Diddlbiker got himself a tripod

I wasn't planning on buying one yet, but the assignment in the photography class didn't leave a lot of room (at least not if you want nice pictures), so I went to the local Best Buy and bought the cheapest full-size tripod I could find.
Granted, I prefer a Bogen/Manfrotto tripod, but I also prefer a Beech Bonanzo for my daily commute (Teterboro - Morris County Apt) over my current means of transportation, but sometimes the nice solution is just out of reach.
So I opted for the $50 POS tripod instead. I have no illusions over it's quality and stability, although it is performing fairly well so far. The price to be paid, of course, is weight - it weighs about a ton!
There are some features on the tripod that could have been left out. I have no illusions on the accuracy of the bubble level. And playing around with the tripod taught me that, yes, the tripod is not level, Now How Are You Going To Fix That, Son? What is nice, however, is the quick release which is now semi-permanently fixed to my camera. And, as cheap as it is, it fits the Golden Rule: a cheap tripod in your possesion is better than an expensive one that is not.

So, how much better is it? The picture on the right has been taken with the camera held in my hands. A five second exposure is way to much for the camera's anti-shake and the result is, to put it mildly, 'blurred'.With the tripod, the picture gets a lot sharper - before I know it I'll be shooting my daylight pictures with the tripod as well! So I learned a couple of things in the last two nights:

1) With long exposures, just cover the lens with your hand when a car comes off the parking lot (and ruins the exposure with its headlights).
2) Digital (at least my) camera's display reverse reciprocal behaviour. Film tends to get 'slower' with longer exposures. A 10s exposure @ f/10 should be the same as a 40s $ f/20 exposure, but reality is that you're better off adding a full stop, making it a 60 second exposure. With digital, it's reverse: a 2.5s, f/10 exposure is slightly darker than a 10s, f/20 exposure. We're talking about 1/3 stop or less, but it is still a difference.
3) Everything in photography seems to be reverse from what is intuitive. The only use for on-camera flash is outside during daytime (fill-in flash), tele-photo is used for close-ups, and in the dark you're stopping down to get longer exposure times.
But I do like the tripod.