Beastgrip Pro Review – Smartphone Camera Rig Case

Design – Big, bulky and a little unwieldy

The design of the Beastgrip is impressive. Impressive in sense that there are lots of knobs and it looks rather menacing at first. The multitude of knobs means that you can fit ANY smartphone, even with a case into the Beastgrip. This means that we will be able to use this accessory for the iPhone 7’s, Galaxy S8’s, Note 7’s and even our old iPhone 3GS because we can.

The Beastgrip is essentially two parts that slide together. Fitting a device is quite straightforward as you adjust the central clamp based on the width of your device. If you have a camera with a protruding camera, you can move the lens portion forward so that device sits flush in the central clamp. The last thing you want to do is to adjust the lens so that the camera sits in the middle of the crosshairs.

The entire Beastgrip setup is quite rigid and doesn’t feel as flimsy as the iOgrapher when fully loaded.There are two annoyances with the design. The first is the bulk of the entire setup. It’s big and unwieldy which is unlike the iOgrapher which is incredibly slim. The second annoyance is the fact that the device isn’t secured 100% of the time. A slight bump may misalign the camera and lens so you need to check the alignment of your smartphone before filming.

Mounting the Beastgrip onto a tripod is easily accomplished through the multitude of 1/4 inch mounts found on the frame, and there is a cold shoe mount that allows you to attach a mic easily or lights.

The Beastgrip Pro comes with a 37mm mounting bracket which means any 3rd party camcorder lens should work. Beastgrip sent us a wide angle lens which makes the footage shot on our Galaxy S7 incredibly wide.

The optional wide lens that you can get from Beastgrip does increase the FOV of your device by 0.43 which is slightly larger than the FOV of the wide angle lens included with the iOgrapher. From a quality perspective, shooting video with the two devices doesn’t show any noticeable change in the quality of the video footage other than the obviously superior camera of the S7 over the old iPhone 6 that we used in this shot.

Comparing footage caught on the same iPhone 6 Plus didn’t yield any noticeable difference either other than the slightly wider FOV of the wide angle lens of the Beastgrip lens. Footage around the edges were both slightly blurry but from our perspective, one wasn’t blurrier than the other.,
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Protection – You’re not suppose to drop it…

The Beastgrip isn’t a drop-rated accessory though if an accident was to happen, we’re pretty confident that nothing would happen to the device. The clamp fits around the smartphone tightly and doesn’t move much. Also, the ability to use a case with the smartphone in the Beastgrip means that a drop where the smartphone goes flying, the device would be protected.
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Functionality – Turn your smartphone into an actual camcorder

The Beastgrip is a little more awkward when it comes to handling. We will say that the Beastgrip is the superior accessory if you’re planning on shooting video mounted to a tripod. That works great for us because all our product shots and narrative shots are shot with a tripod.

However, shooting video that involves a bit of movement is a little more difficult. The Beastgrip does have a moulded grip on the side of the setup but holding it with one hand over an extended period of time is going to be difficult. Especially when compared to the iOgrapher which has handles on both sides of the setup which makes it easier to use. If you’re into live video, the handles on the iOgrapher make it simpler to use. However, if you’re using an Android smartphone, this last point is moot.

You can still access the device when its mounted into the Beastgrip. It is a bit awkward accessing the fingerprint sensors on our iPhone 6s’s and Galaxy S7’s, but the device is completely usable when loaded in the Beastgrip. This is important because it’s quite a hassle in our opinion to be always reinstalling/re-aligning the lenses in the Beastgrip.
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