Tripod for a poor guy?

engstrom0304 said:
Hey guys..

just blew all my cash on a canon 550d with 2 lenses...

What would be a decent enough tripod for as little as possible?

Thanks
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Before you go and buy a cheap tripod, stop and ask yourself what you actually want it for. My high quality supports include two tripods, 4 heads three monopods and a Gorrilla but more often than not, I'll wedge the camera against a tree, building, car or railing because is is less to carry.

Consider a gorrilla, a bean bag and a monopod before you splash out on a tripod. They are a lot of faff to cart around.

The most solid tripod is a 1/4 inch 20 thread per inch screw embedded in araldite in a conveniently located mountain :-)

Andrew
 
I had a cheap tripod, it was resitricting as the legs werent independent of each other, the 3 way head was plast/metal construction and didnt feel like it was that stable. Another point it a mate dropped his cheap one adn the head broke. I dont use my tripod much, however it cost nearly £250 (with a good head) which is still relatively cheap and i have never once wanted to replace it. its now around 3 years old and going strong. My cheapo one was on £40 and i stopped using it after about 6 months.
 
I bought a Giottos 9351B Tripod from Jessops a few months ago, knocked down from £99 to £35, so proper bargain, but you'll need a head on top of that, most people over on TP seem to recommend the Manfrotto 234RC, think it can be found online for around 40-50

Don't think you will get better value than that tbh,
 
The Hama Star tripod range are SUPER cheap and half decent considering the cost. A friend bought one and i was very sceptical until I saw it. Also comes with a free case!
 
I've seen 2 types of Gorillapods online, seems one is for standard digital cameras and the other is for SLRs. Are they actually different? Going by the pictures they look the same, but I assume the SLR version is built more sturdier?
 
theheyes said:
Don't buy a cheap tripod, it's just false economy. Keep saving.
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Pretty much, my tripod is 10 years old, it is the oldest single piece of equipment that i have that does not need replacing.

That said, what are you trying to take photographs of, use a bit of imagination and think on your feet you can take most static shots without one.

These are all taken while I am on location without a tripod. (most are rested on a chair with my memory card holder under the lens)









 
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