After a long time of waiting out on getting a $200 tripod, I finally found one less than $150 and sufficient for my needs. Induro has come out with a new line of very cheap tripod kits which include the tripod legs, ball head, carrying case, and strap. I purchased the cheapest of the bunch, ABO at $130. The others in the line are the AB1 at $150 and the AB2 at $180. Of course the more expensive the better they are. All of the tripods have the exact same features, except that the more expensive it gets, the bigger, heavier, and stronger they get.
Reviews
The Nikon D90 is the upgrade to the 2-year old Nikon D80. It sells for about $1100 and is the cheapest in Nikon's prosumer dSLRs. At the time of its launch it was the first digital SLR to record HD video in 720p. 
My friend recently purchased a Nikon D90 dSLR, and went the same route as I did and purchased a 18-200mm as her first lens. The Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM is an all around lens with a huge zoom range (11.1x). It offers a lot of the newest technology all with a pretty low price point.
