any used stuff you find for that price is completely worn out and/or not
much good to begin with.

Same thing, I bought my tripod at Best Buy, it has a detachable mount,
so that can stay with the camera whether or not you're using the
tripod.  It is fiber.  The panning is kind of loose, but works. The
whole thing tends to tremble, so you've got to set your shot and
settings.....step away, and almost use self portrait or a cable to take
the picture in order for the tripod to be effective.  Think I paid 48
bucks for the beastie.

Harry

You definitely need a good tripod to get good sharp photos of armatures.
Often this will require a macro lens and close focusing if it is a small
armature so maybe consider a tripod that can invert the center column.

You could look at the Slik Able 300DX.  It is very stiff and you can invert
the center column so that the camera is in between the legs of the tripod
looking straight down.  This will help in your macro photos of armatures if
they are on a table. The tripod is now only $99.00 at B&H and includes a
free tripod bag.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=104984
&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

I'm quite pleased with mine.  It is quite strong and the legs can be
independently raised almost to the horizontal but it is not super quick to
set up with the wing nuts for tightening the legs but it isn't bad.  All of
the structural parts are metal and sturdy.  It does weigh 2.6KG so it isn't
super light either. It has vertical pan, tilt and turn unlike some of the
cheap tripods that only have two axes of motion.  Any of the plastic tripods
that I tried flexed way too much no matter how strong they looked and some
were nearly as expensive.  Don't throw money at something you will have to
replace soon because it disappoints you.  Buy something better than you
think you need so that as your needs expand, it will still be adequate.

You might want a remote shutter release (wired or wireless) if you don't
have one already so that you don't shake the camera when you press the
button.  You could wait for the self timer, but this gets old fast or use
the USB port but this requires a computer within 16 feet.

Consider a hotshoe level like:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=Search&A=details&Q=&sku=419395
&is=REG&addedTroughType=search
These are super convenient if you have a hard time getting the camera
looking really straight down, especially when stitching multiple photos
together and remember to cover the eyepiece if you use an autoexposure mode
when looking straight down as the XT's metering is affected by light coming
in the eyepiece.