PICTRION Camera Desk Mount Stand (LS04)

Found out that it would have been much better (53% cheaper) to have imported the "Camera desk mount stand (LS04)". Of course, that requires a relative who is coming back from abroad.The arm works well enough and can hold my Canon 70D with the kit 18-135mm lens attached. Only time will tell how well it holds up.

The camera mount is well made, however I found that the actual mount for the camera has somewhat limited adjustment so I had to order some small flexible jointed mounts to place between this arm and the camera to get additional adjustment. Probably, not every one would need this but I use it for an overhead camera when making youtube videos of electronic circuits etc.

Was excited to try this out because it feels nice to the touch, but after hours of trying to set this up, I have found that neither arm (short nor long) can hold the other up at a 90-degree angle. It always droops and it droops quickly, even with no adapter, phone, camera, or light added to the end. We are talking about an empty arm that can't stay up. This is not helped by the fact that the machining around the ball joint holder is poor and it is hard to tell without any levels where 90 degrees is. After much frustration, I tried to add my phone onto the arms using an adapter I own, hoping to use the phone's angle detection to see if maybe I wasn't eyeballing 90 degrees correctly. but nope, phone camera's angle detection verified that it starts flat and starts drooping. This made my admittedly lightweight tripod try to tip over. I used this as an excuse to upgrade to a better tripod, and with that upgrade, the tripod (not from this manufacturer) itself stays upright, but the arm still droops. This would be completely useless for any purpose I (or you) would want it for. I have a very lightweight phone and even with that I can't get any footage cleanly at all, but I would not be confident that the arm wouldn't continue to drop until either my phone hit something or it forced my tripod to fall.

If the base was more adjustable it would be perfect. I have cheaper similar mounts that allow me to expand the clamp with a couple screws, If this had a base like that, this would be perfect. I just run into quite a few situations where the base at it's widest is just not enough. Other than that, the clamp quality is great, the locking mechanism is easy to use and stays tight. In my situation, it is good, just not ready for prime time

The two biggest issues I have with this product is 1 at certain angles regarding the camera arm itself it will not hold up the camera instead deciding to unscrew itself because of the weight causing the camera arm to fall. And the second issue is the bad threading and lack of control, I not only found it very difficult to control where the camera is pointing especially if you have the camera already positioned and you tighten one of the ball joints but there are a total of maybe three threads on each of the connections.

Great idea of a product. Versatile and handy for lights and microphone for overhead work but it will not hold the weight of a canon 80D for overhead shots