I can only relate my mistake ... bought one at Best Buy for about $100 and
hate the damned thing.  Next time, I'll bite the bullet and spend the extra
money and hopefully get something useful.

I will only buy a ball head the next time, by the way.

I just picked up a Velbon El Carmagne 530 and I love it...Around $259
on-line...I had been using a REAL OLD Velbon aluminum that clanked,
weighed more and would suck all the heat from your body in the winter
months AND had an annoying bounce/vibration issue and would sometimes
take minutes to stabilize.  The carbon/magnesium make-up of the new one
has eliminated the cold weather issue, stabilizes much faster and is
whisper quiet.  I took my camera and heaviest lens (Bigma 50-500mm)to
camera store to test tripods and this is the choice I came up with.

Manfrotto 190 series with a medium ball head or 410 geared head makes a
nice, basic kit.  Basic meaning usefully so.

The Bogen numbers can usually be found on the B&H site.

I have a Manfrotto 3021BPRO tripod, and a Manfrotto 804RC2 head.  It is very
high quality, resonably priced (for a professional solution).  It's a little
on the heavy side, but that helps in keeping it steady.  I use it with a
Nikon D200 (heavy camera).

Bill Crocker

I just bought a Slik Pro 500DX ($200 CDN), and have been -very- pleased
with it so far. I bought it to replace my cheap Giottos tripod ($60
CDN). I was primarily unhappy with its inability to hold my camera in a
proper vertical orientation - it would always tilt about 10 degrees. I
also didn't like the "play" in the head -- I'd have to aim -above- my
target because I knew as soon as I let go it would tip downwards a bit.

The Slik is available with and without a pan-and-tilt head (it works
out to $150 CDN for the legs and $50 CDN for the head). I considered a
ball head, but came to the conclusion that a good pan-and-tilt head was
a better choice than a cheap ballhead, and a good ballhead was out of
my budget.

There is also a 400DX (slightly smaller and slightly cheaper) and a
700DX (slightly larger, slightly more expensive).

Something to pay attention to is the leg locks. Some tripods have
little levers/switches that lock the extensions in place; others
require you to turn a screw. The quick-lock levers are more convenient
and faster...for me, they were a required feature (there was at least
one tripod that I rejected simply because I didn't like the leg locks).

I'd recommend getting yourself into a camera shop and actually playing
with the tripods for a while. Take your camera with you, put it on the
tripod, take a few pictures. Collapse the tripod, pick it up to get a
feel for the weight, set it back up again, try it at different heights.
(And then, please, if you like the tripod, -buy- it at that shop. Don't
go and order online to save $10 after the nice camera store people have
let you take their tripod for a test drive.)

(If you want more information about the tripod I bought, let me know -
I could probably go into great detail about what I like and don't like
about it.)

- Darryl

A cheap tripod is worse than no tripod.  Manfrotto or Gitzo,  or maybe
a high end Slik. Leave the others on the shelf.  Cheap tripods won't
hold your camera steady, which is what you want it to do.  If you are
outdoors it has to be sturdy enough to work in a wind and have feet
that won't slip on a variety of surfaces.  It also has to be light
enough to carry.

for still cameras, I recommend a head which does not have the pan arm
sticking out.  A ball head, offset ball or some variation on the theme
with small controls.  I find the pan arm tries to give me a tracheotomy
ever time I try to get near the camera.

Good luck.

I suggest you read this article first:

<http://www.bythom.com/support.htm>

I have a friend who read that, gulped, rented a high end tripod for a
weekend, and then plunked down $1k to buy a high end tripod and head.
She's very VERY happy with her decision and won't have to think about
buying another tripod for many many years.

jc

Of the reasons I might think of for replacing a tripod, "out of date"
and "very old" do not figure.  What kind is it?  Is it sturdy enough to
support the camera adequately while at the same time, light enough to
carry?  Is it something that could be refurbished at a lesser cost than
buying an all new one?  Can it be upgraded, perhaps by purchasing a hew
head?

Sometimes new is not better.  I just bought a "new" phone; point of
purchase was a second hand store, and I bought it because it is actually
first Western Electric manufactured touch tone phones.  Since this was
manufactured in the days when the phone company owned the phone, and
replacing a set was an expense item in AT&T's budget, rather than a
profit center, those phones were built to last.  I've the same attitude
about a tripod.  And old unit may be preferable to the new ones, and my
be worth refurbishing instead of replacing.

ns