Product review: HeadRig 1 - Universal smartphone head mount for Hands Free Video Capturing byMoble L.L.C.

I do a lot of "how to" and review videos and recently someone asked my opinion on head rigs. I do NOT like them!  I am reposting a review I did in 2015 to show why I rated the head rig as 2 stars product even though it was well made and held the phone securily.

My initial excitement at the idea of hands free set-up dissipated after I saw the resulting video. It worked but not as well as I hoped. Here are my observations.

1. The best videos are steady without any shake. To keep the video totally steady in a head harness is very difficult.

2. For a good video the subject should be centered in the frame or at least not cut off. The issue with the harness is that it is hard to see the screen even though I positioned it as low as possible so I can peek at the screen of the smart phone which is facing me.

3. Operating the camera video app is difficult as the rig itself covers up important parts of the screen.

On the positive side, the rig held the phone very security. I was able to accommodate my phone which is 5 7/8" long. The size of my phone is about the maximum size the harness could fit. I had to remove one of the balls on the ends otherwise it did not open enough. The HeadRig can accommodate a phone 1/4" larger (with both balls removed) more but not any larger.

Because I extended the phone as far as possible and as low as possible from my head (so I can see as much of the screen as possible for better framing) the harness felt rather top heavy and I had to tighten the harness on my head very tightly otherwise it slid forward.

So what was the bottom line? It certainly was easier to do the demos when I did not have a tripod in front of me, but the final video with the tripod was better because it had zero shake and I could frame the shot better. In addition to the shake and framing the quality of the videos taken by the phone is not as good as one taken with a camera. In my videos taken with the harness I could see the focus go in and out and I did not find the resulting video acceptable.

At the end of my video review you can see a video I shot with the harness for another one of my reviews, I decided not to use that video because of the shake and the focus going in and out as my head moved slightly.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.

Ali Julia review ★★☆☆☆