Im posting this in the newbie forum because this story shows what a newbie I am. Today my brand new 50mm f/1.8 II came so of course im trying to learn this lens. A fe months ago when I first got my DSLR, I ordered a tripod and a monopod that I got together for like a total of 10 bucks from amazon. The Kodak tripod is quite nice, goes up to 60 inches, has a bubble leve, handle etc. Well tonight I mountd my camera on it to play with my lens and get some longer exposure shots of things around this house. I screwed it on (its one of thoes where you have to turn the camera to screw it on which I HATE.) and then I saw this little switch/lever thing under the camera. I moved it and the camera came off the tripod with the plate underneath. Well, in my effort to make sure my camera stayed on my tripod I could not get this plate off! Im like Oh no! Well thank goodness I was finally able to mount the camera back on the tripod and unscrew it but that was not fun. For my trip in a couple of weeks (and maybe mousefest?? ) I think Im going to stick with the Velbon CX300 tripod I found in the closet. My dad said he got that tripod about a million years ago with his very first video camera. Works fine for me. No handle, no bubble level, but I can set the camera and turn a screw instead of turning the whole camera to screw it on. Its also shorter and lighter than the Kodak. So thats my newbie story of the day. Hope everyone got a smile out of it. Katie
