Alta Pro 263AB Tripod with Ball Head

Having only an old and kind of heavy tripod—but using lighter mirrorless cameras these days—I needed to find a lighter tripod. I checked out several brands. The Vanguard gets my vote. >> Legs Out of the box, they are neither too stiff nor too lose. They feel just right. In the event they need tightening, the company supplies a tool for that purpose. When the tripod is set up and everything is tightened down, it feels super solid. >> Ballhead This looks like a high-quality item to me, but it uses a proprietary attachment system—it isn't Arca-Swiss-compatible. Newer Vanguard tripod/ballhead kits all seem to have Arca-Swiss-compatible heads. I don't want to discard my camera's great hand grip with its Arca-Swiss base plate. Fortunately I have a good replacement ballhead that I can use instead. Too few manufacturers pay enough attention to the feel of their tightening knobs. The ones on the Vanguard ballhead are comfortable to hold and turn. >> Proprietary ballhead attachment system I might not be able to use it myself, but that aside it's clearly well made. The supplied camera plate has a sensible design for the attachment screw, so you aren't out of luck if you need to attach it but don't have a flat-head screwdriver or coin handy. The plate slides into place and locks there. Press a small button at the open end of the clamp to release it—the mounting plate slides right out. This seems like a very solid design, surely capable of holding a fairly heavy DSLR with the ballhead remaining locked down nice and tight. >> Center column The column is hexagonal, not round. It feels solid when it's tightened. It can't be turned within its housing, but when you have it upright, you can use the swivel adjustment elsewhere on the tripod. >> Release levers for changing leg angles I'm used to seeing levers that stick out at the tops of tripods' legs—you push them inward or pull them downward to change the legs' angles. Some have a pretty flimsy feel to them. The Vanguard tripod has wide push-levers instead, mounted flush to the sides of the legs rather than projecting out from them. This arrangement works very well, and there's no metal gizmo sticking out the sides of the tripod to snag on anything. Thumbs up for this feature. (If it matters: the legs move silently as you change angles—no loud CLICKs.) >> Tilting center column design Some reviews I've seen complain a bit about the steps needed to move the center column from vertical into tilt "mode". Judging by video reviews, Vanguard's later models seem easier to tilt. But it isn't _that_ much more work. Set the column at the desired angle, then lock it by tightening a lever. With the lever down, the column locks securely and without any "slop". To unlock it, slide a small plastic slider a short distance. This frees the tightening lever, which you then lift to change the angle. Moving the column from vertical to "tilt"—or removing it entirely when you want to reverse it—does not require removing the spring-mounted hook at the end of the column. Thanks for that, Vanguard. When the column is in tilt "mode," you can swing it around until it's parallel to the vertical axis of the tripod. Then, adjust the distance from head to ground via a single tightening knob. Thus for reversing the column you don't have to pull it all the way out of its housing and then re-insert it upside down. >> Flip-lock levers for extending the legs I have one tripod with inexpensive-looking and -feeling levers, and they worry me. But the Vanguard's levers seem very well made. The tool supplied with the tripod enables you to tighten them if need be. This model has only two flip-locks per leg to get to its rated maximum height. That's great. >> Monopod capability It's all the rage in recent tripod designs and it sure is handy. The Vanguard does not have such a feature. The legs can't be removed. But I knew that when I bought it. Nice to have, but not a deal-breaker. >> Carrying it around Vanguard doesn't make the tripod to be folded back onto itself after the fashion of Three Legged Thing tripods. But, you can shorten it a lot by moving the center column to tilt "mode", extending it all the way, turning it parallel to the legs, and locking the tilt angle. This shortens it quite a bit. (If you fold it up this way, you probably shouldn't pick it up by holding only the center column. Hold the legs instead.) >> Nice touch Good deal: All three legs have foam wraps. >> Carrying bag? Nope. Nice to have, but not a deal-breaker. >> Nit-pick: Documentation The documentation is almost entirely pictorial and the diagrams are not the easiest to read. You do, so to speak, get the picture after a while, but the documentation could stand improving. (And hello, Vanguard: The PDF version of the documentation needs to be output again at higher resolution!) >> Nit-pick: Set screws to hold the ballhead in place While this is a good idea to keep the ballhead from becoming unscrewed accidentally, it's a bit of a pain to loosen and tighten those set-screws within the mounting plate. But ok—it isn't as difficult as landing a rover on Mars. You won't have to do it often. The "multi-tool" supplied with the tripod comes with an Allen key of the necessary size. >> Overall impression << This reasonably priced tripod is well made and very solid. The tilting design is excellent. I expect that the product will last a long time.

