I am finally getting a new tripod. After a year or so of waiting, I just took the plunge. I had been using our old plastic Velbon tripod, but that was just not cutting it. Even the quick release was all plastic. Everytime I put my 10D on that thing there was a good possibility that it could easily tip over or the release would give. I will still use it as a light-weight alternative for our small video camera and the point-and-shoot.

After much deliberation, I decided to go with Bogen/Manfrotto 3001B Pro tripod legs and a Bogen/Manfrotto 486RC2 ball head. It’s labeled as a lightweight professional tripod, mostly made of Aluminum and can handle 11 lbs. I have never used a ball head before, but have read many good things about them, so I’m just gonna try it out. The main difference from more traditional tripod heads is that instead of adjusting three different levers for horizontal, vertical and panning, there is only one lever to adjust the ball that moves in all three directions at once.

There are so many tripod options out there, of course the crazy ones that cost a ton of money. You can go pretty crazy with all the choices. For one second, I thought of getting carbon fiber, which are more rigid and weigh about 20 percent less than normal tripods. But considering they are at least double, sometimes triple, the price, I said forget it. This combo cost arout $200 at B&H.

Here is a good piece on tripods: http://www.photo.net/equipment/tripods/