I have just taken a few night shots with my tripod.

Now I have questions.

(Actually I have 2 tipods, but use mostly one now)

Originally I had one. The "stock" base model. Round legs. Basic attachment for camera and all friction grips for height adjustment. No leg stabalisers.

When I was away on a holiday, I found one in a hock shop. It was more a "pro" model.
It has one of these quick release mechanisums where you attach a small thing to the bottom of the camera, then all you do is connect that to the tripod when you want to use it. Other tripods you have to screw the camera to the tripod every time. Time consuming and annoying if you are moving alot between shots.
This one also has a little spirit level/bubble thingy. The legs are locked with folding hindges rather than washers you turn.
The legs were also attached to the centre pole so all legs opened together. Good (and bad).
The height of the camera is adjusted with a crank handle which has teeth on the centre pole, where as my other one was all just friction.
It also has a TILT thing where you can tilt the camera 90 degrees to go from landscape to profile easily. Well, so I thougth. It only tilts about 87 degrees. AARRGGHH!

Anyway, I don't know but after a couple of shots I did I am getting blurring. I don't know if it is because of the DT's, or where/how the camera is connected to the tripod. If the fitting is lose, then there is possibility for shake to happen there.

Maybe without buying the squillion dollar model, there may be a better one for me to get.

With this "better" one, with the little bubble level and all, it is still sometimes difficult when you turn the camera to keep things easy to use/do.

Maybe it is because I don't have much time using it. But it is infuriating when I am wanting to do pan shots and have to keep adjusting the angle. In retrospect, I'm thinking that is because I am not getting the tripod exactly level, or level enough, at setup?

Also the tilt thing is annoying. As it doesn't go the whole 90 degrees, if I want to go for portrait shots, I have to shorten a couple of the legs so the missing few degrees are compensated for by the shorter legs.

I'm looking around, but would like to know if people have any suggestions.