INNOREL GT284C Carbon Fiber Tripod - Professional Compact & Portable DSLR Camera Stand with 29mm Tube, 44lbs Max Load - Perfect for Travel, Outdoor Photography & Heavy Duty Shooting

Wow!I replaced my old Canon SX40hs bridge camera with a Panasonic Lumix FZ2500. Along with a new camera, I've re-outfitted everything. I'm just an amateur. I photograph landscapes and I shoot super macros. I've been an astronomer for over 30 years and I want to shoot wide angle night skies. I started out with a 35mm Canon camera and many lenses, years and years ago, but I found that a bridge camera does the photography that I want to do. I don't want to carry a lot of lenses, but I shoot in manual mode.I have an old Manfrotto Bogen Tripod with ball head. It's a great tripod, but it weighs a ton. I need to be mobile to go to dark sky sites. I need a sturdy, but lightweight tripod. I also prefer a fluid pan/tilt head.I initially bought a Neewer carbon fiber tripod, which was a nice Tripod. I paired it with a Innorel F20 fluid pan tilt head. I bought this particular head because it tilts a full +/- 90° instead of being limited to 60 or 70°. This is a wonderfully smooth compact head. I liked it so much I bought a second one to use on my tabletop Tripod.When I took my tabletop Tripod out (recently bought), I found out that it's an Innorel. It's a wonderful, very sturdy Tripod. My old tabletop tripod wasn't sturdy enough for the Lumix fz2500, which weighs more than 2 pounds. The Innorel is more than sturdy enough.After buying the 2 Innorel pan heads and tabletop Tripod, I decided to send the Neewer tripod back and buy an Innorel. The Innorel tripod legs are more than 50% larger in diameter than the Neewer. I don't need the full height, nor do I need the 50 pound capacity. The Neewer had 1/2 of this capacity. I was concerned about tripping on the tripod at night so I have a camera weight bag with 2 kg of pea gravel, to hang on the bottom of center post to steady the tripod and dampen any vibration.The Innorel is substantially more stable than the Neewer tripod. When I leaned on the Neewer, the legs flexed; the Innorel does not. Although I will still use the counterweight on the Innorel tripod, it's not an absolute necessity. The tripod is as solid as a rock, with no vibration whatsoever. It's easy to setup in the dark. I bought the tripod with no head, paring it with the Innorel F20.The Innorel carbon fiber tripod, being 50% heftier than the carbon fiber Neewer tripod, weighs in at only 4 pounds; the Neewer weighed 3.5 pounds. The additional 8 ounces is negligible. When you compare it to my old Manfrotto, which weighed in at over 15 pounds, I've gladly shed that extra 11 pounds.The Innorel tripod is extremely sturdy with an exceptional weight capacity for its size. Equipped with a built-in counterweight hook on the center pole, it comes with an additional hook and 4 Allen wrenches and spikes. It's easy to set up in the dark.It has a lot of bang for the price. I'll take photos to post.