Bought this to replace my wife's amazon basics tripod. Huge upgrade and well worth the money. In fact for around $150 it is a great value. The ability to reposition the center post at any angle has been incredibly useful for macro photography, as well as wildlife photography where one might find themselves having to sit in odd spaces for a long period of time to get a shot. Very solid build, the head tightens down very solid, no unwanted movement. The plate-lock for the camera is very secure too. I wasn't sure about it but the dual lock system keeps everything very secure. After about three months of moderate use for outdoor, wildlife photography, photography, and indoor macro photography, this thing is showing no signs of quitting any time soon. I highly recommend it. In response to many reviews that comment that one or more leg locks didn't work on their tripods: I had one leg that wouldn't lock, when extending it, the leg would open all the way to the 80 degree position, unlike the other two that would stop at 25 and then 50 degrees. It seems this problem is the result of a stuck release button or locking bolt (when open all the way you will see a rectangular "bolt" that retracts slightly when the release button is pressed). This problem was easily remedied by first giving a quick blast of air from a compressed air can (like what you use to clean the dust out of your computer) to remove any possible debris from the release and then carefully applying a few drops of household 3 in 1 oil to the bolt and under the button. Careful to use just a small amount and not get it on top of the button or where you might handle the tripod (I found holding the tripod upside down while depressing the release button of the leg in question provided ample room to apply oil under the button). Work the release button for a minute to get the oil into all the moving parts. All 3 legs now function properly on my tripod. If you do this, give it a couple days before using in dusty conditions so that excess oil can "dry" a little.

This is an excellent tripod — it's stable and solid, high-quality, and full of well thought-out features that took me many months to discover. To begin with, it's sturdy, which makes it easy to get shake-free photos at night, or to use a pair of big 20x, 100mm binoculars. The feet have spikes in them, which are exposed via a screw mechanism — you move the rubber feet upwards by turning it around a screw, to expose the spikes. This is a better system than my other tripod, where the rubber feet detach, which makes it a pain to make sure you don't lose them if you ever detach them. All three legs have a foam grip, for comfort. The head can be detached from the legs, and used on another tripod, or vice-versa. The head even comes with a screw adapter, which you'd use if the you want to use a head and legs that use a different sized-screw. The screw adapter is already screwed in, since these legs and head are themselves of a different size. Both the legs and the head have bubble levels (each in both directions), and both of them have a pan lock in case you want to pan your camera or binoculars while keeping the vertical angle the same. This is in addition to the knob on the ball head that makes the ball move around freely. The legs lock at three different positions, if you want extra stability. You press a button on the legs if you want to move it past the lock position. The head has a backup safety mechanism to prevent your camera from falling out. After you rotate the knob to loosen the quick-release plate from the tripod, you need to press an orange button as a backup safety mechanism. The tripod conveniently comes with two quick-release plates. I leave one connected to my binoculars and the other connected to my camera. Unfortunately, you'll need to use a screwdriver when you connect the quick-release plate to your camera. Otherwise, it will be loose and result in blurred photos or a blurred view through your binoculars. The central column of the tripod can be rotated out an angle, for example, if you have the tripod set up on your balcony, but want your camera to lean out. It can also be rotated down to bring your camera close to the ground, if you want to take a photo from that perspective. The tripod reaches a height of less than five feet, without the center column extended (it's more stable that way). Unfortunately, this is not high enough if you're tall, like I'm (6 feet). You have to extend the center column. The center column has a hook from which you can hang a camera bag or other object for extra stability. This tripod can handle a heavy pair of binoculars and keep it relatively steady at high magnification (20x). It's pretty long (around 2 feet) even when collapsed, and relatively heavy. All in all, this is a solid, stable tripod full of well-thought out features. This is my primary tripod.

