Vanguard Tourist-2 Compact Travel Tripod

The tripod is small, and very nice to carry into a backpack. The materials are not good and the head comes with a loose screw.

I use video for training purposes and have to carry 3 camcorders and tripods at a time. The size and weight of this tripod is great. It is true that it is a little flimsy and somewhat shaky. I only use it with a very light camcorder and leave it in place for 15-20 minutes of static recording. While the different segments "lock" with little spring mounted balls clicking into their receptacles, the top segments lock by twisting and so far, one of the 3 I purchased does not lock well. Again, for what I do with these tripods, I am satisfied and I would not be upset if some electric tape was necessary to secure the legs in place. I may not trust the tripod with my SLR digital camera, especially with a significant lens on it. But I have not tried so...

Does what you'd expect. Know that you have to give the first tube a twist to start the collapsing.

It only works when you don't extend the legs AT ALL. The legs are absolute crap aluminum. Had they gone with plastic legs, this might have been a decent product. Don't buy it for anything more than setting on top of tables, books, etc.

The size of this tripod is ideal when space is limited - in a pinch it can fit in a pocket. There is one major design/construction flaw however - the ball portion of the ball & socket mechanism is actually the head of a rivet machined to a ball shape. This rivet attaches to the headpiece that connects the three legs. In my case - this rivet worked loose the first day (with absolutely no pressure or abuse), meaning that the ball now rotates and wiggles back and forth. Obviously, this makes the tripod useless because there's no solid mounting for the camera. Since the construction uses a rivet (instead of a screw), there's no way to tighten this. Maybe mine's defective - but I'd be leary this construction.