SMALLRIG Cool Ballhead Arm Super Clamp Mount Multi-Function Double Ball Adapter with Bottom Clamp for Ronin-M, Ronin MX, Freefly MOVI – 1138

My main purpose for using this clamp was to attach a camera to a vehicles ” A-Pillar Grab Bar handle”. While the clamp overall is decent there are several limitations that left me feeling kind of “Ehh”.
I feel this clamp was over engineered in places while completely over looking others.
The jaws of the clamp seem robust with its heavy metals but inside the jaws are some very thin rubber pads. While I like the rubber pads because it prevents me from scratching other surfaces, it seems too thin for day to day or long term use in my opinion. The handle / screw system used to tighten the jaws seem weak in comparison to the heavy duty jaw material. It makes you feel like if you were to tighten the handle too much, the bolt itself may break in half. On the positive of that, I haven’t broke my handle yet.

Moving along, we come to the next section and this is really where I have my issues. For the sake of this review, lets refer to this section as the “barbell” since it sort of looks like a old time strong man bar bell. This design gives you the illusion that you can swivel things into position and how you need it. However, if you look at the listings pictures closer, you will see the bar bell is split length wise.
What this means is you can only adjust the angle up or down / left and right. Again, this doesn’t seem like a huge deal but once you angle the first side where you want it you are somewhat forced to use that angle when adjusting your second side of the bar bell.
Another drawback is the compression nut for the barbell is in the center of the barbell so when you loosen one side both side will loosen; not good. I would rather see a compression nut on both ends rather than the one single point in the center.
The post that goes into the bottom of your light or camera needs a touch of Loctite to prevent it from spinning out of place. the male and female threads to not mate up very tight so any vibrations can make your equipment loosen and potentially fall off the mount.

Over all the camp isn’t horrible but it needs some attention. It would be nice to see a true swivel point on each end of the barbell to give more flexibility. Also tighten up the tolerances of the male and female mating points to make a more secure connection point.

If you need this as a indoor mounting point for a external camera flash or something of this nature. You may not have any issues with the design at all.

I hope this review helps and allows you to think more about your application.

I bought this to mount a second action cam on my Adventure motorcycle’s crash bars, for a different perspective. Works pretty well, but the the ball ends are polished and tend to slip with the wind force pushing on the camera. No amount of tightening would make them hold.

They work great in a static situation. I ended up moving the mount to a place behind my windscreen and the mount never moved after that. The vibration of traveling 1000 miles of so didn’t move the camera, as long as it was out of the wind.

For the price it’s really hard to imagine this being any better. I’ve used a lot of cheap price point accessories. Usually they go cheap/light in critical areas even though the shape might be the same. With this clamp everything is just SOLID – even the dogbone swivel neck. It honestly feels like a baby RAM mount that’s how sturdy it is.

My application for this clamp is to mount an Insta360 to a bike and it works well for this application.

The only reason I didn’t give it five stars is I’ve found that the bottom pin which connects the arm to the clamp comes unscrewed easily when the arm is secured…i.e. if you have a camera mounted to it and everything is locked and you bump/twist the camera the whole arm assembly spins because it came loose at the clamp. This is solved with a bit of loctite but it’s annoying to have to do that with an otherwise exceptional arm.

I got these clamps to attach to my dual monitor stand, which has a pretty thick post. These clamps -just- fit on it, and they hold on tight.

I use these mounts with attachments to hold a large ring light at the top of the post, and another to hold a phone clamp, which I use as a dashboard and sometimes as a webcam (when connected to my PC). Compared to having dedicated stands for my light and phone, these take up less space and are probably cheaper too.

The double ball adapter is fine – a single knob locks both ends, but would have been more convenient if you could lock each end individually. My one gripe is that the ball nut connected to the clamp unscrew a little too easily when you’re adjusting the ball adapter.

The clamps and components are weighty and solid. I expect them to last a very long time.

Overall, these clamps are good value for the price, and super versatile.

Great product…caution…Will mark natural wood surfaces its so good!!