Review on 📷 AOKA Lightweight Compact Carbon Fiber Tripod: 15.7in/0.97lb, 360° Ballhead, Travel Mini Tripod for Mobile Phone and Mirrorless Cameras by Sean Garrison

This is a very well made little tripod. It makes an excellent compact camera kit and works well with my Canon M3. For landscape and nature photography, this is a great stable mount, but it's a bit short for portraits and work that requires an eye-level position. The smartphone holder is well made and allows selfies without a special selfie stick. A small annoyance lies forever in advertising. The tripod weighs only 15.5 ounces WITHOUT the top extension. With the top attached it weighs 1lb 1.5oz (not the advertised "0.97lb"). It's a small tripod and the top extension is half (or well over half with legs wide apart for stability) the overall height, so the top extension isn't really necessary. The spirit level was something like a puzzle, without instructions and initially seemed useless. However, if the ball holding the camera clamp is rotated 90 degrees (fully inverted) and the label in Photo #1 is used as a guide to align the shoe, as in Photo #2, then the spirit level is in place for alignment. Ball head as in photo #3. The system isn't perfect, but it's good enough to shoot a series to glue together a nice panorama. And if you take your time, you can check and set the best alignment, by turning the ball head around the vertical axis and observing the bubble. If you do everything perfectly, the bubble will stay in the middle. However, if the ball holding the camera clamp is rotated 90 degrees (fully inverted) and the label in Photo #1 is used as a guide to align the shoe, as in Photo #2, then the spirit level is in position for alignment. Ball head as in photo #3. The system isn't perfect, but it's good enough to shoot a series to glue together a nice panorama. And if you take your time, you can check and set the best alignment by rotating the ball head on the vertical axis and observing the bubble. If you do everything perfectly, the bubble will stay in the middle. However, if the ball holding the camera clamp rotated 90 degrees (fully inverted) and using the label in photo #1 as a guide to align the shoe, as in photo #2, then the spirit level is in position for alignment. Ball head as in photo #3. The system isn't perfect, but it's good enough to shoot a series to glue together a nice panorama. And if you take your time, you can check and set the best alignment by rotating the ball head on the vertical axis and observing the bubble. If you do everything perfectly, the bubble will stay in the middle. but it's good enough to shoot a series to glue together a nice panorama. And if you take your time, you can check and set the best alignment by rotating the ball head on the vertical axis and observing the bubble. If you do everything perfectly, the bubble will stay in the middle. but it's good enough to shoot a series to glue together a nice panorama. And if you take your time, you can check and set the best alignment by rotating the ball head on the vertical axis and observing the bubble. If you do everything perfectly, the bubble will stay in the middle.