I'm looking for a tripod. The one I have now is a consumer-grade bitsy format tripod with a small ball head on it. It barely holds up my speed graphic, but now that I got a Calumet monorail I really need to upgrade. I'm not even going to try to mount the Calumet on the tripod I have.
It's hard for me to shop for tripods because I need to see them in person and all the ones I see at lame-o camera stores are for bitsy/digital formats. I have never seen a photographic tripod that appears sturdy enough to mount my metal 4x5 on, although of course they exist. For hundreds of dollars. Did I mention that my budget is very small?
I have seen construction tripods for laser levels and the like at hardware stores. They look like they would make a very sturdy camera tripod, if you could mount the camera on them. I'm quite sure I could get either my existing small ball head mounted to one, or the massive, giant Majestic Tripod Head of Doom that I have kicking around here.
>The the construction tripods look like they have no 'stops' on the legs, so that the legs hinge freely and never stop. This might be a problem on slick surfaces.
>They always have spike feet which might be annoying for indoor use.
>They are usually orange
>And obviously they have no column.
What do you think? Should I pursue the modified construction tripod route for $75 or so, or should I travel to a real camera store that has proper tripods? Would a proper photographic tripod have any real advantage over a construction tripod other than being lighter and better looking?
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