Pixiq

Years ago, during a brain storming session with my good friend Gary Gladstone, we came up with a sure fire product to market to photographers. We came up with The Universal Photo Tool. It would be very inexpensive, only about $1.99 (but for you….$1.89,  such a deal!). This tool would be indispensible in a photographer’s kit or camera bag. It’s great for unscrewing stuck screws, unscrewing battery compartments, leveling tables, scraping off Lottery tickets, the ability to make an emergency pay phone call if desperately needed (in the dark days before cell phones). The best feature was being able to quickly make yes/no decisions while on a pressure intensive photo set and do it in a direct and fast manner.  

What was this fantastic, can’t live without, indispensible tool for photographers? It was a quarter spray painted flat black. Oh, of course you could just go into your pocket and grab any old quarter, but remember, ours would be painted professional photographer flat black.

I remembered our musings (and laughter) while seeing a real live, great tool for photographers at the recent PhotoPlus convention here in New York. Steadepod. For $29.95 ($25 show special) it seemed as simple as our painted quarter. In a nutshell, it was a very thin, coated steel rope with a tripod screw fixed at one end and a footpad at the other end. You simply stepped on the footpad or loop it around something, set it to the length you need, pull to add tension, and brace your camera on the other. Brilliantly simple.

Here’s the kicker to all this. It actually works! And works really well. Can you make one of these yourself? Absolutely! Will it be as elegant as this? Nowhere near. They actually did a wonderful job at designing and manufacturing this really simple idea and elegant product. I love things that are designed just right, as this is. Like the fact the tripod screw reverses into a protected position so it doesn’t get dinged when in your bag and you can adjust and lock it at the exact length you need.  Check it out at http://www.steadepod.com.  I got one and will always have it in my kit bag. It’s just the thing to use with my new video camera for nice smooth pan shots.

I learned years ago from Jay Maisel that the best way to walk through a large trade show is to walk along the edges and find the smaller vendors. We all know what the major guys will have and they are always swamped. But the little vendors are the ones that have the fun stuff, the things that are unexpected, the gems. And this year, Steadepod was one of my found gems. There was one other, which I’ll write about after I test it a bit. If any of you have any “Photographer’s Helper” type gems, leave a comment, I love hearing about them.