Review: Nokia N93 DT-22 Tripod
Score:
78%
Great as the Nokia N93 is in many ways, one unavoidable result of the slightly odd form factor is that you can't leave it with the video running and prop it up somewhere - at least not without lots of fiddling around. Which, for something that's so insanely great at shooting video, is a major problem.
Enter the DT-22 accessory, so new that I can't even find a price for it on the Web (though I'd guess at £30 or so), a standard portable digital camera tripod with a custom N93 mount screwed on the top. As shown below, it certainly looks the part, at least on the more common black N93 variant.
Starting from the top, the N93 is held between two foldable jaws, one of which is mounted on rails with an adjuster knob. You simply insert the N93 and tighten the knob until the smartphone feels secure. The jaw assembly has a standard female camera threaded socket, with the DT-22 coming with a ball joint, as shown below, allowing a wide range of camera angles to be set up. The ball joint in turn is tightened by another knob - even fully locked it's possible to force the ball round, but it doesn't budge under the weight of the N93 and that's the main thing.
The three legs are each telescopic, as shown below, and work in any of three lengths, or even a mix of lengths if you're setting up the tripod on an uneven surface.
So far so good, it's a reliable holder for the N93 and certainly beats cardboard or pile-of-books homemade 'solutions'. But what about using it for filming while out and about? The main problem here is that the tripod, even at full extension, is only about 30cm tall. Luckily, the use of the standard camera thread, mentioned above, means that you can simply screw the N93 'grip' assembly onto any standard camera tripod of full height. This works extremely well, to the point where you wonder why Nokia didn't just market the grip assembly rather than branding an entire mini-tripod. Still, I guess this way round you get the best of both worlds.
The DT-22 is perhaps the ultimate niche accessory - for the ultimate niche smartphone. But for any N93 owner it's almost a must-have. Certainly for anyone taking video semi-seriously (such as for a video podcast!), the grip assembly looks better and works better than any hand-held or home-brew mounting, as as such it gets my approval (subject to price, not yet announced!).
Steve Litchfield
14 Dec 2006
Reviewed by Steve Litchfield at