Magnus VT-300 Video Tripod with Fluid Head

Fluid head tripods are generally more expensive, so I was worried about one at this price point. My only desire is that it be a bit easier to get level on uneven surfaces. The fluid head is quite smooth, all in all very happy.

Reasonably sturdy for the price and weight. Not the perfect video tripod as it is quite light and the fluid damping feels a bit loose. BUT it is nice and light so very easy to carry in its bag. If it was heavier it would cost more and so it’s a good value. An excellent unit for light video use but at this price don’t expect perfection. A great travel or backup tripod with solid leg locks and I like it a lot.

Very happy with this tripod!I'm not a professional photographer per se, but am a professional artist and digital matte painter. So I needed a solid, mid $ level, fluid-head tripod with smooth panning & tilt action for short video sequences. I also needed a tripod that is sturdy but still lightweight enough to carry around for hours on vacation and on location. The Magnus VT-300 Video Tripod is an excellent choice and I couldn't be happier with it. Granted, this is my first tripod for these purposes, so a professional photographer may disagree with my review. But for my needs and budget it's perfect.For comparison sake, I also purchased (and returned) the Davis & Sanford MAGNUMXG and the Ravelli AVT Professional 67-inch. These both seem to be wonderfully high quality tripods, but the Magnus won out for the reasons I described above. I did actually like both other tripods a lot in terms of aesthetic design and overall quality and they are arguably slightly better in that regard. But just slightly. The Davis & Sanford was nice and sturdy, but the 3-way arms were stubby and redundant and more importantly the head seemed better suited for still photography. The Ravelli head - which was incredibly smooth and professional feeling - was the size of a small cantaloupe and weighed a ton(!) and the entire tripod, while extremely sturdy, was just way too heavy and bulky to realistically consider carrying around for any length of time while traveling. The Magnus was the obvious choice in that regard and my second favorite for it's smooth panning ability.NOTE: I read a complaint and also watched another reviewer's video comparison of several tripods that included the Magnus VT-300. These were good, thorough reviews, but they almost caused me not to consider this tripod because of a supposed "defect" with the panning smoothness of the Magnus fluid head. I don't know the precise terminology and am paraphrasing from memory, but one of the reviews basically claimed the head slips or wobbles a little at the very beginning of a pan (like a loose cog in neutral), then catches abruptly, causing the pan to be anything but smooth at the start. This is true... IF you don't first tighten the knob that locks the central shaft. Once you do tighten off the knob associated with the crank that enables you to vertically raise/lower the shaft the tripod head rests on, that little (but noticeable) 1/8" looseness or pre-pan 'wobble' completely disappears and the pan is very smooth and tight from start to finish. I wouldn't have purchased this tripod if it wasn't.Hope this has been helpful!

My first review for Amazon! I needed a light-weight yet solid tripod for a trip to Italy. Was running a Sony VG20 video cam and needed a tripod fast. The Pearstone VT-2100 delivered and was an excellent choice for me. I studied long and hard Amazon's spectrum of tripods. I considered heavier tripods and at twice the price and finally went with the lighter Pearstone VT-2100. For a lightweight prosumer vid cam, I can say, this tripod worked very well for my needs...Pros-Even for a newbie to tripods, the VT-2100 right out of the box is intuitive and easy to operate.-Was my first fluid head and had no problems. Lil' slow at first, but after few minutes went fine and always smooth.-Both tilt and pan operations were smooth as well.-Legs and tripod head were stable and solid for it's relative light weight. Very little wobble, is firm.-Crank-up operation to periscope the head was exactly what I needed.-Snap-on, snap-off base mounting plate for video cam worked well for me.-You can move and re-setup this tripod with little effort. Was a bonus for me. Travels well as an airline carry-on.Cons-Tripod is not all metal and has some plastic parts in construction. Yet nothing broke and all worked fine.-Carrying bag won't last long. One flight as a carry-on for me and the light zipper broke. Suggest heavier zipper.-Only reason I didn't give this tripod a 5-star rating...is because just I wonder how some of the plastic parts will hold-up over time. After say a year of constant week-in, week-out travel will this tripod hold up to rigorous work.All in all, for price to value, you cannot beat this Pearstone VT-2100. It worked fine for airline travel (California->Italy and back) especially and in transport to/from the hotel in and out of trains, taxi cabs etc. I just used bongee straps to secure it to my rolling camera bag;). I used the VT-2100 for sports and moving subjects and always my video cam tracked smooth & stable with all targets. At the arena job site, it performed fine all day long. Eventually for heavier video cameras, I may need to move up to a heavier with more expensive construction. For a first purchase and light frequency pro use, this tripod goes fine.

Hey, all you video production students (like me) who are perusing the depths of Amazon looking for the perfect budget tripod. You cannot get a good tripod for $20. Please do yourself a favor and spend a little extra. Hell, even this model is still "cheap" compared to the industry standard tripods with all the damn balances and counterbalances in the world. No, if you're here to buy your own, buy this one.I can't tell you how many compliments I've gotten on it as a student helping others and working with people. It's not cheap aluminum; it's carbon fiber. So not only can it take a beating, it looks much better, too. And the fluid head? Yeah, smooth as s***. You will get the best pans and tilts with this out of all the student-level tripods. Definitely your best tripod option in this price range.A couple things you need to know though: since there is nothing to adjust the "drag" (aka tension, aka how fast or slow you want it to pan or tilt), you will have to use the knobs themselves that tighten and loosen a pan or tilt. Meaning, you are going against one of the rules I myself have learned as a film student (don't use the lock knobs for drag). But hey, you have to do it with this. As such, you have to make sure you check it a lot so that it doesn't randomly come loose and you nearly lose your camera.Also, the pans and tilts are indeed smooth, but they are not terribly fast. You can get it to be pretty quick with some work but don't get this if you want to follow sports! Like I said, if you work with it and get it warmed up, it can move pretty quick.Oh, another great thing is the quick release plate. That thing is a winner. Nice touch.Overall, really easy to use, really great for video movements, and will just overall make your work look really great. I highly recommend it for the price. And what I mean by that is if you use professional-level gear (i.e. renting it or have borrowed it), this is NOT that. This is great though for students who don't want the cheap aluminum s*** and are ready to take their camera movements to a smooth level with a better tripod than some s*** from Target.