Solid but affordable Tripod

Luke345678 · Oct 17, 2016

Hello there,

Hope every one is doing well today. As some of you may know I shoot Varsity Sports throughout North Carolina which I absolutely love doing. I never have a lot going on during the weekends so I picked up a well paying hourly job shooting team and individual photos. It's been great money and I plan to continue it whenever I have time on the weekends. Unfortunately, my old trusty tripod gave up on me the other day and it's time for me to pick up a new one. I'd like to spend under $100 since my main job does not require a tripod whatsoever.

I'm sure I can get something nice for that price. When I do these team photos I shoot with a flash bracket if that means anything. I'd like the tripod to be SOMEWHAT light.

You all are the best,

Luke

tirediron · Oct 18, 2016

There are three aspects to consider in a tripod purchase: Weight, price and quality. Unfortunately, you are only ever able to get two in any one purchase, that is: You can get cheap and light, but it won't be good quality. You can get a good quality, light tripod, but it will NOT be cheap. You're using this in a professional capacity to support [I assume] professional gear. Does it really make sense to cheap out? There's nothing quite like that "Oh s**t" feeling as you watch a few thousand dollars worth of camera & lens dive to the ground from atop a cheap tripod.

Assuming you live in/near/around a major center, look at Craig's List or other similar, local 'sites. Tripods are an excellent deal used, and you can often get good ones for as little as fifty cents on the dollar. I would expect to pay north of $250 for an okay (NOT "good", just "okay") set of legs and ball head new, or $100 - 150 used. Look for names like Manfrotto, Giottos, and Benro.

Didereaux · Oct 18, 2016

You are simply NOT going to get even a barely adequate tripod fro ~$100. Maybe on a really lucky day you moght find a used good one in that range somewhere...got lots of time? NO, the just usable will fall in the $200-300 range. Do a search on the big camera sites B-H, Adorama and limit the search on that price range. Then read the reviews.

Luke345678 · Oct 18, 2016

tirediron said:
There are three aspects to consider in a tripod purchase: Weight, price and quality. Unfortunately, you are only ever able to get two in any one purchase, that is: You can get cheap and light, but it won't be good quality. You can get a good quality, light tripod, but it will NOT be cheap. You're using this in a professional capacity to support [I assume] professional gear. Does it really make sense to cheap out? There's nothing quite like that "Oh s**t" feeling as you watch a few thousand dollars worth of camera & lens dive to the ground from atop a cheap tripod.

Assuming you live in/near/around a major center, look at Craig's List or other similar, local 'sites. Tripods are an excellent deal used, and you can often get good ones for as little as fifty cents on the dollar. I would expect to pay north of $250 for an okay (NOT "good", just "okay") set of legs and ball head new, or $100 - 150 used. Look for names like Manfrotto, Giottos, and Benro.

Buddy of mine sent me this off B&H. Good reviews and looks solid. Your thoughts?

Manfrotto MK290XTA3-3WUS 290 Xtra Aluminum Tripod MK290XTA3-3WUS

Designer · Oct 18, 2016

Luke345678 said:
Good reviews and looks solid. Your thoughts?

Well, no offense, but "looks solid" is rather subjective. Looks solid relative to what? If you are adamant on a light weight tripod, then this should work. My medium-weight tripod looks more solid than that one. No offense.

robbins.photo · Oct 18, 2016

Solid is more or less in the eye of the beholder. I have a very solid tripod I got for less than $100 from Amazon. Thing is a tank. But it is most certainly not lightweight. It weighs a ton.

