A new breed of camera tripod has evolved: the MonsterPod, a “viscoelastic gravity defying tripod”. The MonsterPod is the brainchild of American Randel Byrd, who discovered when travelling alone that naturally it's pretty difficult to take photos and be in them at the same time - it gets pretty tedious continually explaining how to use a camera, and it's not always very easy to find somewhere flat and stable to set up a camera. Thus the MonsterPod was born, a tripod that can stick to almost anything!
Non-toxic Viscoelastic Morphing Polymer forms the base of the tripod and is a substance that can grab, stick, clutch or seize (and any other related word you can find in a thesaurus) to over a thousand surfaces including trees, snow, glass and tennis rackets. With only a slight amount of pressure the MonsterPod can be affixed to a surface at any angle, including upside-down, and then all you need for a perfectly framed photo is to set-up the camera, turn on the self-timer and get in shot. In fact the only thing the MonsterPod won't stick to is skin, enabling you to shape and mould it to attach to items.
The grip of the MonsterPod is only temporary; the time it stays affixed depends on the pressure you apply when you attach it. Similarly only a small amount of pull is needed to detach it from where it has nested and no residue will be left behind. The MonsterPod works in both hot and cold conditions and is suitable mainly for use with compacts weighing under 300g- larger SLRs are too heavy for the forces of viscoelasticity to cope with. It attaches to a camera with the standard ¼ inch tripod fitting, and fits easily in a pocket with dimensions of 114 x 44mm.
The MonsterPod is available in the US for $29.95, but can be imported here if you get in touch with Monster Pod Technology Inc on their website.
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