The author of this article recently reviewed a budget tripod that they purchased from eBay, and their experience with it has been... mixed.

Firstly, they mention that the tripod comes with a basic frame back, which needs to be secured using a wing net to screw onto the tripod mounting plate. This process is described as a "nightmare" for them, and they express frustration at the lack of space on the mounting plate for an Arca-Swiss system, which is what they normally use. However, they were able to find a workaround by using a different quick-release system that Caleb Pike, from DSLR Video Shooter, recommended.

This new system allowed the author to mount their camera and use a super quick lever to kick off the camera. They acknowledge that this process can be tedious, but it's a necessary part of setting up their tripod. The tripod itself comes with a black cloth that is supposed to serve as a backdrop, but the author found several issues with it. Firstly, the material is thin enough that light will bleed through, creating unwanted dots on their camera lens. They also had trouble keeping the velcro parts attached, and so they had to staple them back onto the fabric.

To compensate for this issue of light bleeding, the author used a hand gel to add extra weight to the cloth, which caused it to be heavier than usual. This made it difficult to use with wide-angle lenses, as the box would fold into the lens view. The author was able to work around this by zooming in on their camera, but they found that using the kit lens and zooming in to 20-24mm on a crop sensor was the best solution.

Despite these issues, the author does acknowledge that the system is easy to use once you've figured out the teleprompter side of things. They mention that they had a lot of comments from viewers who were confused by their use of the teleprompter in earlier videos, and this experience has made them realize why they wanted to upgrade to a different system.

Finally, the author mentions that they will be upgrading to a Parrot system soon, which features a more direct design that eliminates some of the issues with light bleeding. They also mention that they have found a great tool for managing their YouTube channel, called "Buddy", which allows them to update videos in bulk, syndicate to social media, and backup metadata, among other things.

The author's experience with this budget tripod has been a mixed bag, but it has given them valuable insight into the importance of using a good tripod system. They hope that their review will be helpful to others who are considering purchasing a similar product.

**Tripod Review**

I recently purchased a budget tripod from eBay, and my experience with it has been... mixed. The tripod comes with a basic frame back, which needs to be secured using a wing net to screw onto the tripod mounting plate. This process is described as a "nightmare" for me, and I express frustration at the lack of space on the mounting plate for an Arca-Swiss system, which is what I normally use.

However, I was able to find a workaround by using a different quick-release system that Caleb Pike, from DSLR Video Shooter, recommended. This new system allowed me to mount my camera and use a super quick lever to kick off the camera. I acknowledge that this process can be tedious, but it's a necessary part of setting up my tripod.

The tripod itself comes with a black cloth that is supposed to serve as a backdrop, but I found several issues with it. Firstly, the material is thin enough that light will bleed through, creating unwanted dots on my camera lens. I also had trouble keeping the velcro parts attached, and so I had to staple them back onto the fabric.

To compensate for this issue of light bleeding, I used a hand gel to add extra weight to the cloth, which caused it to be heavier than usual. This made it difficult to use with wide-angle lenses, as the box would fold into the lens view. I was able to work around this by zooming in on my camera, but I found that using the kit lens and zooming in to 20-24mm on a crop sensor was the best solution.

Despite these issues, I do acknowledge that the system is easy to use once you've figured out the teleprompter side of things. I mention that I had a lot of comments from viewers who were confused by my use of the teleprompter in earlier videos, and this experience has made me realize why I wanted to upgrade to a different system.

**The Importance of Using a Good Tripod System**

My experience with this budget tripod has been a mixed bag, but it has given me valuable insight into the importance of using a good tripod system. The issues I encountered with light bleeding and the difficulty in mounting my camera were significant, but they also made me realize how much I rely on my tripod to get the job done.

Using a good tripod system can make all the difference when it comes to producing high-quality videos or photos. It allows you to set up your equipment quickly and easily, which can be a huge time-saver. Additionally, a good tripod system can help to reduce camera shake and other types of motion, which can result in smoother footage.

