I bought this stand for shooting tethered for my laptop along side a tripod for portraits. When it came I was surprised on the quality & construction of the stand. It sets up under 10 seconds. The plate, knobs & legs are extremely well made. Its not inexpensive but you'll see why: There's another company that makes a laptop stand called Lizell Quickstand Plus which is about $20.00 less but it does not compare to the sturdiness and build quality of this one. This adjusts up to 4ft. high whereas the Lizell only goes up to 2.5 ft., It also has a mouse plate just under the main plate(the only stand that comes with one which I dont use) And last but not least - It's Made in Germany! When it comes to engineering no other country does it better.Application Use: I found use for it in places I never imagined! Next to my bed as I'm laying down is the most common, kitchen, park, poolside, on location photo shoots, and just about anyhwere you can use your laptop (BTW, laptop pc's shouldn't be named Laptop anymore as most of us never use it on our laps or at least its difficult to use it on your lap unless your watching a movie but even then you can only do that for so long :)For me it's worth every penny! As my laptop is now on it 80% of the time.