Lowdown On The GravGrip

The Palm Sized, Pocket Friendly & Battery Free Camera Stabilization Device

When you hear the word “hydraulics,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For me, the first thing that pops into my head is visions of the lowrider cars in rap music videos from the 90's. But that also probably has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t understand anything about hydraulics.

I had always assumed that because it included the “hydro” root, hydraulics must involve water or liquids (“hydration,” “hydrophobia,” etc.), so I was initially confused when I read about the GravGrip, a new hydraulic stabilization gadget for videographers. Even after researching the GravGrip, I still don’t know where (or if) liquids are involved, so let’s stipulate from the start that for the purposes of this article, the word “hydraulics” can be substituted with “magic” or “wizardry.”

Once you get past the hydraulic sorcery, the GravGrip is a small, simple device that you can use to improve the videos that you shoot with your cell phone or action cam. It’s compact enough to fit in your hand or pocket, it doesn’t use batteries, and it’s made up of fewer than a dozen parts in total. Let’s have a closer look at the GravGrip and see how it works, and then consider whether it might be a good fit for your needs.

If you buy a GravGrip, the basic package costs $49.99. That includes the GravGrip itself, as well as two mounts/adapters. One of the adapters is expandable and can be used to grip most kinds of cell phones (even larger ones), and the other mount can hold an action camera such as a GoPro. Because of the grip’s relatively small size, you’re basically limited to those two options; even a small point-and-shoot camera would probably be too heavy, and anything larger simply wouldn’t fit in the system.

The GravGrip itself is basically an L-Shaped plate that connects to the base plate via a hydraulic swivel. The mounts attach to the L-plate, and the base plate attaches to a handheld monopod, a tripod, or a pole. GravGrip sells two options for holding the grip if you don’t already have a pole or a monopod. Their hand grip is $9.99, and their adjustable extension pole is $39.99.

Once you have the basic configuration ready, you’ll need to balance the camera so that it will stay in the position that you want it to stay in. You do that with two (or more) weights that screw onto the bottom of the assembly. The weights counter the weight of the camera, and the hydraulic swivel uses physics (and magical trickery) to swing the camera back into the desired position. The consensus among users is that this balancing can be finicky at first and takes some experimentation, but you should be able to get things set up through a bit of trial and error.

All of this, of course, is much easier to understand if you simply see a picture or a video of the assembly, but suffice to say that it’s a fairly uncomplicated gadget, and it’s available at a price that’s surprisingly reasonable.

Once you have the system set up, it’s go time. The GravGrip is best suited for shooting video wherein you’re moving smoothly and consistently, such as when you’re on something with wheels. It’s great if you’re using it from a moving vehicle, a bike, or a skateboard, but I would imagine that it would also work well on “floating” things such as boats, surfboards, and even ziplines.

Just keep in mind that the GravGrip isn’t designed to be mounted directly to your body, whether on your helmet or your chest, and you would still need to hold the pole or hand grip while doing any of these activities. That could limit your movement and/or performance, and it could also become a safety concern - you don’t want your amazing video to culminate with you crashing into a tree or rollerblading off a cliff. So pay attention to what you’re doing and be safe out there.

Another scenario where I could envision the GravGrip being useful is if you’re doing handheld shots where you don’t walk or move much from your position, but you do need to move the camera itself back and forth. In those cases, you could pan from side to side or even shoot a dynamic selfie video, but have the benefit of smoother, steadier video because the camera would be kept in more stable position.

When you consider what the GravGrip is and what it does, it’s arguably just as important to keep in mind what it isn’t, and what it doesn’t do. Mainly, it’s not a gimbal. The GravGrip is designed to help you stabilize your shots and keep your camera or phone balanced at the angle that you want, but it’s still just meant to be a supplementary assistant to the image stabilization software already present in your phone or action camera. If you try using it while jogging down a mountain trail, for example, you’ll likely be disappointed because you’ll probably end up with very bouncy footage.

Additionally, the GravGrip is also squarely aimed at improving your videos, but it won’t really do anything to help your still photos. I suppose you could hold the mounts or use them to attach your phone to a tripod, but if that’s what you’re after, you should just buy a cell phone grip with a tripod mount for less than $10.

Finally, it’s worth emphasizing again that the GravGrip mainly relies on your camera’s own image stabilization technology to give you smooth videos, and GravGrip says that on their website. Nevertheless, a fair number of people have left negative comments on GravGrip’s social media pages, as well as on their earlier Kickstarter page, although many of them may have had unrealistic expectations about the device. Those negative commenters are also somewhat countered by other users who have noted that it simply took them some adjusting to get everything to work with their particular phone or camera, and that the GravGrip isn’t meant to be a miracle that will give you perfect video under any and all conditions.

I say all that not as an attempt to persuade or dissuade you, since I don’t have any skin in this game. I simply want to present a balanced idea of what you can reasonably expect if you buy a GravGrip. Personally, I think it looks pretty cool, and I even considered some situations in which it might come in handy for me. And you might feel the same way, in which case the GravGrip might be the perfect tool to help make your videos just that much better. And to you, I’d say get a grip - a GravGrip.