Of course, there are many different options available when it comes to tripods, and the right one for you will depend on your specific needs and preferences. However, I hope that my review has been helpful in giving you a better understanding of what to expect from a budget tripod like this one.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, my experience with this budget tripod has been... mixed. While it has given me valuable insight into the importance of using a good tripod system, it also highlighted several issues that I would not want to encounter again. However, I am excited to be upgrading to a Parrot system soon, which features a more direct design that eliminates some of the issues with light bleeding.

I hope that my review has been helpful in giving you a better understanding of what to expect from a budget tripod like this one. If you're considering purchasing a similar product, I would encourage you to do your research and look for reviews from other users who have had experience with it.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI just want to make a quick and note that every time I do these kind of impromptu gear videos I seem to be wearing the same Spiderman shirt I do assure you I own multiple shirts and this is just kind of a comfy when I'm doing things around the house or studio kind of shirt just keeps happening so I wanted to make a quick video here talking about the teleprompter that I've been using for the past year and my big ultimate unboxing video I mentioned that I'm upgrading potentially to a Pyrrhic teleprompter this one is huge takes a lot of set-up time and the parrot seems to be a little bit better but this is a great alternative option for those who aren't even using DSLRs in the first place or who prefer the system there's a couple different reasons why you might like it this is a cheap generic teleprompter the website on it is interact Medianet from eBay I got it on eBay last January or December of 2015 for about a hundred bucks now I did it's fairly simple if we take off the cloth here we have a basic wood frame with a piece of glass and then some metal framing to actually hold it up on the tripod and to prop your actual data source if it doesn't come with a screen of its own of course for that price now it's actually rated specifically for the Microsoft Surface and since I have a Microsoft Surface RT that's literally doing nothing because it's pretty much worthless in 2017 that's what I've been using as my actual teleprompter the easiest way I've found to do this there's a couple apps there were a couple Microsoft Store apps since again I can't run normal programs on the surface RT but you could also use a normal Android tablet or an iPad or something and there's plenty of teleprompting apps on here but the easiest way I found to do it with my surface is to actually use PowerPoint and then in PowerPoint which I haven't found the way a way to do this in libreoffice or Google Docs or anything else which has driven me nuts but the easiest way I've found to do it is the use PowerPoint with a black background because you don't want any extra light shining on to the glass black background white text and then to inverse the text boxes because it mirrors here if I get this back up over top here so there's no light coming through the back of the glass I don't know if you can see that probably not there's text showing on the glass that only you can see by being in front of the camera but the lens behind the camera cannot see so pyro point actually gives you the option to mirror text boxes to completely flip them around so I've created a PowerPoint template where all the text boxes are mirrored paste all my script in there and then I grabbed a basic initech remote control or a little you know presenter pointer to flip through the slides and that is fairly straightforward that's the easiest way I found to do it for my system but it's still a tedious system and I don't know I just haven't been a fan on top of the fact that this rig is huge because not only is the frame itself fairly big it's actually quite heavy especially once you get a DSLR on here especially my heavy canon t3i you get a service tab up front every normal tripod I have was not heavy or you know was not sturdy enough or tall enough in the first place because I was doing a lot of stand-up videos I still do now and it I actually broke one of my tripods trying to do it so I bought this super hefty very strong very big but also bulky and thus takes up a lot of my room amazonbasics tripod it's actually an amazonbasics tripod but it is the most xxx tripod I've used outside of my Manfrotto and the 1970s one that I reviewed so you need a big hefty tripod to make this work in the first place or else you're not going to be able to mount it but then it has a basic frame back here that just you use a a wing net to screw onto the tripod mounting plate and then it has little riders based on the height of your camera and then you're supposed to just use a basic nut a basic bolt to connect your camera to the mounting plate but that is a nightmare for one so I tried to switch over to the arca-swiss system which is what I use on everything else however the flatness of mounting the plate on here does not allow the arca-swiss knob to turn even I tried using some cardboard of like washers there's not enough space so I ended up getting this I don't even know the brand I have a link to it in the description below there's another quick-release system that Caleb Pike over at DSLR video shooter com recommended to me and it just has a basic Glover now those quick release plates are the worst in the world so I would never use them on anything else but that meant that I was