Overall it's a very good tripod. At first I was somewhat taken aback by how heavy it was, but to be fair the weight is listed so no room for complaint and very quickly get used to it - had it on my back for 30 miles cycling yesterday and hardly noticed it. The legs fix in place nice and firmly and fully extended the camera is eye level and I'm 5ft10, perfect.But....as noted by "Siney - 2 March 2016", I find panning SUCH hard work as although the swivel head seems solidly built, the resistance is HUGE and is impossible to modify. As a result it's not smooth, not because of shoddy construction causing jumps, but it seems that the resistance is hydraulic and will move slowly to begin with but extremely slowly once pressure has built up. It is definitely NOT a tripod for sports or panoramas which is a shame as panoramas was one of the main reasons for buying it.Also the legs don't slide up or down very smoothly, there's inconsistency between legs. Minor point in overall usability but that's not something that you would expect of a tripod at this price level. Once extended, fully or partially the legs are firmly held in place, the leg angling mechanism is very good and once you work out (instructions missing) how to invert the tripod it's very easy to use for downward macros.It's not a top quality tripod but then it's not a top quality price, so 4 out of 5 just about sums it up - good tripod for a good price.