I accidentally posted this in a different thread. I’d the mods want to remove it from the other thread please do. This is where it should be.
Got my steady today. It’s weird. It does hold my Pentax Q7. There is a tension screw under the ball so i was able to tighten the ball up to hold a slightly heavier camera. Since everything is plastic it will never tighten enough to hold a heavier camera like an SLR. The camera can easily be aimed up or down. As a mini tripod, it does a passable job. It’s way more stable than those little pods with the bendy legs.
Size wise, it’s very close to the gerber octane in all dimensions except thickness. It’s Closer to MP600 thickness. The blade is even the same shape and length as the octane. The phillips driver is pretty short, but all the other tools have good reach. The Phillips is also a nail breaker. All tools snap open and closed with very strong backsprings. Because of the backsprings the blade is a little more awkward to open one handed, but it’s still easily doable. It has a half stop too, so it won’t snap closed on fingers.
The pliers themselves are thin. Thinner than the octane, and thinner even than the CRKT Bivy pliers. They do feel pretty solid, and they have flush cutting anvil cutters, which is actually pretty nice. They’re very effective too. There is minimal flex when trying to push the plier tips apart. Even though they’re thin, they seem pretty adequate.
What isn’t adequate is the handle flex. While the plier head says medium duty, the fact the handles flex so ridiculously much means this is a light duty tool at best. I’m actually afraid if I bear down hard on this tool it will break. I’m more likely to break than my mp600, and even the octane feels impossible to destroy by squeezing (except perhaps in a vise). The steady however... if I didn’t pay fiddy bucks for it I’d try breaking it just to see if I can. I’ll bet I can.
So I’m a bit disappointed by that. The camera functionality is actually exactly as described, plus the benefit of adjustable tension.
There is plenty of room for adding a pocket clip... but nothing to screw into except plastic. The scales are not covering metal. The only metal is inside on the backbone of the knife. And even that is composed of several interlocked sections. Hence the flex.
Overall I give it a 6. The camera features are really cool but it fails as a pair of pliers. Everything else can be forgiven. I really like the plier head design, but the flex is so unnerving it’s difficult to get over. I really want to give it a 5, but the camera part and the tools bring it up a point.
Charles.
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