PROSLooks very nice (not cheap).The ball head allows the camera to be tilted into many positions and angles. And it stays in place once it's secured (my camera weighs 10 oz.). And the head is made of metal (I saw some more expensive tripods at Best Buy with heads made of plastic) and can be removed.The tripod can be tilted to a full 90 degrees for portrait shots.It feels sturdy and stable, yet it's light enough to carry around.The legs extend by flipping a tab, instead of having to unscrew something. This makes extending and retracting the legs quick and easy.The legs adjust to three different angles (with the last angle, the legs are almost perpendicular to the center pole) and each leg can be adjusted individually to a different angle.The legs have retractable spiked feet for greater stability on softer ground.There's a hook at the end of the center pole for hanging a weight if more stability is needed.The center pole can be removed (the hook on the end must be unscrewed first), then inserted upside down for macro shots (see photo in "customer images").There are two bubble levels, one on the mounting base and one on the tripod base so one can make sure both the tripod and camera are level.It has a built-in compass.All of the moving parts glide smoothly.The base is padded with cork to prevent the bottom of the camera from getting scratched.Comes with a very nice carrying case that feels and looks well-made. It's padded on the inside and has an inner, zippered pocket. And as other people mentioned, it's probably about a $20 value on its own. It does have a "chemical" smell to it that reminds me of rubber-soles shoes, but I don't find it overwhelming. Hopefully, this scent will fade with time.CONSThe instructions are very basic, consisting of a fold-out leaflet with just a few pictures and words on it. So, some of the functions I had to figure out on my own.The quick-release mount. I know a lot of people like these because they make it easy to take the camera off the tripod for that "quick shot." But I feel a bit nervous about it, simply because I'm used to using a tripod where the camera screws directly to the tripod itself. Whereas with the quick-release mount, the camera is screwed to a plate and then the plate is fastened to the tripod base with a clip. The clip does feel sturdy, though - both the clip and the plate are made of metal and the clip does have a locking mechanism to keep it from accidentally being released.The leg tabs are made of plastic. However, it feels like a pretty sturdy plastic to me and it takes very little force to move the tabs in and out. So with care, I think they'll be fine.Because of the ball head, it's probably not a good tripod for video panning.It doesn't come with an extra mounting plate like some tripods do (in case one gets lost or you have more than one camera). But for this low amount of money plus all the features the tripod has, that's not a big deal.At full extension, the lower legs are rather thin. But my camera is pretty light (10 oz.). I don't know how the tripod would handle a much heavier camera at full extension.