Mantis Folding Rig by Fotodiox - Collapsible Camera Stabilizer, Transformable Shoulder Support, Compact Foldable Video Rig

We read all the low reviews for this product regarding stripped gears and all the rest...but we could not resist the price of this stabilizer from other videos in the industry stating it was an overall decent piece of equipment.So before it even arrived, we bought extra washers, and bolts for it. that cost us about ten dollars. We went on several video sites to watch how people could use this stabilizer as we knew it was not going to come with directions and only a hex keyIt arrived exactly when it said it would arrive and exactly what we expected to arrive (two day amazon Prime) last night.The moment we took it out of the package, and unfolded it we knew the right arm metal pieces were already stripped.We replaced the stripped pieces and attached our Rebel T3i to it., Went outside today and did test shots of me walking backwards up the street.Works like a charm.There are about a million different rigs that I'm one hundred percent certain works better and does not come pre-damaged.There is an old saying: "You get what you pay for"There is also the saying "Things can be fixed"We spent 47.95 on a decent Camera Stabilizer to shoot our Independently produced short film. 37.95 for the unit and ten bucks for extra parts.I knew what we were going to get from the reviews alone.So, we came prepared.Thank you Amazon purchasers for warning us beforehand.We would like to tell anyone who buys this Stabilizer who does not have hundreds of dollars for the stabilizers with the vests: Do the research, run out to a store and buy some nuts and bolts for it before it arrives. I think people should be buying replacement parts for things in the first place.They also say: "Sh*t happens"We will be running down the street chasing an actor with this thing. :)

I bought this rig knowing that I would have to do some DIY improvements on it and that's exactly what I did. I took out the crappy bolts and replaced them with some sturdier ones and I also got rid of those plastic knobs and replaced them with wingnuts. All these enhancements made the rig way more sturdier. I used this rig with a T4i and 18-135mm kit lens attached to it. This made the rig too front heavy so it was a constant battle having to hold the rig up. To counter this I wrapped a 2.5 lb. ankle weight around the tail-end of the rig and this worked perfectly to balance it out causing less fatigue. Now the reason I only give it three stars is because the rig simply can't handle too much weight on it. I found myself having to constantly adjust the handles and retighten the screws because they were slowly but surely sliding out of place whenever I had my camera with the 18-135 lens mounted on it. No matter what configuration I did, this was a constant problem. Maybe with a not so heavy camera and/or lens the rig would perform better but for my purposes it didn't. So in closing I don't hate it but I don't love it either. For $40 it's worth giving it a shot and seeing if this rig will workout for you given all the possible configurations that can be applied to it.

As has been noted over and over, the hardware sucks.After unboxing I spent more time twisting and contorting this thing into various shapes than I did actually shooting test footage! It's unbelievably versatile. It has a nice weight to it, enough to help keep things steady but not enough that you'll be wishing you had a can of spinach nearby after a few minutes of shootingIt definitely needs a counterweight when being used as a shoulder rig, however all of the handles have standard 1/4"20 screw holes on the tops and bottoms, so you can always screw in a hook into the rear handle and hang your weight from thatUpdate 12/24 - I put some 1/4" locking washers in the movable joints, and plastic clamping knobs in the joints that didn't already have them, and things are looking way better. They should've added locking washers from the factory. I'm now able to attach my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera rig (Camtree Hunt Mod v2 cage, Aputure VS-2 7" LCD monitor, an old heavy Canon TV lens) with no worries that things are going to slip and slide out of position

I've worked with many different camera rigs, and I picked this one up on a whim based on it being extremely cheap (compared to the majority of other rigs of various types) and because of its unusual fold-able, customizable nature. I'm very pleased with it. Not only is unfolding it pretty cool to behold (and thankfully unfolding it is a pretty simple procedure to figure out), its really able to take a lot of shapes and allow the user to figure out a position comfortable specifically for them. It's build pretty solid, but sometimes the tightening mechanisms can come a bit loose, forcing you to quickly re-tighten them while holding the unit. These can be replaced by better hardware (which would probably cost no more than $5.00 from any hardware store), but I haven't found it really necessary yet. Also, it doesn't have any sort of counter-weight to go behind the shoulder, as many rigs similar to this does. It's of course fixable with some DIY tricks, but either way I wouldn't call it a deal-breaker. I'd say it's worth the purchase!