I do think a bad tripod is worse than no tripod at all. A bad tripod will
entice you to try things that it can't deliver on, whereas no tripod will
make you find other ways to take the picture.
<Chuckle>. That time I mentioned I actually took a tripod. Then I must say I refreshed my memory of russian expletives that day. Admittely one or two shots of that shoot where really good technique-wise. My conclusion was that I'd rather not take this very tripod with me to the field any more. My another conclusion was that good macro can be done only with tripod. So I've not been shooting macro ever since. So bad tripod had a questionable influence on me.
Your reason #1 comes into play more often than you would care to believe,
perhaps not with yourself, but with a lot of people, myself included.
I think that if I could one day arrive to US of A again, I would enter a good photo shop and look for a __good__ monopod. I think I could overcome my lazyness and carry the above monopod with me most of the time.
Boris