So I have both the VEO3+ 263AB 160S and the 263AB 100. I really love the features on the VEO3+ but the 263AB is really not far behind. It’s a little less weight (4.43ibs without ball head) and the knobs and levers are plastic and the VEO3+ is a bit better center weighted and is a bit heavier (4.67ibs without the ball head). If you have a bigger heavier camera or lens I recommend buying the BH-250 or the BH-300 and with either of these ball heads the tripods are really center weighted and support them well. I have a RZ67 film camera which is 6ibs and with that BH-300 it acts as if it’s a paper weight. The stock ball head on the 263AB is ok but I would recommend using smaller lenses (70-200 would be pushing it and BH-250 feels more safe.) but also it’s great to save weight if you are traveling long trips. I will be returning the 263AB because I enjoy the features on the VEO3+ more. I wanted to mention at these price points these tripods are amazing and you can’t really find a tripod this versatile with shooting at multiple angles. So if you’re on a budget or starting out ($150) the 263AB. is the way to go . If you have the extra money and want the fancy metal knobs the VEO plus 263 is the way to go. ($299 with tripod head) I also wanted to state that I recommend buying the tripods without the heads. The heads are really what matters to me because of the center weight, Weight load capacity, and variety of selections. The BH-100,200, and 300s heads are amazing heads for their price points. I also left the photos of the weights for the ball heads BH-160s (1ib) BH-300 (1.44ibs) SBH-100 (.94ibs). The VEO3+ comes with additional spiked feet and a MA-1 external mount for second cameras. It’s included in the bag which is zipped in the pocket. Next I will try the VEO3+ carbon fiber version and write a review about it.

Most versatile tripod I’ve used! It’s a very well constructed and quality materials used. If you need a solid and durable tripod, try this one! The foldability is great and isn’t too heavy to carry!

