I shopped for quite a while for a trekking pole that would double as a mono-pod. I chose these because they are from a USA based company. From an Amazon fine print "All products are designed and manufactured in the US with US made and imported components. Final assembly is done in Portsmouth, NH." (Kind of like everything else.) As an American worker "Made in America is important" assembled in the USA is a close second.
The poles are very lightweight and thin. They seem quite sturdy but I would hesitate to put a lot of weight on them for support. I'm old school and still equate strength and sturdiness with some heft and density so take my thoughts as merely an opinion. I'm not going to try and bend the poles to test the strength.
The threaded stud for the camera doesn't inspire confidence for me. It feels like it was added as an afterthought and selling point. The **** appears to be aluminum and that metal won't take repeated changing of cameras and ball heads with steel inserts before the threads start to deform. There is a looseness of the studs themselves which makes me want to keep tightening the head down but that won't solve the problem, the stud itself is loose in the top of the pole. I'm not at all comfortable putting an expensive camera on a mount that wiggles around. I have no idea when that wiggle would become a separation from the pole and my camera along for the ride if I don't have it tethered to a wrist strap of it's own.
My wife likes the poles so they won't go to waste. I'll hand them off to her. I'm still not sure what I'll do for a mono-pod but it seems like I'll be back to shopping.
