Vanguard Alta Pro 253CT Carbon Fiber Tripod with SBH-50 Ball Head

The most affordable carbon fiber tripod I've found. A bit heavy but its all good. Its top heavy from the magnesium mount and ball head.Like in other reviews one major downside of the included ball head is that the ball and panorama lock with the same knob. Marketing trick to get you to buy another ball head I guess.I chose this for the angled center column feature to help me do macro pictures. That carbon fiber for light weight and vibration absorption for doing long exposure.Still long when folded to minimum size so it's not the best travel tripod but comes with a case for when you plan on needing it.

Seen as this is still(!) for sale, here's a review that's used it for 4 years.My typical use: outdoor landscape photography, in all kinds of conditions/weather.Range of equipment: Nikon D7000+50mm 1.4 (~36oz total) through D750+70-200mm 2.8 (~81oz total)-------Pros-------•LIGHT for its size.•Good stability - holds up well even when on uneven terrain and handles moderate winds.•Good adjustability - I can see the interesting center column configurations used frequently indoors for product shooting, but it's quite a hassle to set up on the fly so will likely be rarely used outdoors. It's great to have for those odd times, though!•The leg pads are nice!-------Cons-------•SBH-50 ball head has good adjustability (independent ball and pan control), but suffers from creep when angled while using anything heavier than middleweight gear (ie. a D7k+Tokina 11-16mm 2.8 straddles the max line). Also, the ball started to freeze up before long, but I can always free it up by *fully* loosening the ball and racking the plate around.•The twist locks are quite slippery when damp (even from just condensation) making locking/unlocking a challenge sometimes. It's difficult to know when there's a positive lock, so you might think you're all set up just to see your rig start to slowly tilt to one side, which can be nerve racking depending on conditions.•The legs need to be aligned (rotationally) just right inside each other in order to extend/retract smoothly. This can be frustrating as they bind up when misaligned.•Legs are in only 3 segments, so it's still rather tall (>28" w/ head) when collapsed, making it fairly large when traveling and packing/carrying it to your shooting location.-------Conclusion-------After 4 years of really *using* it in the outside world, its developed some mechanical failures which need to be fixed - one leg has detached from its next larger nest; the rubber around the locks are deteriorating; and the ball head locks up too frequently - but it (when I purchased it) comes with a lifetime warranty, so I expect Vanguard will fix it. I'll update this review with that experience once concluded.All in all, it delivers on the key promises - good stability; light weight; adjustability - at an extremely competitive price. I'd highly recommend this combination if you're looking for good value in a tripod/ball head combo.

It is heavier and bigger than I like. Maybe it is me that wanted a travel tripod than a full size tripod.

I believe this is my first one star review, since I tend to be one of those "happy reviewers" who loves Amazon and almost always has great luck with the products here. But this product quite honestly sucks, plain and simple.Right out of the package, the SBH 50 ball head wiggled at the point where the quick release plate contacts the ball, and there seems to be no way to tighten this or address it. Further, the provided allen wrench does not fit anything on the head or tripod that I can see. The SBH 50 is either defective or simply the *worst* design I have ever seen. My Joby ballhead for my Gorilla tripod is a cheap ballhead, and works infinitely better than this! My Photo Clam is rock solid. Every ball head I've ever used has been rock solid even after years of use. But this one? Wiggling right out of the package.I hardly used the legs since the ball head was wiggling, but they seem to be fine, if a little heavy for carbon fiber.A tripod is supposed to provide stability; this is not stable, making this an unmitigated failure. If it's defective, who checks these things before it goes out? If it's not defective, who is the idiot who designed this?

Smaller and a little shorter than I expected. Felt like it might be a little flimsy at first for my EOS 6D and a 16-35 f/2.8 L glass, but seems to be solid enough. Once I got over that fear, I fell in love with the fact that it's so light and will easily fit into my backpack for some backcountry time. If I had to invent a complaint, its that the case is a super tight fit. We pay enough for the better equipment so I don't quite understand why these MFRs feel the need to shortchange on the case size. Ravelli is especially bad at this.

This is a really nice tripod for the money.The legs were a little longer than I thought they would be though, which makes toting it around more of a challenge, but a case was included with the product (Bonus!).This tripod is sturdy and I feel secure having my expensive cameras and lenses on this.The ball head adjusts to capture at all angles and the legs extend outward for low angles.

product is heavy......looks good though.

I was looking for a tripod that I can use for taking dance photography. The customer reviews for this tripod and the ball head were very good and so went ahead and bought it. Indeed it is an excellent tripod. I had already used it for few events. It is very light but stable even with the weight of a Canon 7D and 70-200mm IS lens. I can flip the camera from vertical to horizontal so quickly using the ball head and won't miss the moment to capture. Worth the moeny!!!