The best iPhone tripods allow you to take your smartphone shooting to a whole new level. They’re small enough to carry everywhere, slipping easily into a bag or pocket, but they allow for exploring loads of new shooting techniques, especially when used in conjunction with the best photo apps, which allow you to take control of your smartphone’s camera settings.
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Sure, the best camera phones are always getting better, and can do things that the owners of the first iPhone could only have dreamed of. There are some things, however, that are simply limited by hardware. We’ve listed a few things here that a good iPhone tripod will allow you to do:
• Capture night shots. Even if an app lets you open up the shutter on your smartphone camera for a long time, without a good source of support, all you’ll get is a blurry image. Mounting your phone on a tripod means you can shoot long exposures to your heart’s content, without worrying about image blur caused by camera-shake.
• Get vlogging. If you want to vlog with your smartphone, that’s perfectly possible and even easy to do! But one thing you do need, unless you want your arm to fall off, is a good support so you can set your camera up without having to hold it.
• Get a selfie without the arm-stretch. In a similar vein, phone tripods make it easy to get selfies and group selfies without having to stretch out your arm. No longer will the tallest person in the friend group need to be called upon to take the photo!
• Try a timelapse. Again, locking your phone in a fixed position opens up all sorts of creative possibilities, one of which is time-lapse shooting.
• Shoot panoramas. There are apps that will stitch together a rudimentary panorama. But the results you get will dramatically improve if you use a tripod, especially one with a dedicated panoramic head.
Regular tripods and even travel tripods are too big and bulky for a smartphone shooter; they’ll negate the main advantage of a smartphone, which is that it lets you travel light.
Plus, something that may have already occurred to you is that smartphones don’t have a standard tripod socket. This means you need another way to mount the phone to the tripod, even a mini one. The solution is a phone clamp; these are sometimes sold separately, and sometimes come in bundles with mini tripods. In our guide, we’ve included both complete bundles and standalone clamps, so you can decide how best to construct your setup.
We’ve got options for every budget here, from a range of reputable manufacturers including Manfrotto, Joby and more. Let's get started!
Also read: The best gimbals for your smartphone or camera
The best iPhone tripods and supports in 2021
Manfrotto markets its PIXI mini tripod and universal smartphone clamp as separate items, but it generally works out cheaper to buy these two items as a complete kit. With this, you get the tripod itself, which comes with an integral ball head and is suitable for use with cameras, plus the smartphone clamp, which attaches via a standard 1/4-inch socket, and can accommodate phones of up to 83mm in width. It’s a good solution, though the limited range of movement for the ball head means you can only shoot with the camera phone in landscape orientation. You need the more advanced Manfrotto Pixi Evo 2 and its more advanced ball head if you need to shoot portrait shots (most camera phone tripods are designed for horizontal shooting).
See Manfrotto PIXI mini tripod review
With suitably small and phone-friendly dimensions, the Joby GorillaPod Mobile Mini weighs in at just 32 grams. It’s also Joby’s cheapest ‘tripod’, yet features the company’s trademark flexible legs, constructed from a series of movable joints. As such, you can stand it up like a mini tabletop tripod, or wrap its legs around other objects to cling onto them. It comes complete with a phone mount so it’s an all-in-one solution. The only real drawback is that each leg is only 60mm long, so you can only attach this relatively small GorillaPod to fairly thin objects.
This is a fairly expensive iPhone tripod, but it does more than one job. It’s a spring-loaded grip that opens wide enough to fit even a fat smartphone and clamps around it securely, while in the base is a tripod socket for a regular tripod, or the tiny pocket tripod included in the kit – you can also use this with the legs folded in as a camera grip. In the top is a Bluetooth shutter button that’s actually built into a tiny remote you can slide out to fire the shutter remotely! You do need to position bigger phones carefully in the clamp to stop the tiny tripod from tipping over, but otherwise this is sheer genius.
With a standard 1/4" screw mount, the SmallRig Tabletop Mini Tripod is a versatile tool for all sorts of setups (though you'll need to pick up a smartphone clamp separately). It's equipped with a 360° ballhead that provides a great deal of shooting flexibility, thanks to its 90°/+45° front tilt, and -50°/+50° lateral tilt. The head even has accurate calibration and an independent panning knob for panoramic shooting, which you may not have even considered with a smartphone! The plate is an Arca-Swiss type, so you can quickly mount and dismount your setup, and the rubber feet ensure a non-slip support on practically any surface.
