Dolica LX650B502 D/S 65in Alluminum Alloy Professional Tripod with Built-in Monopod (Black)

I've gone through my share of tripods in the past 50 years. Several years ago I purchased a sturdy model from Sunpak (platinum plus) that provided the benefits of your typical heavy tripod: vertical height, mono-pod capabilities, and easy connection. However its negative qualities were in mobility and easy platform setup. When I saw the Dolica tripod advertised on-line at Costco and here in Amazon, I researched the various models and decided to go with Amazon's LX600B502DS lightweight aluminum alloy tripod (black).I received it two weeks ago and have used it in various situations including a recent trip to Hawaii. I am thoroughly pleased with my purchase.First, the collapsed tripod fits nicely in a backpack. I tucked it in the pack and carried it on the plane with my camera gear. No problem with weight or bulkiness.Then came ease of setup. The legs quickly unfold into place from the travel mode and lock in position, and the twist leg sections open with a quarter-turn, quickly falling into place. The foam leg grips are a nice touch, especially if your hands are wet as mine were in Hawaii.The ball head is easy to manipulate, although it took several uses to get accustomed to the various knobs for positioning the camera. The counter-weight hook at the end of the center column is great for hanging equipment bags or, in my case, my Tilley hat. Also the camera plate and platform have a great feature, the quick release system has a safety button so when the plate lock is loosened, the camera mount will not come off until the safety button is pushed (more on this later).I have not used the mono-pod system yet but intend to if only to insure it's functional. I also haven't changed out the rubber feet to the metal pegs. Some may think these two items are problematic, as they aren't as easy to use as other brands (e.g. my Sunpak has the dual feet and the center post is removable into a mono-pod).Cons: plate connection to the camera requires either a screw driver or quarter to ensure it's securely fastened to the camera. It is a plain knurled-head screw. It would benefit to have a key type screw that is easy to tighten. Although I appreciate the quick release plate safety button, it was the first thing to give out. I loosened the plate lock, pushed in the button to release the plate, and the button flew out of the top plate. Carry bag's strap is way too short for my taste; it was difficult to carry along with the camera or camera bag.Pros: First is Dolica's customer service. I e-mailed them this morning (per their on-site instructions) and they immediately responded with a request for a picture of the problem. Don't you just love this digital world - I took the picture and responded. Before I knew it, a replacement part is on its way with a tracking number. All within less than 12 hours. My kind of company. Other pros include ease of use and being able to carry it in a backpack. The storage/carry bag is a nice touch especially having a pocket to store the metal feet.Overall, I am very pleased with this purchase and would recommend it to others. Don't be deterred by the price because once again, you get what you pay for, and good customer service now-a-days is priceless.UPDATE: As I reported, I was impressed that it took less than 12 hours for their CS to contact me regarding the malfunction. What impressed me even more was that the part arrived on Monday following me reporting it on Friday. Great job, Dolica.

it looks very well-made and sturdy. easy to take out and put away. i never had a ball-head tripod before, but i really liked this one. its easy to move the camera from one position to another. the legs look a bit skinny but the tripod holds my Nikon very well and keeps it stable. it doesn't go as low as other tripods, but i'm looking for a way around that.UPDATE:Tripod broke in the middle of a photoshoot. I was extending one of the legs and it just fell out onto the ground. This was really inconvenient because I was in the middle of a long-exposure photoshoot, and I needed the tripod. I don't understand why this happened since I don't use it all that often. I will not be buying any Dolica products in the future.

Great tri-pod. Light but sturdy, I use it hiking all the time. The only reason for 4 stars is that I lost two of the "feet" while on my many hikes and it replacing them was a big hassle. Cost $40 per foot which is ridiculous. I now put locktite on each of them to solve that problem so if you get this one do that immediately.

Poor head assembly. Not recommended for professional use.

So far the tirpod is good. the leg action is smooth and the ball head for the price is the nicest part of the tripod and having a arco-swiss mount is wonderful.I have two very minor issues however, one with the tripod and one with the carrying case.first the tripod, its rated to carry up to 20 lbs. my 400mm lens is about 11 lbs and the camera is another 2. the tripod feels just about at it max for adequate stability. I would have rated the tripod 4 stars if the rating was about 12 pounds or so. I feel the manufacture over rated this tripod for the weight it could handle.Second, I bought this tripod for hiking and portability. The shoulder strap when it is fully extended does not come close to fitting over my shoulder, I m 5.10 and 150 lbs, not really a big guy. I have to seam rip off part of the strap and sew on another piece over 12 inches longer to fit properly for carrying over the shoulder. A short sight I feel is not necessary 1 inch webbing is cheap.For something like a 70-200mm, or the popular 18-200mm lens + camera or a smaller camera, this trippod is great. For bigger lenses go with a stouter tripod.

My first REAL tripod. I had narrowed it down to between this one and the "MeFoto" one and reviews didn't allude to one being superior to the other. I finally got to try several in stores.At this price point, no other tripod gives you the 90-degree turn (quarter-turn) leg releases, so it takes only about a minute to take this thing from fully-folded to standing. The ball-head works great and holds both my point-and-shoot and my DSLR (with about 5 lb of lens) quite well. Very heavy and rock steady, but compact.The ball-head has a notch that permits you to rotate your camera over to portrait mode without having to buy one of those overpriced L-bracket thingies. You still get quite a bit of freedom to tilt and aim your camera when it's in that notch.Nothing in the product description mentioned that the ball head had a neat little bubble-level on it.Also, looks classy in black.

Rubber feet are loose and you will end up loosing it. Lost first one in one month and rest one after another. New feets are close to 20-30$ or so. I really wish if Dolica would somehow make feet more tight so that we don't loose them by itself.Also the head can't handle the weight for 50-300mm nikon DX lens. It keeps moving down if you are pointing the camera to 45 deg from the horizon.

Awesome customer service, quality, build, function. For the price, there is no better tripod. A 4 because it is not very light at all.