Caleb: I own this item and have used it for about a year now. I never go to a shoot without it. First, it keeps your camera steady. That's what it's supposed to do, but it does a lot more than that. You can pan very smoothly with the ball joint at the base. You can do pseudo dolly moves by leaning in and moving the head up. If you adjust the tension on the ball joint, you can find a sweet spot and leave this thing stationary like a tripod (just be sure to keep an eye on it - it won't fall on it's own, but you can't bump it). I frequently shoot two camera interviews. I'll lock off a tripod as my B-cam, and use the monopod as my A-cam. I'll just let it balance right out in front of me, and I can grab it and run when I need to grab B-roll. Last tidbit, you can run-n-gun with it, get mostly the same effect as a shoulder mount, but without wearing down your shoulder and back. It's great.