon. See you in the next one. [Music]
What is this video about?
I've been on a hunt for the right tripod, and it's been surprisingly harder than expected. My Peak Design tripod is way too big compared to the DJI Osmo Pocket 3, and when I started traveling lighter with my Fujifilm XT50, carrying it became ridiculous—literally bigger than my camera bag. I tried the Ulanzi TT52, which nailed the size and weight, but it was missing the ball head I needed to get proper camera angles. Then KraftGeek reached out, and I was genuinely intrigued.
The KraftGeek Variety Tripod addresses everything I was looking for. It's still under a pound and highly portable, but with a meaningful upgrade: a fully articulating metal ball head that lets me angle the camera however I want. The quick-access quarter-inch screw makes switching between devices seamless—no tools needed when you're out on the trail. I also added a PGYTech Quick Release Plate on top, which lets me clip cameras on and off instantly using my Peak Design system.
What really surprised me were the thoughtful touches. There are dual cold shoe mounts on top for attaching lights or a wireless mic, or even my phone for notes while filming. The all-metal phone holder is genuinely well-made, and there's a Bluetooth remote built in for taking group shots. The tripod extends to exactly the height I need—no more looking down at the camera while filming. Setup is dead simple: press the button, pull the legs, you're done.
I won't sugarcoat it: there's one real downside. When you extend it fully with the center column raised, it wobbles noticeably if you touch the camera or adjust settings. You can extend the feet wider to improve stability, which does help, but don't expect this for astrophotography. That said, for hiking, vlogging with the DJI, and day-to-day adventure work, it's rock solid enough. The wobble settles in seconds and doesn't ruin the shot.
At $60 for the tripod plus phone mount, the value is genuinely hard to beat. Adding the tablet holder brings it to $85 if that interests you. If you're shooting with the Pocket 3, a lighter mirrorless, or any compact camera, and you need something that actually fits your travel setup, this is the answer I've been looking for.