This carbon fiber camera tripod is durable and gets what you need taken care of. Great quality made with the carbon fiber.

I absolutely love this tripod! It is a bit heavy but because I knew this going in, choosing aluminium instead of the slightly more expensive carbon fiber, I feel I can't ding it a star.

Excellent quality, looks and feels premium. Very sturdy yet lightweight. This carbon fiber tripod it’s excellent for travel and for my needs it’s the perfect size. It holds my Sony A7IV with the 70-200mm lens with no issues! Love it!

I have a couple of carbon fiber tripods and i do like this tripod, however I bought this to use a 3 beam laser. I will use this with my cameras its nice quality and gives you plenty of options. I recommend this tripod!

The media could not be loaded.


















 I bought the Manfrotto BeFree Carbon Fiber Tripod to use with my Nikon D5100 for outdoor and indoor video and photography. It is a nice tripod and a decent deal if you can get it on sale for less than its list price. It is not a no-compromises tripod and typical with things built to a price point, it has its pros and cons.Its good for hiking and travel but I wouldn't use it for serious work. Some competitors:The MeFoto Backpacker - 

MeFOTO C1350Q1T Carbon Fiber Roadtrip Travel Tripod Kit (Titanium)









Amazon Carbon Fiber - 

AmazonBasics 52-Inch Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod with Bag









3-legged Thing - 

3 Legged Thing EVO3 Punks Rick Carbon Fiber Tripod and Mohawk Ball Head









Pros:Light and compact - The BeFree only weights 2.4lbs. It folds up really small, is incredibly light, and I can take it on long hikes without it weighing me down.The tripod is solid. It does have some wobble at full extension is stable at minimum extension. The heads locks down tight and the center column doesn't wobble. The fact that the legs are carbon fiber leads me to my next point ...Carbon Fiber - The legs are made of carbon fiber. Carbon fiber naturally dampens vibrations and ensures and shaking is quickly stopped.Spare parts are easily available - Unlike cheaper tripods, this tripod is considered to be premium and, including aluminum ones, 100s of thousands have been sold. This means that parts are easily available. You can easily buy parts directly from Manfrotto or salvage them from older tripods.Cons:The bag is flimsy. The zipper feels cheap and I can see the bag deforming where the handle connects to it just after a few trips.Wobbly when fully extended - Even though it is carbon fiber. it doesn't have spiked feet or a hook to hang a bag off for stability. It will wobble even in light wind and shooting a timelapse in any kind of wind is futile.Compact but not as compact as it could be - It is not usable as a tabletop tripod because the legs splay out even at minimum expansion. I could flip over the camera to be closer to the action but the video would be flipped and the amount of space the tripod takes is still sizable which limits how close it can get to the action.Only the legs are carbon fiber - The rest of the tripod is aluminum - the center column, the head, the base plate, and the leg connectors are all metal. It should be called the BeFree with carbon fiber legs!Base plate doesn't have screw slot - The base plate doesn't have a coin slot to unscrew it. It just has a somewhat flimsy handle that I feel will break off after some use.The baseplate could have been made more stable. My camera doesn't sit flat with the baseplate attached. It tilts over and rests on its lens. I hesitate to remove the baseplate every time I take my camera off the table because like I mentioned above, I feel the screw handle will break off after some use.Along similar lines, the baseplate has some hard edges. I hesitate to put it table surfaces to avoid scratches. Rubberizing the base of the baseplate would have made sense but again it seems like there was a price point they wanted to hit.

STOUT tripod. This thing is a beast. Heavier than I’d hoped for a carbon fiber tripod but will still work great for intended purpose.

Very heavily built with great materials, workmanship and quality. Definitely not a travel tripod. I will use as a studio and landscape tripod - really anytime you need a rock solid camera platform for big, heavy DSLR attached to heavy high speed professional level zoom lens. I would recommend this as long as you aren't thinking it is travel tripod or lightweight due to the carbon fiber. It is lighter than a 100% heavy aluminum tripod of mine which it will replace.I just wish the center post was included and not an accessory item. It is required for DSLR, Medium format cameras that require vertical adjustment ability (like all).

I was lucky enough to be able to review both the aluminum and Carbon Fiber versions of this tripod, and the carbon fiber version is significantly better quality: 

Vanguard Alta Pro 283CT Carbon Fiber Tripod with SBH-100 Ball Head









The main difference is that the legs are sturdier on the carbon version with a twist lock mechanism that locks down tighter and is sturdier. This version uses a cheap feeling plastic flip lock that belongs on a $30 tripod.My main complaint after using both of these for a while is that when you lock the screw for the vertical column it tilts the head to the side 1 or 2 degrees. This won't impact 99% of field users, but for my test charts it can become annoying as the column isn't quite vertical when the tripod legs are are extended all the way and flat on the floor. Again, this won't really impact field use, just something a more expensive tripod likely wouldn't do.I still like this tripod overall, but I do think the extra few dollars for the carbon fiber version are well spent. See my video review for the carbon fiber tripod in the link above.