If you spend any time at all researching digital cameras, you’ll soon realize that along with the camera comes a whole slew of accessories that marketers think you must have in order to get the best shots. Some are completely unnecessary, of course, but there are others, like the Omnipod, that can prove to be surprisingly quite useful.

“The Ultimate Bean-Bag Support”

The Omnipod — called on its website, the ultimate beanbag support — is just that. It’s a beanbag on which you mount your camera to steady it in precarious situations, such as on a fence, chair, tree limb or a car window. It’s small enough to always have on hand in your gear bag, it’s easy to use (it takes just seconds to screw it onto you camera), and it’s pretty ingenious.

I received the Omnipod as baby gift from fellow photographer and DigitialPhotographyBlogs.com contributor Stephanie. (Only a children’s photographer would give another children’s photographer photo equipment to congratulate her for her new baby. Perfect!) At first I didn’t really know what to use it for and so I set it aside. But then one evening a couple weeks later I was shooting photos of my baby while he was lying on my bed in my dimly lit bedroom. I wanted to get closeups of his cute little newborn parts, particularly his feet, but just setting my camera on the bed wasn’t working for me. The blankets were too smooshy and the camera just kept getting lost in all that bedding. Also, I was too close to get any real depth of field. Then I remembered the Omnipod and thought it was time to give that thing a try. Using my zoom lens, I mounted the camera on the Omnipod and then draped it over the bassinet about 4 feet from my bed (and about 6 feet from where the baby was positioned). It was the perfect set up! I was able to zoom in close to those adorable toes (the depth of field I was looking for), while keeping my camera steady in the very low light. This kept me from having to go through the trouble of unpacking and setting up my bulky tripod. The photo above is a result of that shoot.

Testing it Out

For this photo pictured above, I used the Omnipod directly on the bed this time. Sure, you could just use a book or any other flat object to steady your camera in that situation, but I found the Omnipod very useful because of it’s moveability. Not only does it lie flat, but since it’s basically a glorified bean bag, if you need your camera just a touch higher you can just fold it over or bend and adjust it to your liking. This thing is surprisingly flexible.

It’s not just flexible though. It’s versatile, too. The inventor and president of the OmniPod makes a personal guarantee of complete satisfaction and says, “With each use, you will continue to find additional creative ways in which to utilize this truly innovative, effective and affordable product.” I agree completely. As soon as I tried out the Omnipod the first time, I could think of ten more ways to use it and a bunch of different set ups to experiment with (like on a mailbox on the 4th of July where I got this shot of a light stream created with sparklers).

The Verdict

Overall, the Omnipod is a useful product. I’m not sure I ever would have thought to purchase it, so I am really glad I received it as a gift because it has proven itself as my camera mounting system of choice time and again. And for something that takes up such a small amount of space in my bag, that’s a good thing.