able to mount up my camera and use a super quick lever to kick off the camera and go overall it hasn't been a fun experience I get was great getting a budget tripod into getting scripting and so if that's what you're looking for I highly recommend it just know you're dealing with a lot of tedium now it does come with this black cloth too which is supposed to you know be the backdrop box to go throughout your camera and block off light from coming in to complaints about that one the material is like thin enough that lights will come through into little dots which looks like a ton of dust on your camera lens it's not and the actual velcro parts for it I've had to keep stapling back onto the fabric because they weren't really attached very well so to compensate for the light bleed I just grabbed a random hand gel and added on top but that also adds extra weight which then can make the towel go into the lens view there's a lot of issues with it and then I've had to use these clothespins to kind of keep the cloth out of the way else it'll start folding into the lens view especially with a wide-angle lens as well and it's also working over to here that super wide angle lenses will not work in this at all because you're going to pick up the sides of the box and things like that so you need to kind of zoomed inland 20 millimetres or so on a crop sensor I don't know about full-frame but on mine I was using the kit lens and zoomed in to like 20 24 millimetres but the system is easy to use I get was easy to build I try doing I'll have a link to the upload the footage is trash I tried doing a periscope stream of me building it it didn't go so well and again this was like two years ago but it's super it's fairly easy to put together as long as you read the instructions and realize that the tape that indicates the camera side is actually on the wrong side it's actually the teleprompter side I don't know why that's wrong but it's fairly easy to put together it is super easy to use as long as you have a tablet that you can control it takes a little while getting used to the teleprompting I had a lot so give a lot of comments on some of my earlier videos using it like well if you've obviously reading something because no one scripts reviews does make it a little obvious that is why I'm upgrading to the parrot system that a featured though as it is only directly in front of the lens so you're always looking at the lens video on that soon but just wanted to review the basic generic ebay teleprompter and show you how I was using it for the past year or so and their requirements because again this tripod or a try you know a bulky tripod of some sort is an absolute must this video is brought to you by two buddy the best tool you can get to manage your YouTube channel update videos in bulk syndicate to social media and backup your metadata and more all with this simple browser extension head on over to evil Vox calm flash to buddy to download it for free and learn more to buddy download for free learn more I love it hope you enjoyed this another one off gear review if you did smash the like button product link as always will be in the description down below if I can find it on Amazon or bnh I'll have an affiliate link but I only found it on eBay so that's probably where the link will be subscribe if you liked this video comment if you have anything to say and I'll see you next timeI just want to make a quick and note that every time I do these kind of impromptu gear videos I seem to be wearing the same Spiderman shirt I do assure you I own multiple shirts and this is just kind of a comfy when I'm doing things around the house or studio kind of shirt just keeps happening so I wanted to make a quick video here talking about the teleprompter that I've been using for the past year and my big ultimate unboxing video I mentioned that I'm upgrading potentially to a Pyrrhic teleprompter this one is huge takes a lot of set-up time and the parrot seems to be a little bit better but this is a great alternative option for those who aren't even using DSLRs in the first place or who prefer the system there's a couple different reasons why you might like it this is a cheap generic teleprompter the website on it is interact Medianet from eBay I got it on eBay last January or December of 2015 for about a hundred bucks now I did it's fairly simple if we take off the cloth here we have a basic wood frame with a piece of glass and then some metal framing to actually hold it up on the tripod and to prop your actual data source if it doesn't come with a screen of its own of course for that price now it's actually rated specifically for the Microsoft Surface and since I have a Microsoft Surface RT that's literally doing nothing because it's pretty much worthless in 2017 that's what I've been using as my actual teleprompter the easiest way I've found to do this there's a couple apps there were a couple Microsoft Store apps since again I can't run normal programs on the surface RT but you could also use a normal Android tablet or an iPad or something and there's plenty of teleprompting apps on here but the easiest way I found to do it with my surface is to actually use PowerPoint and then in PowerPoint which I haven't found the way a way to do this in libreoffice or Google Docs or anything else which has driven me nuts but the easiest way I've found to do it is the use PowerPoint with a black background because you don't want any extra light shining on to the glass black background white text and then to inverse the text boxes because it mirrors here if I get this back up over top here so there's no light coming through the back of the glass I don't know if you can see that probably not there's text showing