This tripod is a well made, pro-sumer grade piece of equipment at a medium price. A moderately heavy but very steady tripod unit with excellent quality fittings. The fluid head is the amazing part - the smoothest panning and tilting motions on the planet! No jerky motions at all. One minor issue is that the fluid head has no real friction (as in none!) so if you tilt a heavy lens or camera too much, it goes "over top dead center" and starts a continual slide frontward or backwards. Your options are to hold the head steering arm or really crank down on the tension knob, but then it's not fluid anymore. Still, I wouldn't trade this for anything.

I bought two spotting scopes that were returned because they didn't do the job. I bench rest shot .223 rifle at 200yds and couldn't see the hits at 100yds much less 200. These scopes cost much more also. The Barska does an outstanding job. Bright, clear out to the edges and the table top tripod is very well built, as well as the heavy duty case everything comes in. I also ordered a full size Barska tripod and it's the same story. Excellant quality and dependability for the money. I told my son about them and he also ordered one of each. Fairly light in weight and compact enough for what I'll be using it for. Service from OpticsPlanet is great also. This is my first purchase with this company but it won't be my last. Thanks.