As Tirediron mentioned, you can get two of the three, but never all three together. If you want cheap and sturdy, it's going to weigh a ton. If you want lightweight and sturdy, it's going to cost an arm and a leg. Anything else will be lightweight, but not so sturdy, etc...

table1349 · Oct 18, 2016

Up your budget and get a solid tripod that will stand the test of time and weight. Nothing says professional like having a flimsy get by tripod give up on you while doing a shoot. If the head from your old tripod is good then I would suggest you look at something like this.
Manfrotto MT055XPRO3 Aluminum Tripod MT055XPRO3 B&H Photo Video

If not then look for a package with those legs.

tirediron · Oct 18, 2016

With an <9 max capacity, that's a bit on the light side. At a minimum your tripod & head should be rated for twice the weight of the heaviest gear you will put on them. This is what I would start with: 190 Pro 3

astroNikon · Oct 18, 2016

for low budgets eBay is good. Though you may have to wait to find something you are looking for.
I got off of eBay
1 - a Slik Professional Tripod with a heavy duty direct attach 3 way head.
2 - a Slik 500DX tripod with their best professional ball head.
3 - a Slik carbon fiber monopod with a slippery head. I sold off the head for 1/2 of the monopod price.

Each of those was for under $100. I got lucky. #1 was a BIN estate sale.
I use all of them a lot. The Pro one I've had a 5 inch telescope tube on with attached DSLR without a problem. They originally sold for $1,000. A lot of the old aluminum tripods you can get for cheap, but they are not that light and are very bulky.

sparelink · Oct 18, 2016

I have been really happy with my vanguard Alta pro.

petrochemist · Oct 18, 2016

tirediron said:
There are three aspects to consider in a tripod purchase: Weight, price and quality. Unfortunately, you are only ever able to get two in any one purchase, that is: You can get cheap and light, but it won't be good quality. You can get a good quality, light tripod, but it will NOT be cheap.

Agree 100% on this.
I picked up a VERY sturdy Manfrotto 058b for ~$100 a few years back (they sell for £400 new). It will reach over 2m without using the central column and remains steady with silly lenses (even a 4000mm equivalent) but it's certainly not light at 13lbs without a head.
It probably only sold for that, as it's weight made it impractical to post

DarkShadow · Oct 18, 2016

I got a Benro TMA28AB2 series two Mach3 3o.9 lb capacity, One leg unscrews for a monopod. It's well made for $260.00 I love it.Benro TMA28AB2 Series 2 Mach3 Aluminum Tripod with B2 TMA28AB2

chuasam · Oct 19, 2016

Sturdy/Lightweight/Affordable
you get to pick only 2

table1349 · Oct 19, 2016

Luke345678 said:
Hello there,

Hope every one is doing well today. As some of you may know I shoot Varsity Sports throughout North Carolina which I absolutely love doing. I never have a lot going on during the weekends so I picked up a well paying hourly job shooting team and individual photos. It's been great money and I plan to continue it whenever I have time on the weekends. Unfortunately, my old trusty tripod gave up on me the other day and it's time for me to pick up a new one. I'd like to spend under $100 since my main job does not require a tripod whatsoever.

I'm sure I can get something nice for that price. When I do these team photos I shoot with a flash bracket if that means anything. I'd like the tripod to be SOMEWHAT light.

You all are the best,

Luke

Being one of the rarer fairly new posters that actually put down you location I am going to suggest that you go to a real old fashion brick and mortar photography store and see what they have in used. You can get excellent deals on used tripods and actually get to look and play with them before buying. Much better than an e-bay description. Like petrochemist I picked up a used Manfrotto tripod that was the predecessor to the Manfrotto 161MK2B. for $200.00. It is a heavy duty studio tripod that will go as high as 8 feet without the center column being raised and is extremely stable. It is far to heavy for general field use. The point is you can get good quality tripods cheaply if you just look around.

fmw · Oct 27, 2016

As mentioned above-light, sturdy, cheap. Pick any two. If you want cheap, then find something that has 3 leg sections instead of 4 and weighs as much as you can tolerate. It will make a difference. I gave up on affordable light carbon
fiber tripods. They aren't sturdy. Sturdy ones cost well over $500.

I continue to use a 30 year old aluminum Bogen tripod with a modern Tiltall ball head. It weighs a couple of pounds more but is stable. Stability is the whole point in using a tripod. So when you pick two from the list above be sure sturdy is one of the choices.