This tripod has a lot of high end features for a mid range pricetag. For my labwork I really needed the versatility that this vertical arm provides that allows me to lock it down at all sorts of angles so I can place my camera over a bench and the Manfrotto's version only lets you go at 90 degrees or vertical. The legs and joints are well above average as far as rigidity and stiffness so it's a definite step up compared to the flimsy low cost tripods out there. Clearly these guys are giving you value for the extra money. When I angle the riser and place my camera on the end I can lock in in 10, 20, 40, 90 degree angles quite nicely. It's not rock solid and if I were outdoors a good wind might cause issues in that configuration. But it is living up to everything I hoped and I'm quite pleased. As for the head, I've always been a traditionalist pan/tilt head user, but I know a lot of people just rave about ball heads these days. I do appreciated ballheads pack up smaller. Looking at the quality of the SBH-100 ball head that I got with this tripod though I have to say that I'm only mildly impressed. It's heavy enough to support and yes, the single tension knob does allow you to adjust to provide enough friction to do a pseudo fluid motion action and then not move the head too badly when you crank it down. However, the thing that surprised me is the pan adjustment. There are a couple rough patches as I pan. Almost as if someone cranked the knob too tight and dug the threads into the smooth bearing surface. You can get rid of these rough patches by loosening up the small pan tensioning knob so it rotates freely, but then the head is too loose and when you tighten it back down once you find yoru position your camera will very noticeably move. That's a FAIL! With just a 50mm lens as I loosen and tighten the pan I can tell my scene rotates counter-clockwise several degrees and it shifts very noticably away from where it started. But oh well, it's a ball head and you can't really get a precise tilt with a ball head anyway. I just don't like my camera to move as I lock down the position. The price with the ballhead was less than $7 more than just the tripod alone so it wasn't a waste of money. It's worth way more than $7!, but it would be embarrassed to be put side-by-side with an $80 ball head. My other nag is the quick release plate! See the images. I know that some tripod designers are stubbornly opposed to using the no-tools D-Ring screws. This is one of those examples where they apparently think people still walk around with a nickel in their pocket. I very strongly HATE these things because I never have a nickel in my pocket or an appropriately sized screwdriver so I always have to booger up the screw heads with the badly sized substitute that I eventually come up with. The plates (plural, they do provide a spare) are pot metal, not flimsy plastic, so I will say one good thing for them. I wish the engineer were standing in front of me because I would love to throw it at him/her because it's definitely heavy enough to leave a dent in his forehead. I HATE having to stop what I'm doing and go on a scavenger hunt because the engineer didn't want to give me a screw with folding wings or a D-Ring loop! ARGH! And to op it off, they even give you a little tool on a lanyard to assemble/adjust the ballhead, but do you think the back of the little spanner wrench blade is the diameter of the nickel so it can also be used to tighten that plate? Of course not!!! *sigh* Also, if you are going to use a ballhead, you need to adjust your camera fore and aft to get the center of balance over the head so that when you loosen and tilt/pan/roll the weight of the camera body+lens doesn't immediately droop. The way this plate and catch is designed your camera clicks into only one position, there is almost no room to slide the camera forward and retighten with the side thumbscrew. To balance your camera head correctly you need to use that coin screw in the 1 inch long slot. I know most photog's don't do it correctly, but the tripod should be designed to facilitate proper operation and adjustment. OK, rants off. The tripod is still very obviously a good step up in quality from the budget throw away models. The tripod overall feels a bit heavy, which I like and is a good thing to me. The joints are well above average as far as stiffness and the features, weight hook, adjustable angle center post. Also the bag that it comes with is surprisingly heavy material that feels like it should last more than a few years. It's sized to fit and the ballhead doesn't even have to be folded/flipped over, just drop it straight in the bag and sling it over your shoulder and you're off. And a bag is important because you don't want to have to pack tripod with it's dirty feet in with your camera gear, it should always be kept in a separate bag to keep the dirt, dust grit etc. away from the really expensive stuff.

This is my first tripod and works very well. It is quite sturdy and does have the ability to get very low to the ground for macro work if you need that. What I didn't realize a the time (or even know to look for) is that this is not Arca Swiss compatible. Probably not a huge deal for most beginners but if you start to purchase equipment that has Arca plates like the Peak Design Slide Camera Sling/Neck and Shoulder Strap, Black or various lens collars, they will not work with this tripod. Again, the price is fantastic and it's a great tripod so that really isn't a huge issue. Also realize that if you think you are going to be doing any outdoor activities that will require hiking or just walking far, this sucker is very heavy! There is absolutely a need for heavy, sturdy tripods but I found myself leaving this at home simply because it was too big and heavy. This is not something I want to take onto the train to get to NYC and lug through the city nor take on a hike. I am in no way a professional so I may be setting myself up for failure but I am looking into a lighter travel tripod for those type of uses.

dude, ok this is my second one. and its beat to hell. I shoot real estate photography as a side business. ive done this for about 15 years. the only reason i had to buy a second one (which to be fair my old one had seen better days) was 8 years ago when my car got broken into and it was stolen... even in its very beaten up shape. dont get me wrong it holds up. i threw this thing in and out of my car for nearly a decade and it still worked. 10/10 and honestly is better than some of the higher price ones i've used. Photos only though i cant speak to how it operates as a video tripod. but for the price to get like 8-10 years out of it is crazy. and the build quality is good. its hefty and FEELS like a pro level tripod. which honestly i think it is.