I was wondering if any of you guys could give me advice on a camera tripod. The one I have is old and well, a piece of crap. It's held together with J-B Weld, lacks the features I want, but worst of all, can't hold the camera steady.

So here's my criteria:

• Durable, but fairly lightweight
• Must be able to tilt the camera 90 degrees and be able to pan up and down...at the very least.
• Detachable release plate.
• $50 is the limit...I can go a little over but I'd prefer not too...on a budget.

Now, I'm gonna have to take a trip to the camera store and play with some to see how the features work...because I don't know exactly how a 90 vertical platform works...for example. However, I have an idea how it works. I was just wondering if anyone had any opinions on brand or head type. Just browsing, I found these that looked like they might fit the bill:

Giottos VT-808 3-Section Tripod with 3 Way Pan/Tilt Head & Quick Release

Dolica STC-100 63-Inch Tripod with 68-Inch Ball Head Tripod Kit

Dolica AX620B100 62-Inch Proline Tripod and Ball Head

Dolica AX680P104 68-Inch Proline Tripod and Pan Head

If any of you are familiar with these head types and tripods please let me know what you think would be best...or if there is a brand preference, or advice or whatever. I want to get one for next week if possible. Thanks!

I have three tripods... One cheap one, one Bogen and one Manfrotto. I would go Manfrotto I think they have the best tripods.

I heard about them as well, although I haven't checked any out yet, I shall look into it, thanks!

Hmm...I think Manfrotto are out of my price bracket. The ones they have in my range are iffy compared to others.

*Insert obvious penis-related joke here*

This one looks promising...

Velbon DF-60 Dual Function Light Weight Tripod

My advice is don't buy a two legged tripod. :AH-HA_wink:

My advice is don't buy a two legged tripod. :AH-HA_wink:

Thank you captain obvious.

There is one I like that is a tripod and a mono pod, but it's out of my price range for now.

The other thing you can do is buy used... try bhphotovideo out of NY, NY they always ship timely and are fair.

http://combatoptical.com/catalog/SKS-BAYON...UM-BIPOD-7.html

here is a nice bipod for a classic soviet sks made out of.... oh TRIpods for a camera.... sorry i know nothing about those.

For $50 that Velbon will probably do the trick. I had a velbon sherpa tripod for a while that was decent but I upgraded when I got more expensive glass.

I have one from Targus. It's alright. It was $80 though.

For $50 that Velbon will probably do the trick. I had a velbon sherpa tripod for a while that was decent but I upgraded when I got more expensive glass.

Yes it's looking like a good choice to me as well. There is one other that looked appealing:

Calumet 7100 Tripod with Three-way Quick Release Head

At this point I think it's a choice between this and the Velbon.