Review: GoPro Stick XShot Pro Pole

This year has been the year of video for me.  From Sinternship in Vegas, freezing in Quebec, finally seeing the Terracotta Warriors in China, racing around Europe with Competitours, and finally whitewater canoeing, my YouTube channel has literally tripled in content this year.  I couldn't have done it without my trusty GoPro's.

One of the dispensable piece of year that I brought around everywhere was the “selfie stick”.   Okay, that may not be the best way to describe the XShot Pro.  It's more of a versatile-shoot-from-all-sorts-of-angles-while-doing-crazy-things-GoPro-pole.  This was incredibly helpful piece of gear in my kit because it gave me options when it came to hand-held reach.  I used this to take

Review of the XShot Pro Pole

Here are my personal thoughts on the XShot Pro from use in the field and more specifically with the GoPro exclusively.

Functionality

As a GoPro pole, there are few things that it needs to be able to do.  Here are my thoughts on how it does at each of them:

• Ability to adjust the GoPro to all angles – With its ball head design, you can literally have you GoPro turned to any direction that you want.
• Grippy handles – There main handle has really awesome treaded rubber that makes it easy to hold.
• Packs small, extends long – Collapses down to 7 inches and extends up to 32 inches.  This means that you can use it as a hand grip and also as a pole with incredible reach.

What makes it even more versatile than other products is the fact that it can not only work with the GoPro mount but it also has a separate attachment that can work with point and shoot cameras.

Quality

I've owned several of these GoPro poles over the years and I will say that the XShot Pro is the most well-built one out of all of them.

When you look at it, you'll be immediately be impressed with the orange aluminium accents.  There's a feeling of solid construction when you handle it and use the various movable parts.  In contrast to a few other products, the pole is completely made out of metal and didn't seem to hold any length you set it to with vigor.  Plastic is nowhere in sight and when you factor in the anodized metal ball head that allows the camera swivel, you start to realize that everything's been carefully selected to enhance the XShot Pro's construction.

Room for Improvement

While the product is rock solid, I would say that it's 90% perfect.  The other 10% goes to areas that could be improved.  Here are a few things that I would nitpick on.

1. While it's nice that it can work with point and shoot cameras, it would've been nice if there was a way to leverage this as a true selfie stick.  XShot does have an additional attachment for this but it really should have been included in the package
2. The most inconvenient part of the product is the fact that you need to use a hex key to replace the attachment head (GoPro vs traditional camera).  While I don't expect to use the XShot Pro for any point and shoot, I would still have to make sure I carry around the hex key in case.  There was one case of the head coming loose from the ball head.
3. For those that are deeply integrated with GoPro attachments, you may be sad that you won't be able to use your standard mounts which is what some other poles used.  This really isn't all that bad though because that just means you can directly mount any standard case to this.
4. The hand strap while neat that it can detach from the bottom to reveal a screw hole that'll allow you to attach it to a tripod, it is a little cheap itself and hard to adjust.