"budget" tripod or spend 100$ on one?

[kundalini]

Now now you people let him alone. All of us found out buying our cheap tripods that you get what you pay for. Why should he save the $200+ we all spent on multiple cheap tripods before we realised what was good.

In a mentoring aspect (you guys, not me) you should help prevent someone from making the same mistakes you did.

I had an old cheapo and when I got my dSLR and the rest of the gear, said old cheapo failed miserably. After a lot of searching, I wound up with the Bogen 055X PRO legs and 488RC4 ball head. No regrets, but look at $280.