I photograph food, real estate and news. The tripod needed to be fairly tall, fully extended it can reach over 7' tall. It needed to be able to do full 90º to shoot from the top for food and product photography, it does that very well with the extender boom arm. It also needed to be very stable and not move at all while adjusting the camera for HDR photography while doing real estate. It is very solid. It needed to be tall enough to see over objects and barriers as I also do news photography and sometimes nature as well. It is a very tall tripod. It isn't very heavy either. Overall I am very pleased with this tripod. It did come with a carrying bag, but I pretty much discarded it and don't use it. The bag does seem to be weatherproof, and made of some thick vinyl type material. But I am a believer that my photography gear should work in all kinds of weather. The other main reason for choosing this tripod is I had a hard time replacing parts for my previous tripod. I lost a foot on this tripod already. I was able to replace the foot and the company had a selection of options. I am very pleased with this one.