I recently bought a new tripod for my video camera.  My old tripod worked fine, but it was big and bulky and hard to tote around from place to place.  So the other day I found a “travel tripod” at the store that folds up very small.  It cost less than $20, so I thought it would be well worth it, and I bought it.

Upon opening the package (one of those impossible plastic things) I opened up the tripod.  It was difficult to get the expandable/collapsable legs to open up and stay open.  Yes, the legs lock into place with a button similar to what you find on an umbrella, but it was difficult to open the legs far enough to get the button to the hole it needed to pop up into. 

Once the tripod was opened, and the camera attached, the tripod kept trying to tip over, even when the legs were spread as far as possible.  It is a very flimsy, sensitive thing that falls over easily.  When it came time to collapse the tripod, it was difficult to collapse.  Pushing the buttons to close the legs was hard to do; the buttons are tiny and hurt my thumb to push in.  Even after the button was pushed, I had to exert a lot of pressure to get the legs to fold up.  All in all, I’m disappointed in the tripod!