The GLIF – First Impressions

A review by MacJim

A good few years ago, I backed my first Kickstarter project. It was the first version of the Glif for the iPhone 4 and was a neat wee device but, I have to admit, very rarely used… if ever.

The problem with version one was simple down to the way the iPhone 4 was held in place. It relied on a tight fit, the Glif held the iPhone in place by one side and a small area of the top edge, to keep the iPhone from falling out. Although I’ve never heard of any iPhones being damaged while they were used with version one, I never really plucked up the courage to try it out: it also didn’t work with a case.

Moving on a few years and we now have the latest incarnation of the Glif… a much improved product as any mobile phone can be used, with or without a case, and that makes it a really useful. When the Glif (2017) arrived in the post (it was late arriving even though it was sent first class) in a Jiffy bag. On removing it from the bag, I was not impressed with the packaging as the outer cover, a cardboard sleeve, was over sized and consisted of a thin soft paper. That had resulted in the whole item being slightly squashed but once it was pulled free, the Glif was enclosed in cutout foam, I was more impressed. The new Glif looked well made for the price. It could have been a little cleaner around the areas of the mould joins but I found it to be smooth enough to the touch to forgive this minor glitch.

The Glif has two tripod mounts, one for portrait work and the other for landscape work. In either orientation, the iPhone was held very securely in the jaws of the device. To put your mobile phone into it, you just pull the locking level to the open position then feed the mobile in by raising the upper jaw and placing the mobile into the lower recess. Then you simply lock the lock level, with a nice solid click, and that’s it.

If you have ever seen the video demo made by the Glif developers, Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost of Studio Neat, it seems to hold any mobile very securely… but I have no intention of testing this out as it’s not a cheep item; the iPhone 7+ or the Glif, as it’s $28.00 plus $10 P&P!
The main reason for buying the Glif was to give me a more secure way of holding my iPhone 7+ when out doing some street photography, but I also wanted to use it for video work too. I have the Manfrotto PIXI Mini Tripod (£24.95 from the Apple Store), which can be used as a tripod, obviously, or if you close the legs on the PIXI it turns it into a very nice handle for the Glif. Just screw the Glif onto the PIXI, landscape or portrait, and it make a very nice mount for you to do photography or video work with whichever mobile device you have to hand.

I did have a look at the alternatives out there, such as the… deep breath… Manfrotto TwistGrip Universal Clamp for iPhone (£39.95) but felt the Glif was a much more compact and neater (no pun intended) mount.

There are some accessories available that can be added to the Glif, such as the Hand Grip and Wrist Strap from Studio Neat, and LED lights and microphones to turn your mobile device into a neat movie rig. The Hand Grip and Wrist strap can be order as a kit directly from Studio Neat.
Check out Studio Neat’s web site to see more.