Do you have a heavy lens?? This is great for hiking even if you have a tripod and backpack. If you wear your cotton carrier and keep your camera out, you can quickly attach this to the cotton carrier and with a tripod mount you can quickly mount your long lens ring, take a deep breath, and shoot hand held with great results. You can then remove it, reattach your camera and continue to hike with the camera secure and not flopping around. The steady shot straps easily to a carribeaner or your back pack when not in use. Just find a tree or something to lean on and steady yourself and your good. It works! It completely articulates in several places so you can keep your camera viewfinder where you need it with your hands mostly free and not supporting any weight.

I am a semi professional photographer who has developed tremors in both hands. Hand held shots were becoming very difficult. The Steady Shot is exactly what I needed to take shots without camera shake. In addition it takes the weight of a professional camera and heavy lens off my neck and back. The set up was a little confusing but I just love it. I would make sure to order the quick release plate and a quick release adaptor. Very well made. Excellent quality. Cotton Carrier Customer Service has been great.

As a disabled veteran, I have eleven screws holding my head to my neck and with this Steady Shot Camera Vest it allows me to shoot all day, any events without pain or fatigue. Without this item I would miss out on a lot of job opportunities! I highly recommend this product!

I needed this in my life. its made shooting handheld so much easier. highly recommended.

It really helps!

Ive been professionally shooting for 15 years and at the recommendation of a friend I decided to try out a saddle type sack to shoot with. I was skeptical and the Focus Rat Essential was the cheapest option so I went with it.

What happened after is I have completely changed my shooting style and feel a panic if I am on a shoot without it. Ive stopped taking out my giant shoulder camera and have been reaching for the small bodied hybrid, using the Focus Rat for resting the camera at the hips, or propping my elbows up with the camera higher up. really awesome to use in the passenger seat of a car while shooting a driver or just dropping the camera on the rat set on a table top.

A+ product. My newest appendage

This is an excellent product. It is well made and easy to use. It is the answer to the help I needed with holding my camera. I have chronic rheumatoid arthritis. With the Steady Shot and Vest system I can now resume nature shooting and handle the camera settings with ease. The workmanship and materials used in both products reflect experience and good design. Congratulations, this has been a blessing to now handle my new Canon 100-400mm lens. Good Job.

Easy to use. Once you have set your personalized setting on the arm this is a very basic click on and click off rest. It reduces camera shake with heavier lenses. I love the way the weight of the canera is distributed to your body without feeling the stress, leaving your hands to do the job of taking the picture. The only thing I have against it is carrying it around. it needs some sort of a clip to hang on to the cotton carrier vest.

I am a big fan of appropriate technology, as that technology can help us accomplish things that would otherwise be very difficult. Such is the case with the Steady Shot and the related Vest. I am a high-end amateur nature photographer who normally shoots with an awesome Gitzo tripod. I needed to find an alternative as I will be photographing some locations that do not allow tripods. Although I have not yet used this set-up in the field, I have tested it at home. Wow! It did take me awhile to find the right combination. I found that it is better for me to not use the Really Right Stuff ball head, but rather to screw the camera directly into the Steady Shot plate. I also found that it is best for the Steady Shot to be in a folded position, rather than the straight position that Cotton recommends. With this in mind, the set-up is absolutely rock solid! I am very excited about using this in the field. Happy photography! Bob