After reading many reviews on a number of tripods, I bought this one because:• It is carbon fiber and has a ball head• It is as tall a I need it to be• It is light weight• It has a Monopod• It collapses to a size that fits my backpack• It is cheapTo the negative reviews about it being cheap, plastic parts, etc. um... duh.About it being shakey, it is light weight, but has a hook for weights. I doubt I’ll ever want to fully extend the center or flip it down for macros, so the light weight doesn’t bother me. Perhaps everything wasn’t fully tightened down? The 5 leg and center poles may make it a little looser than 3 leg models, perhaps, but 3 leg models do not fit in my backpack. I have some of my gear in a small bag that makes a nice weight.About smooth panning – I dunno. I do stills.About the ball moving a bit after lockdown, can’t feel any (yet?).About it not being stable enough for a heavy rig. I use a 100-400L attached to a Canon. Nowhere near the rated limit, but holds it well.Bottom line is that this is a cheap tripod, but it has a combination of features that make it worth the $. I’m taking one point off for the clunkiness of flipping the center pole and switching to the monopole.