Tripod question

[Atreus]

i bought a manfrotto tripod from a garage sale for 50 bucks. i dont know if its a good one, but it works okay thus far....

 

[manaheim]

A good, sturdy tripod may stay with you all your life. It is a fabulous, trustworthy photographic tool. And the best Image Quality enhancer around, bar none. I still use one I got 40 years ago.
So if you might be going to be using it for such a long time it's important to get a really good one. It's worth it to pay close attention to what you're getting and even to spend a little more than maybe you had anticipated. But what's a hundred bucks over 40 years, right? Worth it 3 times over, imo.

Agreed. Just never loan your life-long tripod friend to me.

Manaheim, The Tripod Slayer
mwuahahah...

:lmao:

 

[mrodgers]

Do not judge by price alone. I have the Walmart $30 tripod and love it. It must be noted though that my camera is half the cost of what people are recommending for a tripod here.

If you judge by price, as I see too many people simply state "spend more money" or "go for a $300 one", I did look at the tripods that my (not-so)local camera store had to offer. They had a variety from $19 up through $150 and they were all flimsy junk.

For $30, how can you go wrong to try it out if you would be willing to spend so much more? I certainly wouldn't use a $1000 camera with a giant 300+ mm lens on it, but if we are talking the tiny D40 with the kit lens, I can't see any problems with the tripod at Walmart.

I wish I would have gotten a chance to show it to my wife's aunt this past weekend. She was over for the Memorial Day picnic and she has a D40 with the 2 kit lenses. I am interested in how decent it would be with a small size dSLR. But she was too busy playing baseball with the kids (she's a high school gym teacher and girls basketball coach) and I was too busy with my own camera along with all the picnic cooking.

 

[jwkwd]

.......Waiting for thread about a D40 that fell over from unstable tripod.

 

[epatsellis]

DO NOT buy a tripod that doesn't have the words 'Manfrotto' or 'Bogen' printed on it.

But neither of my Gitzo's say either, nor do my D&S Prolifts with the majestic heads, or my tiltalls.....

then again, Bogen/Manfrotto only make a few tripods that will support my favorite camera:

erie

 

[Mystwalker]

Epatsellis - what is that monster?
Do not think a camera counts unless you can hand-hold it.

Unless proportion of camera is way distorted compared to your AC vent, I doubt I can even lift your camera.

Best answer I've seen about "cheap tripod" is that to go ahead and buy the $30 one. You can't lose and if you do not like it - $30 isn't too bad a loss.

 

[epatsellis]

Epatsellis - what is that monster?
Do not think a camera counts unless you can hand-hold it.

Unless proportion of camera is way distorted compared to your AC vent, I doubt I can even lift your camera.

Best answer I've seen about "cheap tripod" is that to go ahead and buy the $30 one. You can't lose and if you do not like it - $30 isn't too bad a loss.

It's not a monster, it's a Sinar 8x10P view camera, it's not all that bad, weighs probably 18# or so. Now this is a monster:

a self built 20x24 camera, that's a different 8x10 camera next to it for size comparison.


erie

 

[caspertodd]

If you do buy it at Walmart and don't like it...then, it is Walmart, and you can take it back.