I recently received another order from Amazon and have observed a somewhat disconcerting trend. The item I ordered was a Sony Lightweight camera tripod. It was shipped in an Amazon-labeled box that measured 12" by 18" by 24". The actual tripod container was 5" by 5" by 22". I could understand double-boxing if there was a concern over fragile merchandise. In this case that was probably unnecessary since, in typical Sony fashion, the original package was very well though out and constructed. What did surprise me is that the Sony box was placed into one corner of the larger container, thus rendering double boxing useless as far as offering additional protection. The rest of the Amazon box was stuffed with brown packing paper. I should mention that something similar to what I've described here has become the norm for Amazon shipments I and others (coworkers) have received recently. Example: a person here in the last 3 months has twice received a book-sized item in a 3-plus cubic foot cardboard box.

In this age of "green awareness" this practice should seem unacceptable, especially to a large omni-present retailer like Amazon. There is not only the obvious impact of the wasted packaging material but the added waste of transport related expenses. One could also raise questions regarding environmental issues. Amazon may not see significant concerns over shipping mostly air but a large wasteful container like this effectively reduces the number of containers a FedEx, UPS, etc. truck can deliver per load. More exhaust emissions, more fuel burned, higher related costs the consumer must bear: all of these should be of greater concern to a company known for customer support and loyalty.

Perhaps this is just a consistent habit of laziness or indifference in the various shipping departments Amazon uses? It is somewhat understandable that a shipper, pressed to expedite all products, simply has become accustomed to grabbing what ever container is lying around. After all it does take a time investment, albeit minimal, to fold and tape together the right size container. But in some situations, like this tripod order, the additional boxing was probably uncalled for.

Please take some time to consider the image you wish Amazon to project. Your customers are not ignorant. Green awareness is growing every day. It would seem your company has an opportunity to become a highly visible leader in fast, reliable environmentally friendly merchandising but only if you wish to explore it.

It's a good tripod... for the price. Somewhere better than the $20 stuff at WalMart but not quite as nice as even the lower level Manfrotto tripods - starting maybe $120 range? Specs from another site puts the weight at a more reasonable 2.65 lbs - which seems about right from my estimation. If you really believed that this was a full sized but only 1 pound tripod... well, I wouldn't put my SLR on a tripod that weighs only 1 pound. Only the legs are aluminum, the rest is plastic, albeit quality plastic.

As it is, it holds my Canon Xti with a somewhat heavy 24-70 F2.8 lens (lens ~ 2 lbs) without fear of dropping it, although it does get a little shaky when you extend up the center column. The little crank on the side is not very useful either, I usually just pull the center column up or down. It's rated for 6.61 lbs max load... and it could probably do that if the load is centered well. The little bubble level does come in useful at times.

Perfectly adequate for a point-and-shoot camera and most SLR cameras without the super heavy lenses. Good weight, reasonable quality, well priced for what it is.

Absolutely the finest compact tripod for use with Handy Cams or digital cameras! You will be pleased with your purchase of this very affordable Product from SONY. The extension and retraction of the legs works smooth and the head locking device is aggressive with out over tightening.

When I was shopping for this, one review caught my eye saying this tripod was "mostly metal." That claim, along with the light weight in the description, were the two things that sold me on the model.

Well, NEITHER ARE TRUE. This thing is indeed mostly plastic made to look like black metal. Apparently, this fooled the other reviewer, but not me. The only metal I found on the whole thing were the bars of the legs themselves, and the bar of the swivel handle. Every single other part of this thing is black plastic. All of the hinges and joints are plastic. The leg braces are plastic. The height crank is plastic (yikes!). Even the center tube is PLASTIC. Overall, it looks nice, I'll give them that; but please know that you are NOT getting a "mostly metal" tripod here. No way.

Now, that by itself wouldn't be too bad, except that you'd expect something that's nearly all plastic to be much lighter - it isn't. The part of the description that reads:

Product Dimensions: 22.3 x 5 x 4.9 inches ; 1 pounds

..is WRONG. Maybe this thing weighs 1 pound on the moon, but it's much heavier where I'll be using it, here on earth. It is, indeed, much closer to it's described shipping weight:

Shipping Weight: 4 pounds

Why the large discrepancy? Who know? Sloppiness on Amazon's part, I guess. At any rate, the weight was key for me, and there were several tripods lighter than 4 lbs which I passed up. I guess I should have trusted my instincts when they told me this was too good to be true.

Anyway, if I'm going to buy a plastic tripod, I want it to be much lighter than 4 lbs.

Great Tripod, is ideal for camcorders, but I use with my H9 DSC and works perfectly. very reliable and very light!