BOSCH BT160 63 in. Aluminum Contractors' Tripod

I wanted a tripod for my Bosch GLS25 laser. I initially bought a simple camera tripod which actually worked well, but the issue was not having enough height, and the tilt/pan mechanisms that are standard on the camera tripods are another source of error when setting the elevation. Overall the camera type tripod was working fine, but I needed more height. I considered the PLS elevator tripod and this Bosch model. I ended up going Bosch because it was a little cheaper and matched the laser - in hind sight, I think the PLS would be better for the casual user who wants a sturdy tripod. One of the biggest killers for me on the Bosch tripod is that the top plate is quite large, and it blocks the plumb beam of my laser, so this defeats one of the functions of my Bosch laser. This does appear to be heavy duty and seems reasonably stable, but there are some limitations with the design which don't work for me. For the homeowner the heavy duty nature of this is overkill, and in the end it didn't perform any better for me than a less expensive tripod (other than the height). It still wiggles when you bump it like any other tripod, and when adjusting the laser, using the cranking motion to raise the elevator column, the laser sways around, so it is not rock solid smooth (nor did I think it would be realistically). The elevator works well, but setting the rotation with the top plate is just as imprecise and difficult as any other tripod. When using the thumbscrew to lock the rotation, this action caused the laser to rotate off my mark ever so slightly, so I gave up trying to tighten that down. Pros: - Spike feet tips for outdoor use are quickly converted to indoor rubber feet simply by unscrewing the integrated rubber foot. - Elevator mechanism seems sturdy and I didn't have any issues with the gears not being smooth like some others reported - Quick release levers work fine and tighten the legs securely. Tripod is large and heavy and sturdy overall. - Appears to be all metal construction, no plastic except the steps used to set the spikes I think. Cons: - One issue for me is that the three legs have nothing tying them together to the central elevator shaft. So when you extend the legs, they can be at random angles which makes it harder to make sure that the tripod is sort of close to plumb for a quick set up for indoor work. For pros this is probably ok and for outdoors I can see some advantages to this. With some practice (and with a bubble level, see next con), I'm sure the pros have no issue with this and may actually prefer it, but for me, I'd like the option to splay the legs evenly and have it pretty close to level on a flat surface. - No built in bubble level. Even the cheap camera tripod had a cheap bubble to help level the tripod. I knew this was missing from the websites description, but the descriptions of this tripod are so limited that I was hoping that maybe there was one on there. It is very difficult to get the tripod reasonably level without having this, and I'm sure the pros have a bubble level on the instrument or that they can mount, but for me, this is added cost and effort. I understand why they wouldn't put a cheap imprecise bubble on this, but anything would be better than nothing. - Rotation Plate. Very difficult to rotate the laser to a precise point. When rotating, there is just enough "stickiness" in the fitting that you have to overshoot your mark and hope the plate rebounds back the right amount to rest on your mark. Also, after fiddling with it and getting it set on the mark, as soon as I tried to lock it down with the thumbscrew, that action of tightening moves the plate rotation. I gave up and left it untightened. - Plate blocks plumb laser. The top plate is nice and big which may help stabilize large heavy lasers. But this one blocks the plumb laser point shooting downward from my Bosch laser. I realize this is supposed to be a "pro" tripod, and I knew it was going to be overkill for my use, but I thought at least it would be easy to set up with no play/slop. I think you need to get into the several hundred dollar range for something of that quality. This is a solid/rugged tripod with no bells and whistles, works fine if you have your own bubble level for plumbing it, and you don't have a plumb dot on your laser, and probably would take some abuse. Not worth it for the casual user though, this didn't perform any better than a camera tripod for indoor use.