I had two no-name tripods. The Manfrotto's a difference like night and day. By asymmetrical shape the Manfrotto can be folded flat. Furthermore, you can along cliffs it with other tripods. This reduces the space required for transport immensely. In addition, nothing falls back and forth. Furthermore, I noticed positively that the tripod is air damped. If you open a screw not slams the column down easy. As for stability, it is OK. The footprint is smaller in this stand as at a large tripod. Accordingly, it is a little shaky when it takes off fully. But this is in principle every tripod with a small footprint that.