Avenger Light Stand (Black, 12.6')

This stand is big and sturdy, and when you use it, you really appreciate those facts. The sections are large diameter. The knobs (my favorite part) are large, easy to grip, and tighten smoothly. I've put some heavy loads on this stand. Even though it is big, it is somehow very light. After using this stand, it makes me sad to have to use the little compact folding light stands with the tiny knobs that are hard to tighten.

Used for studio lights as you might guess. They replace some old, very light-duty stands on the job. These Avengers are much more stable than the old set.

This is a big stand. No two ways about it. I don't use the full height very often, but the base is wide enough that I can confidently use it indoors with hot shoe flash setups and medium-sized modifiers without bothering to bring sandbags, lightening my load considerably. There's no substitute for a ton of weight to secure a stand, so I still use weights when setting up a seamless, boom, big modifier, or studio strobe. And yes, it handles all of that with no trouble. I now own three of these, and on the first one, I made the mistake of tightening down one of the column locks hard enough to dent the pole. It still works well, but binds when raising and lowering the the bottom section. In hindsight, the locks work well enough that surprisingly little force is required when setting them.

These brackets are currently holding up 3x 9ft rolls of seamless paper (18lb apiece) on the wall behind me. They're fairly easy to install and quite sturdy. Only 4x #12 bolts and anchors are included in the factory package, which is probably enough, but there are 6 extra holes on each side. I added 6x #8 bolts and anchors to each, just for good measure. If those bolts came with it, I'd have no reservations about a 5-star rating.