Magnus VT-300 Video Tripod with Fluid Head

This is the 2nd one of these I have used. We bought one for work a few months ago and I liked it so much I bought my own. Both of them have been flawless. For the price, it’s excellent construction, responsive controls, tight lockups. This thing has given us extremely good and smooth panning/tilting ability whenever we film events like seminars, or even short videos where the subject is walking around. It is a bit bulky, but extremely sturdy and I think the heft of the tripod is part of what makes it so smooth. The price is what makes this thing awesome. Other fluid filled head tripods cost 3x what this one does. And tripods in this price point ($65 at the time of this writing) do not compare. I know there are much better options out there, but if what you need is a smooth panning, sturdy tripod that doesn’t suck... get this. If you need something compact and lightweight, I’d pass on this tripod. But if you don’t, buy this thing,you won’t regret it. Read more

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! Read more

Smooth, sturdy, lengthy. extremely good tripod for its low price! Read more

I held off until I used it in an actually videography project to do this review. Hopefully the one experience I have had with this tripod will enable me to pass along the right information. Bad things first: -The handle is too loose. This is detrimental to the smoothness of the shot. As I go for a pan, there is a slight jerk in the shot as there is some give. This can be overcome be twisting the handle in one directing and keeping it that way throughout the pan. However, this is not optimal. -1* -The locks seem to be easily worn. However, only time will verify this statement. Therefore, no reduction of a star. Noteworthy none-the-less. Good things: -Incredible smooth pan and tilt. I was in disbelief that I paid $70 dollars for such a smooth rotation. Major steal. -The legs seem quite sturdy. -The locking mechanism are very responsive at the moment. -The quick release is functional and fairly easy to maneuverer. -Lightweight for me as an average sized-male. -Good height for my use. I can't see why anyone would need it any higher. -Collapsibility is good as it retracts to a reasonable and handy size. In addition it came with a carrying case. This was a major plus. If you need a tripod on a budget, buy this product. As far as my knowledge reaches, there is no other tripod in the price range that holds a candle to this one. If you have a nice tripod and are looking for an inexpensive secondary tripod, again, buy this. It will provide you with a level basic functions and perks of a high end tripod, not replicative but close, for a much lower price. I hope this review has been helpful. Read more