New Flat-Pod Idea of a Tabletop Ball Head Base from Desmond

Sometimes when heavy photographic gear are involved, small tabletop pods do not offer good enough support for low level shooting. That becomes very apparent when a heavy camera / lens combination needs to be tilted forward or backward.

In many of such cases, the center of gravity exits outside the small triangle base formed by the legs of a lightweight tabletop pod and the gear can easily trip.

When working on flat surfaces, a Flat Pod like the Desmond FPOD-1 proves to be a very handy solution. It offers a stable flat base that no been bag can deliver. It can accept and support larger Ball heads, Pan Heads or even Video Heads that no tabletop pod can.

The Pod

Manufacturer Specification:
Model:	FPOD-1
Materials:	CNC Machined Aluminium Alloy
Number of Feet:	4
Height:	2.54 cm ( 1" )
Length:	20.3 cm ( 8" )
Width:	10.1 cm ( 4" )
Mounting Stud:	3/8"-16 UNC
Mounting Thumb Wheel ∅:	3.81 cm ( 1.5" )
Weight:	356 gr ( 12.6 oz )
Level:	Table Top / Ground
Load Capacity:	25 Kgr

The FPOD-1 could be plainly described as a flat butterfly shaped surface with Rubber Feet at the edges, offering a flat stable surface for mounting a ball or pan head for really low level shooting.

Four larger and four smaller round holes relieve the plate from some weight, while maintaining the structural rigidity of the pod.

The bottom view of the pod is more revealing of the four rubber feet as well as the quite large Thumb Wheel which aids turning the mounting stud for fast mounting / dismounting of a head. In addition to the thumb wheel, quite obvious in this perspective, is that the mounting stud sports also a 5 mm hex socket which allows tightening applying more torque via an Allen key.
Next to the Thumb Wheel resides the small 3 mm hex set screw which prevents the mounted device from twisting and loosening up.

As usual with all Desmond products the Flat Pod is accompanied by the appropriate Allen Hex keys.

A 3mm Allen hex key for the set screw and a 5 mm hex key for the Thumb screw are in included.

Summing up, I would say that considering the low price is a great tool to have in ones kit.

I hope you found the information useful, thank you for viewing.
All Photos by courtesy of Desmond Photographic © 2016

Price & Availability:
Current price for the Desmond FPOD-1 is US$ 29.95 available from Amazon or from eBay worldwide



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