Manfrotto Befree 3-Way Live Advanced 4-Section Tripod with Befree 3-Way Live Head

I absolutely love the 3-way Live head that came on this tripod! The tripod itself is very nice--it's pretty, stable, moves nicely, and just feels very solidly built.What I like best, however, is the head. The fluid friction and adjustable tension is just so nice because it provides a way for the panning and tilting to be stable yet easily adjustable. So often with cheaper heads, it's a choice between super-tight or totally loosy-goosy. This head lets things stay in place when you want them to, but be easily adjustable without a ton of force and without jerky motions. Everything is damped and smoothed very nicely.Also, you can control the panning tension and the tilting up and down tension completely separately, which is definitely a plus.The head is also removable, so if you have a ball head or some other head you want to use on the tripod, you can do that. Also, if you want to pop the 3-way head onto a monopod or something like that, you are set there as well.

Both the tripod and the tripod head are well designed. The second picture shows the setup holding up a 610g zoom lens (camera + lens together weighing in at 1280g). When using a longer focal length lens, it does become fairly difficult to make small precise movements, but overall it still does what I need it to do. It also folds up pretty small when stowing away which is really nice for travel.

I have two other (older) Manfrotto tripods that have served for many years without any problems, so when I needed another tripod I knew exactly where to look. Although the controls are a bit different this one is a winner too. Smaller, but still sturdy, all the re-arranged controls are smooth and work well.Not sure yet if this one will last as long as my others, but it feels like it will.Highest possible ratings for quality and design.

I like the quick setup and solid build quality

I love this Manfrotto Befree 3-way Tripod. It's great for travel, and even sturdy enough for everyday use.

Where do I begin listing the problems with this tripod?1. First of all, the horizontal rotation seems to be just a big screw. That's a problem because, if you rotate your camera (or spotting scope or whatever) horizontally, you are also unscrewing it. For this reason it becomes wobbly and that defeats the entire purpose of a tripod. If you screw it all the way then it's not wobbly but you won't be able to rotate it any further in one direction. Again, when you are using your camera/tripod system to photograph something that moves that is, well, very bad.2. It's not sturdy. I used it only 3 or 4 months when it simply fell apart. By "fall apart" I mean that the entire base upon which the camera is mounted broke into three pieces when all I did was try to remove the camera. Again, when you are mounting thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment on a tripod this needs to not happen.3. The system for mounting and unmounting the camera is very badly designed. It uses a relatively small knob that is based on a screw. This is bad because it's mounted right under the camera, which makes it hard to reach. Furthermore, I found that the camera was not secure unless I tightened the screw VERY hard. This, too, was a nightmare because that knob is very hard to turn. This, in turn, makes it very hard to remove the camera. This is unforgivably bad design.In short, this was the worst tripod I have ever owned and I deeply regret buying it.

Nice tripod. Arrived with some wear and tear, scratches appear to be from prior use or shipping.Also was sold and shipped with an out dated(Orange anodized) or discontinued attachment plate from tripod to camera base.

Realizar la compra fue muy simple y del mismo modo el seguimiento del producto. Llego antes de lo esperado. Todo según lo pactado. Producto en perfecto estado, y embalado correctamente. Volveré a comprar a la brevedad.