on the glass that only you can see by being in front of the camera but the lens behind the camera cannot see so pyro point actually gives you the option to mirror text boxes to completely flip them around so I've created a PowerPoint template where all the text boxes are mirrored paste all my script in there and then I grabbed a basic initech remote control or a little you know presenter pointer to flip through the slides and that is fairly straightforward that's the easiest way I found to do it for my system but it's still a tedious system and I don't know I just haven't been a fan on top of the fact that this rig is huge because not only is the frame itself fairly big it's actually quite heavy especially once you get a DSLR on here especially my heavy canon t3i you get a service tab up front every normal tripod I have was not heavy or you know was not sturdy enough or tall enough in the first place because I was doing a lot of stand-up videos I still do now and it I actually broke one of my tripods trying to do it so I bought this super hefty very strong very big but also bulky and thus takes up a lot of my room amazonbasics tripod it's actually an amazonbasics tripod but it is the most xxx tripod I've used outside of my Manfrotto and the 1970s one that I reviewed so you need a big hefty tripod to make this work in the first place or else you're not going to be able to mount it but then it has a basic frame back here that just you use a a wing net to screw onto the tripod mounting plate and then it has little riders based on the height of your camera and then you're supposed to just use a basic nut a basic bolt to connect your camera to the mounting plate but that is a nightmare for one so I tried to switch over to the arca-swiss system which is what I use on everything else however the flatness of mounting the plate on here does not allow the arca-swiss knob to turn even I tried using some cardboard of like washers there's not enough space so I ended up getting this I don't even know the brand I have a link to it in the description below there's another quick-release system that Caleb Pike over at DSLR video shooter com recommended to me and it just has a basic Glover now those quick release plates are the worst in the world so I would never use them on anything else but that meant that I was able to mount up my camera and use a super quick lever to kick off the camera and go overall it hasn't been a fun experience I get was great getting a budget tripod into getting scripting and so if that's what you're looking for I highly recommend it just know you're dealing with a lot of tedium now it does come with this black cloth too which is supposed to you know be the backdrop box to go throughout your camera and block off light from coming in to complaints about that one the material is like thin enough that lights will come through into little dots which looks like a ton of dust on your camera lens it's not and the actual velcro parts for it I've had to keep stapling back onto the fabric because they weren't really attached very well so to compensate for the light bleed I just grabbed a random hand gel and added on top but that also adds extra weight which then can make the towel go into the lens view there's a lot of issues with it and then I've had to use these clothespins to kind of keep the cloth out of the way else it'll start folding into the lens view especially with a wide-angle lens as well and it's also working over to here that super wide angle lenses will not work in this at all because you're going to pick up the sides of the box and things like that so you need to kind of zoomed inland 20 millimetres or so on a crop sensor I don't know about full-frame but on mine I was using the kit lens and zoomed in to like 20 24 millimetres but the system is easy to use I get was easy to build I try doing I'll have a link to the upload the footage is trash I tried doing a periscope stream of me building it it didn't go so well and again this was like two years ago but it's super it's fairly easy to put together as long as you read the instructions and realize that the tape that indicates the camera side is actually on the wrong side it's actually the teleprompter side I don't know why that's wrong but it's fairly easy to put together it is super easy to use as long as you have a tablet that you can control it takes a little while getting used to the teleprompting I had a lot so give a lot of comments on some of my earlier videos using it like well if you've obviously reading something because no one scripts reviews does make it a little obvious that is why I'm upgrading to the parrot system that a featured though as it is only directly in front of the lens so you're always looking at the lens video on that soon but just wanted to review the basic generic ebay teleprompter and show you how I was using it for the past year or so and their requirements because again this tripod or a try you know a bulky tripod of some sort is an absolute must this video is brought to you by two buddy the best tool you can get to manage your YouTube channel update videos in bulk syndicate to social media and backup your metadata and more all with this simple browser extension head on over to evil Vox calm flash to buddy to download it for free and learn more to buddy download for free learn more I love it hope you enjoyed this another one off gear review if you did smash the like button product link as always will be in the description down below if I can find it on Amazon or bnh I'll have an affiliate link but I only found it on eBay so that's probably where the link will be subscribe if you liked this video comment if you have anything to say and I'll see you next time\n"