Found a tripod in the loft!

[DB_SamX]

This is very much a "Thanks for the info" thread, but I was doing some tidying and when to the loft, when I found a tripod for cameras and camcorders! I then remembered my dad had bought some old stuff for a few £ from his office when they were relocating and throwing things away. It is a Bilora tripod with fluid effect video head. It looks like it has had years of use but still appears to hold up pretty well. Anyone know if these are/were any good?

Considereing I bought a D40 only 5 days ago with the aim to start taking more than just p&s photos, this is a fantastic find. Or should I not get too excited?

Pics below: (I do know they are blurry but I was in a rush at the time and I don't think I've got the hang of the manual focus yet):





There are a couple of things I can't seem to do:
First pic shows the bubble level, and a lever next to it. I thought that lever might be to adjust the level so that the bubble is centred but it doesn't apear to do so. Any ideas on what it may do, and is there likely some way to finetune the head (?) so make it perfectly level (other than messing with the legs)?

 

[sunlitsix]

i would say its a fantastic find, i also use my dad's old camera tripod.
its at least 10-15+ years old, and i dont even know the name of it but my 400D fits fine and it does the job well.

 

[Tysonator]

I used until recently a tripod i purchased at a boot fair over 15 years ago and is been solid build. So who knows how old it was when I purchased it !
it is a REVUE Tripod EX-3B

I purchased a SLICK tripod at Xmas which is solid flexible and importantly light for carrying around

 

[neil_g]

i spotted a decent looking tripod for £10 at a carboot a couple weekends back but for some odd reason i didnt purchase. im kicking myself now.

out of interest why are you manual focusing?

 

[DB_SamX]

Dunno. Was still having a play and not worked out the best way to take certain photos. In fact, I've not even managed to have time to sit down and read the manual in detail yet. Why?

Have yet to use the tripod...it's quite heavy but I haven't actually handled a modern one to see how it compares.