Pretty good tripod, but I'm a little suspicious of it
This is one of a current batch of Chinese-made tripods that all seem to have the same features and basic construction but are sold by different brands on Amazon and elsewhere. When searching for "best inexpensive tripod" on YouTube or elsewhere, you're likely to see these come up repeatedly in top 5 lists or even just on their own, in videos titled things like "the only tripod you'll ever need" or similar. I'm looking at my "customers also viewed" list just below the text box I'm typing this in and there are several more of these nearly identical tripods listed right there, from brands like Smallrig, Neewer, etc.
I didn't quite realize this before buying this tripod, and the "western" sounding brand name made me think this might be the "original" anyway that others were copying. I admit I liked the color accents too. But the very poorly translated instructions (available in both English and Chinese) make it clear that this is just a low budget Chinese product like probably all of them are.
So, generic rebranded Aliexpress product or not, that doesn't mean it's a bad tripod. It's not a bad tripod. It is absolutely not "the only tripod you'll ever need", but it would make a decent travel tripod. It's fairly light and easy to set up, and it seems relatively stable once it's set up. It would honestly blow away in a stiff wind, it's that light, though. And it would clearly wobble, especially because it has no center brace. I was replacing a cheap "Polaroid" tripod (from the not-really Polaroid that currently exists) that actually cost less than this but had thicker metal legs and a center brace - that thing was not going anywhere once it was set up, nor did it wobble at all unless you extended the center column. The problem with that Polaroid is that it didn't have a ball head, and the plastic crank for the center column also broke. This tripod doesn't have a crank like that; you just unscrew the retaining nut on the center column and then pull it up, then screw it back in place.
There is actually a hook on the bottom of the tripod where you can attach a sandbag if you want for better stability, but it's weirdly off-center so it would never be pulling straight down. It probably would work well enough, though.
I do like the ball head and the pan function is nicely dampened - that's going to help a lot in video shoots. The bubble level is borderline useless, though. It will show level when the head is at about a 30 degree angle. The bubble in the level is just so small and moves so little that it's impossible to judge where it really is in the circle unless you are looking literally straight down on it. That's very hard to do if you've got the camera set at eye height. So plan on some other way to judge level. Maybe bring your own little spirit level.
To tighten the ball head there are a couple of screws with plastic nuts on the end. You get an Allen wrench that I guess is meant to tighten the main one onto the screw (it's the only thing it fits into that I can find), but even with the nut fully tightened onto the screw, it flops around a bit. Works fine, but just doesn't feel solid. I am not sure if this is how it's supposed to be or not - it does feel like it's going to break or just fall off, but there's no more tightening that I can do to it. The head itself tightens fine; it's just that plastic nut, but if that breaks or comes off, then there's no way to tighten the head itself.
As a travel tripod, I think this is a pretty good option for the price. If you're a serious photographer or videographer with a heavier camera, I definitely would get a heavier tripod. And if you are going out in the wild, especially in rough weather, make sure you bring a sandbag.
