Thanks very much to all who took the time to address my relatively trivial problem; it's greatly appreciated.

I'll be Googling it; thanks much for your reply.

Neewer is a good and popular brand of equipment, moderately priced. I'll be careful, whatever I end up doing and/or using to fix the problem; I just want to be able to press the button and adjust the leg angle with one hand instead of two. Thanks very much for your reply.

Thanks, I will do that.

That would be a last resort; I knew straight off that I could and would get a straight and accurate answer right here on UHH. Thanks much for your reply.

I should have mentioned that in the first place, that the buttons are plastic, because that was what I'd had in mind when I made the original post: would the petroleum-based WD-40 have an effect on plastic. Admittedly, I didn't think of silicone, but I will now, along with checking into the several other lubes referred to by the other members who made posts. Thanks!

I just unboxed a nice Neewer tripod specifically for its ability to set up super-low to the ground and can also set up for overhead shooting. Each leg has a detente button which allows the leg to be adjusted through various angles, up to the aforementioned one where the camera is less than a foot from the ground and can be pointed upward via a very good ball head. My problem is that those detente buttons are stiff, very difficult for my arthritic fingers to handle. Would I be doing any damage if I were to give those 3 buttons a dose of WD-40? I'm guessing it would probably be all right as long as I don't drench them (which I wouldn't do anyway), but I have a lot of R & A for the knowledge and experience of the folks on this forum.

Great shot! Everything lined up and went perfect. Except for that blankety-blank warbly-voiced, pseudo-soulful female pop singer assaulting the National Anthem...

That was one huge collection of automotive muscle! And since Admin hasn't actually moved your post into the video section, it' s apparently fine where it is. As for the noise level, holy smokes, that must have been unbelievably loud. I can't imagine what even higher engine revs would have sounded like.

Coolhandluke,
Thanks much for your reply; I did indeed have fun with my GoPro, but it's obvious that you're light years ahead of me on the subject of video. There isn't much, if anything, that I could say on the subject that you don't already know. I' m not being snarky or derogatory, not in the least; after reading your reply I realized that for you, the GoPro was a means to a specific end, i.e., when making your in-flight videos. I for one would enjoy seeing videos made with your superlative Nikon equipment. I'll be periodically checking UHH's video section in case you decide to post anything there, whether it's Nikon or GoPro.

I discovered them back in '16; didn't take to them at first because they seemed to be intended mostly for action-oriented users, as the many incredible video clips displayed: surfers shooting the curl, hang-gliders and sky divers in flight, cars racing along with the tiny camera somehow attached and riding 6 inches from the pavement, etc. And that's not to mention skiers and especially snowboarders (who evidently lead charmed lives!).

It wasn't long before I discovered the more sedate (yet just as enjoyable) side to these little jewels and got one of my own, a Hero 5 Black. I used it to make short (10 to 30-second) clips of our little Chihuahua patrolling the yard, as an example. I have to say, though, that what I was most drawn to at the beginning was Time Lapse; I made a fair number of them, including what was for me a sizeable project: The total solar eclipse of August 2017 (I lived in the 68-mile-wide totality zone).

I had the GoPro 5 set up on a tripod at the foot of my driveway, hooked up to an external power source and was able to make a bit more than 1800 individual photos which I used to make a 43-second video of the more-than-2-hour event. The GoPro's super-wide angle lens gave the video a view of my whole house and a full, unrestricted view of the southern sky behind it which allowed the entire eclipse to be captured.

As to having a UHH section devoted to them, there's already a section dedicated to video, and I've posted one or two items there. GoPro cameras are primarily action cameras and they're by no means the only one of that kind. If a section was created for UHH, it should be properly ID'd as such, with action-type footage posted (i.e., all that stuff previously mentioned and the many other stunts action enthusiasts are quite capable of thinking of).

I'll readily admit that my video efforts with GoPro (I stopped with a Hero 8 Black) were and still are fun to make and the equipment itself is easy and convenient to use, but not hardly artistic or memorable, certainly not for posting to a UHH action camera section. That would be for the guy who straps a GoPro (or one of the other many brands available) to his helmet, sets it to recording video and then dives headfirst off a 500-foot-drop bridge with 400 feet of bungee cord tied to his ankles.

As an aside to OP coolhandluke, I'd be happy to let you know via personal message about the various items I've added over these past few years to make my casual video shooting with these neat little cameras go easier and with good finished products.

Let's see; there's Sleazy, Grumpty, Smirkey, Dog, Alice, Derek and Wimpy. Oh, wait, that's what John Lennon renamed them...

My '73 Nova was $2650; it was a 2-door, with 350 V8, Muncie 3-speed-on-the-floor trans, baby moon hubcaps and an AM radio. And nothing else, not even rubber floormats. But it'd go like a striped-assed Ape...

Hugh Laurie as Dr. House is particularly good.

I was thinking it might have been Webb Pierce, who passed on in '91; he had one of Mr. Cohn' s customized cars (and something like 50 of his equally-famous suits!), though I'd long forgotten what make of car it was. When I googled it, I learned it was a '62 Pontiac Bonneville, tricked out similar-but-not-identical to Roy Rogers' '63 model; it did have the steer horns on the front bumper, the pistols and silver dollar decorations, etc., and I believe there was a rifle mounted on the trunk lid. Mr. Pierce reportedly paid $20,000 bucks for the customization; wonder how much that is in today's dollars?