Flex Shot Review: A Moldable Stand for Cameras, Phones, and Tablets
A few months ago we covered a Kickstarter campaign for the SteadyWheel, a product that enables people to easily shoot stable video while on the move. Their campaign ended successfully raising more money than they set out for, and to top it off they are even going to be selling the product in B&H Camera and Video starting this summer. Not resting on their laurels, Wild Iron, the company behind the SteadyWheel has continued to innovate and recently reached out to me to provide with me one of their new products for review: the Flex Shot.
Durability, Portability, and Choice
The Flex Shot is a moldable support stand for compact cameras, smartphones, or even tablets. It’s like a small tripod, but better. The Flex Shot works by allowing the center of gravity to shift as you mold it, meaning that even on uneven surfaces you can easily capture photos or videos. And the Flex Shot is built with durability in mind, its base is made with industrial rubber that has a water resistant coating and the aluminum top is also coated to help it remain rust free. This means you can use it in the rain or even submerge it under water without having to worry — and let’s not forget that means you can wash it off too, which is great if you’ll be using it outdoors.
Measuring in at just 4-inches tall and 4-inches wide, with a weight of 3 pounds, it’s pretty portable — definitely easy to throw in a bag or backpack and take with you.
In terms of what you can mount on the Flex Shot — it’s actually more a question of what can’t you mount. The Flex Shot has a 1/4-20″ screw mount, so you can connect a GoPro mount, universal cell phone mount, and even a tablet mount. Plus, you can mount any compact camera that has a 1/4-20″ screw hole.
Why Use A Flex Shot?
In my tests of the Flex Shot, I used the universal cell phone mount with my iPhone 5 and found that the Flex Shot offers several great use cases, some of which aren’t even for taking photos or videos.
Downward/Upward Shots — The Flex Shot can really excel with these types of shots, in many cases small tripods can very lightweight and cannot easily be tilted downward or upward because they just end up falling over. That isn’t the case with the Flex Shot, you can mold the base to point the camera or smartphone downward and/or upward without having to worry if it will fall over.
Interesting Angles and Locations — With the Flex Shot you really open up the door to new possibilities when it comes to camera angles. Any kind of tilted shot is pretty much possible. Additionally, the Flex Shot offers the ability to shoot in locations that may have proved different in the past, such as in the car, off a ledge/cliff, or on a surface that isn’t very flat.
Video Calls — Forget having to hold the phone while you are FaceTime with your family or friends. You know how when you are having a video call and you switch hands when one arm gets tired of holding the phone? Yeah, no more–at least if you have a Flex Shot.
Smartphone Stand — I didn’t expect this use case when I first got the Flex Shot, but it makes a pretty mean iPhone stand. It doesn’t wobble when you touch the screen whether that be to type or launch an app, and because its super easy to mold into different angles, it’s an ideal stand in many situations.
Overall, the Flex Shot does what it’s intended to do and more. I definitely can see the Flex Shot becoming part of many photographers and videographers arsenal of tools.
Flex Shot Kickstarter Campaign
Today, Wild Iron is launching its Kickstarter campaign for the Flex Shot. The intention behind the campaign is to raise money for mass production of the product. “Launching a product for manufacturing is expensive. There’s no way around this necessary set up cost,” said Robert Stone, CEO of Wild Iron. By raising money through Kickstarter it will allow Wild Iron to have the necessary means to create the Flex Shot and distribute it to customers.
If you’re interested in supporting the Flex Shot, be sure to drop by the Kickstarter project and contribute.