12Mar Nasty Clamp rigidity test, will it support a large flash?
In an effort to test the rigidity of the Nasty Clamp, I mounted a Canon 580 ex II flash with batteries at an angled position and left it on the Nasty Clamp over night. This is basically the same test I ran with the Actionpod. The flash with batteries works out to ruffly 3 pounds which is about right for most applications.
After 24 hours the Nasty Clamp still maintained it’s position. When you consider most of the product descriptions for both the Nasty Clamp and the Actionpod either don’t list a weight limit or say something like “easily holds up to 1 pound”, they’ve both done a good job.
At first I was trying to think of a reason why I’d want to use something like this over a friction arm, but the more I’ve played around with it, the more the usefulness becomes apparent. A friction arm requires you to crank down on a clamp when attaching it to a mount. After that you have to loosen the arm, adjust it, then try and hold it in place while snugging everything back up. Sure it works but it takes more time and effort.
With the Nasty Clamp and the Actionpod, you just clamp and adjust. If the flash isn’t quit where you wanted it to be, reach over and tweak it. The same is true with something like the Gopro Hero. Getting your POV cam in just the right place can take a lot of adjustments with a friction arm, but with a flexible mount you simply adjust until the image looks right and leave it.
Neither of these are designed to handle as much weight as something like a Manfrotto Magic Arm. Even though Dinkum has photo’s of a DSLR with L glass mounted to the Actionpod, I wouldn’t go any bigger then a Canon t2i (1.2 pounds) with a small prime lens (15.2 ounces). Any bigger then that and you risk watching your camera do a swan dive into the ground.
The weather here has cleared up, so I’ll be take both of these out for a bit of skateboarding this week to see how well they can keep a go pro mounted on a somewhat ruff ride. More on that soon.
