Help with selecting a tripod

hyogen wrote in post #14934748
how's the sunpak carbon fiber pistol grip one they sell at Costco? It's $100

Personally, I wasn't impressed with the Sunpak. The legs were OK but the "plasticky" pistol grip head seemed to be just about useless for anything much heavier than a P & S or very lightweight dSLR/lens combo.

Wanted a cheap, light CF tripod for outdoor work and went with the Dolica that Costco sells online for the same price (got mine when it was recently on sale for $80). Decent conventional-style ball head and surprisingly good build quality. Doesn't do the leg contortions like some of the other budget Chinese-made travel type tripods, but seems pretty comparable in quality for way less money.

I still haven't bought a tripod yet. Saturday I used my bro-n-law's Manfrotto 190 for timed exposure city light shots. I am 6' tall and with the legs fully extended (column at lowest position) I couldn't see the camera's top display to make exposure adjustments, so I had to raise the legs, however I can see the point of having the taller 055 Manfrotto so you can have the extra height if needed. Another question is on quick release plates. I thought that was for video camera's? Is quick release good or bad?

Regards,

Rick

Quick release is very good for still photography, Arca-Swiss is the best.