Inexpensive Tripods

I broke my last cheapo tripod and needed a replacement. While the aficionado in me would love a heavy duty $300 option, the budget in me ruled the day. However, inexpensive and cheap aren’t necessarily the same thing so I went down a rabbit hole of research. Thankfully, I did most of the heavy lifting for you and made notes and links to those I was considering.

There are some basic differences and preferences to note before spending money:

1. Ball head vs Pan head: Pans are cheaper, take longer to set-up but offer more stability and precise set-up. Ball heads look nifty and allow for quick adjustments but are more difficult for accuracy and more expensive.
2. Pretty much all of these are the same Chinesium rebranded items, with some notable differences here and there. But don’t get hung up on the brands or swayed by the excess and freebie reviews.
3. What capacity do you want? If you’re actually using a DSLR or Mirrorless with any lens of consequence don’t expect the lower price options to overly impress. Sometimes plastic clamps can only get so tight.
4. Some of these have cranks for the last bit of height, others don’t, and yet others don’t even have a center support shaft but rather the shaft in the picture is the extra height. This reduces weight and complexity but reduces adjustability and stability.
5. Do you really need a cheap mono-pod as a selling point?
6. Do you really need a remote? I find it incredibly handy but also have two selfie sticks from which I can borrow, so it’s not a game changer. However, it is handy to have.
7. Lever leg vs standard supported design. Some have little levers at the joint to adjust the legs but no supports between the legs whereas others are standard, with the three legs held in place by the sliding inside supports. The concern on lighter capacity lever models is the strength of that joint.
8. How high do you want to go? Some only go 60″ whereas others go up to 80″. I stand 72″ in my bare feet so a little extra height was worth some expense to me.,

I every much wanted the VICTIVE 80″ ball head model but it was just simply out of my current price range – but it is saved for later. The Kingjoy almost took my money and I almost wish I’d have gone with it instead but the ZIKZOK simply had the better discount at the time of purchase. Given equal pricing I may have gone with the Kingjoy.

ZIKZOK:

This is an initial impressions review, a bit of a departure from my use-and-abuse typical reviews but I’ll update this if anything goes askew.

It’s a tad heavier than I’d like for my purposes, which include using as a spotting scope holder for hunting but it’s overall fine. Maybe I’ll remove the handle at some point if I really care. Everything came complete and it assembled nicely so no complaints there. Given the price and weight the legs are thin but supportive enough at full extension that I’m not overly concerned, but I will treat it gently in the field. Below it’s compared to a selfie stick (Bluehorn 40″ shown but I prefer the Selfieshow version better, see this review here:

While cell-phone holders are ubiquitous now, this one is a little different, if bulky and flexible enough that I won’t be taking it in the field. It has two mounting points and spring-loaded clamps: One for portrait and one for landscape, so that’s nice.

It’ll do the job but it’s not perfect. The tilt is very stiff with the clamp loose and doesn’t lock as tightly as I’d like with the clamp fully tightened. I perhaps could have tightened it more but it was getting very difficult and I didn’t want to break it. With a cell phone it shouldn’t be a problem and even with a DSLR/Mirrorless with a normal lens it shouldn’t be an issue other than at perhaps at the steepest angles. But if you’re buying a $30-40 tripod for your $1,500+ camera you should probably think again.

The way the tilt/pan mechanism mounts to the tripod means that it can only get so tight by hand and I could see it loosen a bit here and there. Since everything I’m doing is pretty much stationary photography it’s not a big concern. The mechanism does have a lot of resistance which is actually nice but I don’t know if it’ll loosen over time. Either way it’s not an issue.

This one is 100% user error but I did a newbie error by just spinning an attachment to the standard base plate rather than using the little screw underneath, causing the spring loaded button to pop out. I may be able to replace it but for my light duty purposes it doesn’t matter and it comes with two universal base plates regardless.

Lastly, it comes with a remote which has two redundant buttons: One for Apple and one for Android, but on my Galaxy S20 it worked just fine on both buttons. Your mileage may vary but I found it odd. What stinks is that there’s no attachment for the remote like you get on selfie sticks (it’s well integrated on the Selfieshow, it’s an afterthought on the Bluehorn but still works better than not having anything at all). Poor design choice.