This isn't a tripod, but the cleverly designed Manfrotto TwistGrip universal smartphone clamp does let you attach your camera phone to any regular tripod, including the Manfrotto Pixi above. It also folds virtually flat for stowing away in a pocket. You simply twist each end to pivot the clamping jaws around, so they can attach to any phone of up to 82mm in width. The clamping action itself is nice and solid, thanks to a locking screw at the rear. Immaculately engineered from high-grade aluminum and colored dark grey, the TwistGrip looks and feels a quality item. It can mount on any tripod via its 1/4-inch screw socket, and has a cold shoe at the top for attaching accessories, like the Manfrotto Lumimuse LED light.
• Read Manfrotto TwistGrip universal clamp review
This two-piece kit comprises a handle and ‘accessory bar’ for Manfrotto’s TwistGrip universal smartphone clamp. The grip secures to the clamp via a 1/4-inch tripod thread, but you can also use the accessory bar horizontally between the two. The latter T-shaped configuration enables you to add one or two other accessories like an LED light and microphone – the two essentials for any smartphone vlogger – via two cold shoes. The components are well made from high-quality aluminum and rubber-grip surfaces. Overall, the Manfrotto ergonomic handle and accessory bar for TwistGrip adds versatility and natural handheld usability to the TwistGrip. This is a great combination for handheld video and vloggers, though you’ll still require a separate tripod for anything other than handheld shooting.
This is a tripod that you can carry around permanently with your smartphone – as it doubles as a protective phone case. However, as well as its photographic uses, the StandPoint is perfect for perching your phone on a surface – a train or airline tray-table being the obvious candidates – for hands-free video as well as video calls and photo reviewing. We like the case’s protective nature, and the fact that it works with wireless charging pads. The only drawbacks are that the StandPoint’s tiny tripod legs do require a flat surface, and don’t allow many angles.
Unlike Joby GorillaPods, the Joby GripTight ONE Micro is a tabletop tripod with rigid, non-flexible legs that swivel around. This makes the whole tripod very small and slim when folded away, while enabling a secure base when the legs are fanned out for the standing position. It’s a neat and very streamlined design, the only catch being that the operating height to the bottom of the phone is only about 30mm. Although there’s no height adjustment, the main clamp does enable you to pivot the phone forward and backward and from side to side, albeit with a fairly limited range of adjustment. You therefore can’t use the phone in upright, portrait orientation.
The relatively long legs of this GripTight GorillaPod have nine flexible joints. That’s a significant step up from the GorillaPod Mobile Mini, and enables greater height when using the stand as a tabletop tripod, as well as allowing you to wrap the legs around larger objects, such as tree branches and fence posts. On top of that, the ‘Magnetic’ edition also incorporates magnetic feet, so you can easily attach the GorillaPod to anything metallic. The phone clamp is the same one that’s featured in the GripTight ONE Micro Tripod.
This chunky GripTight GorillaPod Stand PRO gives very stable and solid support for smartphones and comes complete with an up-market phone clamp. It features a locking screw for adjusting the clamp to the exact size of the phone, and this screw also enables rotation for portrait and landscape orientation while shooting. However, a little care is needed to ensure the clamp doesn’t loosen its grip on the phone during rotation. It’s rather bigger, heavier and stronger than smaller GorillaPod siblings, but is still good value at the price. If you unscrew the phone clamp, the legs are also suitable for use with a compact camera or small DSLR.
The sophisticated GripTight PRO TelePod can be used in many and varied ways. The comfortable hand grip has three longitudinal sections that hinge out to become a set of tripod legs, with two operational angles on offer. The centre column extends, with three telescopic sections that lock and unlock via a simple twist mechanism. Up on top, there’s essentially the same versatile head as featured in the GripTight Gorillapod Stand PRO, but this time a cold shoe is added, which can hold an LED light, microphone or other accessory. The kit also includes an ‘Impulse’ wireless remote shutter button, which connects to most iPhone and Android smartphones via Bluetooth.
Here’s an all-in-one vlogging rig for anyone after versatile, well-lit visuals, and superior sound. It’s all built around the brand’s world-famous GorillaPod – a flexible, strong tripod – which is here joined by two additional, flexible arms to create a GorillaPod Mobile Rig. On one arm goes Joby’s Beamo Mini LED light that goes up to 1,000 lumens and last 40 minutes, and which comes complete with diffuser. Wavo Mobile – Joby’s compact and toughly-made microphone – attaches to the other, or sits on a cold shoe atop this kit’s GripTight PRO 2 smartphone clamp, which supports phones in either landscape or vertical orientation. Although it’s designed for smartphones, remove the clamp and it can work just as well with action cameras, mirrorless cameras and bridge cameras.
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