thedantay said:
I've been looking for tripods for the past few months. But I don't know which one would be best for my price range. My current one is really cheap and blew over in the wind causing me to split my Tamron 17-50 2.8 lens up the side. Sad but need to move on.
Any suggestions?
Edcutate yourself more before jumping in, so you know the pros and cons of tripods. It will be difficult to find any pro quality tripods with a decent head in that price range. They are probably OK for light cameras and smaller lenses, but not for telephoto. You may be able to find one you think you like, but you will sooner or later want something better when you find out that you can't match those sharp telephoto images you see posted. A tripod needs to be very stable in order to eliminate vibration blur, and the head needs to hold your camera / lens locked tightly. There are some tricks to helping reducing vibration, like putting your over the top of the lens directly over the tripod foot to help damp out vibrations. Even with my expensive Wimberly Head and heavy duty tripod, it made a huge difference with a 600mm L (non-IS) to do this.
I started with what I thought was a pretty good Manfroto tripod and ball head that I picked up used for about $100. However, with lenses like my Canon 400mm f/5.6 L or Tamron 200-500, I had to keep the shutter speed to 1/1000 to avoid motion blur. So, eventually, I bit the bullet and upgraded to a higher end setup. Along the way, I probably spent $500 on equipment that could not do the job. I was able to resell most of it, but lost a lot of $$.
Be sure to get a Tripod with a underhook or other way of hanging weight underneath it. Ten pounds can do wonders to stabilize a tripod as long as it can handle the weight. However, even with a relatively modest lens like the 400mm f/5.6, will have too much movement to handle slow shutter speeds with a low cost tripod / head. Never extend the center column, get a tripod tall enough to use without extending the center column. A good set of tripod legs can easily run $500 - 700 and lots more, and the head another $500. If you want to support a big super telephoto properly, the price goes way up.
I'd look at used tripods with good heads on ebay or somewhere like that. You can get a lot more for your $200 on the used market, and if you decide to upgrade later, you won't lose a ton of money. There are also some Chinese models that are heavy and stable for a lot less money.
Stability testing:
http://regex.info/blog/2007-09-20/578
http://regex.info/blog/2007-09-18/576
http://regex.info/blog/2007-09-21/579
For those seriously wanting the best quality with their expensive rigs:
http://www.bythom.com/support.htm