Vanguard ALTA 233AO Aluminum Alloy Tripod with 2-Way Magnesium Alloy Pan Head

Used this tripod at Yellowstone Park to hold my Vortex Razor spotting scope 20-60x85. Easy to use, sturdy and well made. Would recommend.

Used these 264AO for one hunting season so far with no issues. Very stable in the wind and the quality is great. Great tripod for the price compared to the others.

I originally bought this tripod for use with both my DSLR and my spotting scope.Camera comments first.For still photography (long exposure shots and the like) as long as nothing touches the tripod its fine. If you're very careful when pressing the shutter button or have a remote shutter (i do not) then its fine to use, but otherwise vibrates really badly. The panhead has a tendency to stick, making any kind of video work almost impossible because its very difficult to get smooth side to side pans or other motions as well. Of course loosening the adjustments just means that the camera is all floppy on the tripod and at that point, why bother with a tripod in the first place?Spotting scope comments:This is regarding a Vortex Diamondback spotting scope. DO NOT BOTHER TO WASTE YOUR TIME USING THIS TRIPOD WITH A SPOTTING SCOPE. Was that clear enough? If you were looking through the scope trying to read that, you wouldn't be able to because the scope would have so much microvibration that wouldn't be able to tell if you have the scope in focus or not because the damn thing would be vibrating all over the place.

It broke as soon as we took it out of the box. Pending a return.

Great tripod "sticks", but get a 3-way panhead for any photography. Otherwise it's too easy to find yourself in an unlevel situation, with the inadequate adjustment option of trying to level the tripod legs instead being able to simply adjust the horizon tilt with a (different) panhead.The tripod itself is solid, lightweight, and has excellent features like foam grips on the legs, a removable hook to add weight in windy conditions, and easy column reversal for macro photography.Customer service from Vanguard via e-mail was very responsive and helpful when I couldn't remove the 2-way panhead from the tripod. After one removes the 3 hex-head screws from under the panhead, the remaining trick is to tighten both the "pan handle in head and the column lock knob. `Pop' the head counterclockwise to break screw connection and unscrew. Installation of new head is the opposite."Of course, much better to avoid my mistake and get a different model of panhead with this otherwise excellent tripod.

Very nice tripod for my spotting scope! We'll built and easy one handed adjustment.

I like the stand. But the handle is horrible (at least for me). It's coated in some kind of adhesive, I guess for grip??? Nothing is more annoying than opening a brand new product, getting a handle that feels like someone coated it in sap, and the moment you touch it you need some form of paint remover to clean your hand off otherwise it's like you just got done stroking a pine tree covered in sap. What the heck? Makes no sense why it would be made like that.

For the money this is a great tripod. I'm using it with a relatively heavy spotting scope and it works perfectly for that.