[OM] Re: Which tripod should I get ?

[Jeff Keller]

I've bought some inexpensive things from this same seller. In general the 
quality has appeared to be quite good though not top of the line.

I got a couple light stands which look very nice. They were stiff to operate 
at first but loosen up after operating them a half dozen times. The paint 
looks quite nice but I suspect won't hold up to the banging around it will 
receive. The moving parts are held together with screws and self locking 
nuts. If anything other than the plastic release levers goes wrong it should 
be easy to fix. The stands cost $0.99 plus about $12.50 to ship.

I also got a Stroboframe 350(?) clone. It had a couple marks on the satin 
black paint from rubbing against something. The cold shoe can be removed 
allowing a 1/4 x 20 threaded screw to be used to attach a flash. I didn't 
see anything that looked like it could fail and cause me to throw it away. 
Not qute the bargain that the light stands were but about a third the price 
of the stroboframe they and others seem to have copied.

-jeff

----Original Message Follows----
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>

I risked a $10 bid on a smaller Bogen QR plate compatible ball head from
a much different seller.  I knew it was cheap and I got what I figured.
<http://cgi.ebay.com/Ball-Head-with-Quick-Release-Plate-New_W0QQitemZ120003117169QQihZ002QQcategoryZ3325QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting>
The ball doesn't operate very smoothly and the fluid in the bubble level
has since leaked out or evaporated.

Chuck Nocutt



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