Good cameras and accessories can seem expensive for a novice photographer; I like to be confident that I will get my moneys worth out of new lenses or accessories. At my level, I naturally aimed to buy a tripod that would simply allow me to get me started. That is, one that does the job, doesn't have any fancy features, and wouldn't burn any holes in my pocket. At less than £9 the Hama Star 75 certainly seemed to tick all of these boxes.

I was a little worried after seeing comments that this tripod was flimsy. As you would expect, the legs of the tripod are comprised of tubes of metal, that slide inside of each other. When the legs are extended to maximum length, the grip holding the two tubes together is minimal. This means that there can be a bit of wobble in the joint. I found that this still provides enough stability to do the job - it really just gives you a bit of paranoia about the stability of your equipment and quality of your shot.

I found that this was resolved easily by extending each leg-segment to about 2cm below the maximum. This eliminated any looseness in the joints and made the legs very sturdy. It isn't important to get this perfect as the head allows you to adjust all angles of the camera. The built-in spirit level is very handy at getting level shots, although in most cases I found myself just shooting anyway.

I liked the fact that the tripod legs are very easy to adjust using plastic clips, rather than screws, making any adjustment quick and easy. The central column however still uses a screw for height adjustment. I would have liked the legs to have spikes rather than rubber feet, as this will help when using the tripod on a soft surface.

The tripod can easily support my camera and a standard lens, the head and screws hold it in place securely. However, the plastic used in the head and clips seem a bit cheap, and I can see the tripod experiencing wear over time. I would like to see extra security / stability if I was using longer / heavier lenses; but I'm happy to upgrade when my skills and usage improve to the extent that I am ready to invest in better accessories. The tripod greatly reduces in size, and is only 620g, making it very easy to transport and carry.

Overall, the tripod does exactly the job I needed it to. It is a fully functional product at a giveaway price. I feel that I have got much more value out of this item than what I paid for it. It isn't something that is going to last a lifetime, and I may want to trade up at some point, but this is a perfect starter / travel tripod.