Mouselemur Bluetooth Selfie Stick (LR-1288) Review

Mouselemur Bluetooth Selfie Stick (LR-1288) Review

Buy it at Amazon: Mouselemur Bluetooth Selfie Stick (LR-1288) [Affiliate Link]

Takeaway: Longer than most selfie sticks, versatile, with a few quirks.

The selfie stick is 19.5" when retracted which is fairly large for a selfie stick so it'll be tougher to travel with, but in exchange for compactness, you get a longer reach of four feet when fully extended. The telescoping portion is made of a lightweight and strong aluminum alloy, much like a camera tripod. It uses three tension snaps, also like a tripod, that can be set to any length in between max/min length. The phone mount on top has foam pads on the back and arms to help keep a firm grip on your phone and accommodates phones with widths between 2.25" and 3.5". The mount can swivel forward or back 180 degrees and is locked by a plastic thumbscrew. It's not my favorite phone grip because its core is light duty plastic versus sturdy metal. The arms don't wrap or bevel around the front of your phone for a better grip, so there's a chance it could slip forward and fall out. It's also pretty shallow so some phones will have to be removed from their cases to fit in it or stay firmly gripped.

What's interesting about this monopod is that the phone mount on top is removable because it's screw on using a 1/4" mounting screw. This is the standard screw used for most camera mounting holes and allows you to swap to a GoPro adapter mount, change the orientation of the mount from vertical to planar, or even mount a compatible digital camera to use with an infrared remote or Bluetooth if it supports it.

The USB port for charging and the power switch are located on the bottom of the handle. Pairing to the device was straight forward and quick by selecting LR-1288Plus in the Bluetooth menu. There are three buttons on this selfie stick, a shutter button and what I assume are two buttons meant for zooming ("+"/"-"). However, on my LG G2 Android phone, all three buttons resulted in a photo being taken, so no zooming capabilities. Also, I had to be careful not to press any button too hard or for more than a click or the camera would fire multiple times, and I'd end up with 2 or more rapid fire photos (one time 5 shots!). The selfie stick works for starting and stopping video too, as long as you are in video mode in you camera app when using it.

The main issue here is that the battery does deplete itself over time between uses, even if you never turn the selfie-stick on. I'm not sure how long this takes, since I don't use my selfie stick often (maybe a week?), so what usually happens is, if I know I'm going to need my selfie stick, like on vacation or for a shoot, I will charge it up the night before just to make sure it won't be dead when I go to turn it on. You can charge with any standard microUSB cable plugged into the base of the stick and make sure the power switch is set to off while charging. When charging the LED light will be a solid red. Depending on the output of the USB port you're using this can take anywhere from 2-4 hours.

When the unit is done charging the LED will shut off. When you turn the power switch to on, the light will flash blue indicating that it is in Bluetooth pairing mode and looking for a device to pair with. After a device is paired with the selfie stick the light will turn off. In general the selfie stick worked fine, has a long reach and allowed me to take photos that I wouldn't have been able to without it. I like that it's adaptable with the changeable mount and orientations, but it's a large unit and cumbersome to carry, the battery doesn't last long between charges, and there are a few quirks in the software, and it potentially has some compatibility issues with some devices.

Buy it at Amazon: Mouselemur Bluetooth Selfie Stick (LR-1288) [Affiliate Link]