Of course, when I test them out on a perfectly flat surface of the store, tripod that is like $30 seems good. like.. it seems perfect but everyone is telling me that I should invest more money to get out of it. how do i test them out at store?
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If everyone is telling you not to waste your money on a $30 tripod it's with good reason.
As far as what you can do at the store, there is little you can do aside from the basics people have already mentioned. Extend it all the way, hold them folded, see how close to the ground you can get the camera, how high up you can get it, how stable it is with a little jarring, if the legs flex too much or don't seem like they're sturdy, how fluid is the adjustments, how easy it is to reposition the camera and get it steady, etc, etc.
I did just that. I was at the store and I looked at $50, $75, $125, $175 tripods. All were garbage and the legs flexed like crazy.I used to have a $45 hand me down tripod from my parents. That thing was the worst. It'd shake from just a slight breeze, even when it wasn't fully extended. I dropped just under $100 for another tripod, it's pretty solid and hasn't given me any shakes yet.
I did just that. I was at the store and I looked at $50, $75, $125, $175 tripods. All were garbage and the legs flexed like crazy.
I took the $30 job out of the box at Walmart and it was 100 times the tripod the $175 one at Ritz was (Ritz is my only local camera store).
Of course, I'm only using a superzoom on that $30 tripod, but I just wanted to use this as an example that you can't judge on price alone. Those others at up to $175 were truely junk.
I certainly don't look like I have money to spend after work. I walked in with hydrolic oil stains saturated on my ripped t-shirt and filthy jeans and grease and oil stained over my arms. No one talked to me. The tripods are all sitting out on a shelf display. I just took them all down and extended them all to look at them.Note you went to Ritz camera. All they want to do there is sell you something. If you walk in somewhat nicely dressed they will think you have money to spend. Ask about the expensive stuff they will ask if you want to buy it, I pretended to want to buy a D3, 14-24mm 24-70mm and u could see the guy thinking (cha-ching!/commission).
If you haven't already, check out this thread: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...photo-gallery/150821-whats-decent-tripod.html