Vista Explorer 60" Lightweight Tripod with Tripod Bag

This is an excellent tripod for beginners and starters.
Not really professional type of tripod, but for the price is totally worth it. The tripod can extend heights even taller than 60" than what the description says.

Pro: Excellent Price, Great heights up to 5'10".
Con: Material is kinda suckish, looks like if you rough use it, it can break anytime.

I got this as a starter tripod to use with my Nikon D40. It serves its purpose well for taking longer exposures of still objects, for group portraits that I'm supposed to be in, and for self-portraits.
What it doesn't work so well for is HDR photography, something I'd been hoping to do. t's just not quite stable enough, so the photos come out at slightly different angles. No big loss, but something to consider.
I also tried a bit of video with my family's point and shoot, and the tripod moved very smoothly. I don't know how well it would work with a true video camera, but I can't imagine it being terrible.
Overall, I'm quite happy with my purchase. It's fairly sturdy, it looks good, and it comes with a nice little bag so I can carry it around. I'm happy with my purchase, but I'd probably buy a more expensive (and better) one if I could do it over.

good product, just the quality you would expect from vista. not too light, so thing won't go flying at the top of a fjord. its not too heavy either and so carrying it around isn't too bad.

mechanical parts were not as smooth when i got it, but i smoothed off the edges and the excess plastic and it is a lot better now

I purchased this item for $24.67 when I bought my first digital SLR. It is an excellent introductory tripod. Lightweight, but good design and solid construction. The only flaw with this design is that you have to loosen/tighten a wingnut to tilt the camera up or down (to look at the sky or ground, for example). The weight of the camera makes it difficult to get it to stay in the position you want. That is why the ball-and-socket design is superior, but it is also significantly more expensive.

So what do you all want for an inexpensive tripod?! I have 2 really OLD tripods and needed a new one quickly & cheap for schlepping around. This tripod has 2 bubble levels, decent height extension, nice & light-weight body, and a carrying bag to boot! I tend to be hard on equipment but "so far so good" ,,,