I have a tripod (not the best one, probably, but serves me good),
Out of curiosity, what sort of tripod do you have?
My first was a $20 Wal-Mart special, and I found that it could actually cause more problems than it solved due to being so flimsy.
After buying a good tripod, I used that for a little while as a light stand in my first attempts to do off-camera flash, but even then it was a poor choice for that. Real light stands generally are generally light and fairly wobbly but have very low legs, making them easier to position. Plus, most light stands will go 8ft or higher-something that you often need to position your lights properly. A tripod that can go that tall will have a huge base size, weigh a lot, and probably cost more than I paid for all my studio lighting equipment (admittedly I got a screaming deal on that with 3 power packs(2x2000 w-s and 1x800 w-s), 8 heads,bunches of radio triggers, a dozen stands and booms, soft boxes, a bunch of other expensive light modifier for well under $500).
Lighting discussion aside, you really DO need a sturdy tripod. I bought my Tilt-All 10 years ago thinking it would be a good quality starter unit for me. I bought a Marcioni branded one on Ebay for about $50, although if one insists on new the last I checked they were a bit over $100 on Ebay. I'll mention, though, that current production ones aren't as nice as the old Marcioni or Leitz branded ones.
The Tilt-All ended up being about as much tripod as I need, and didn't even start looking for a different until I got into large format and realized I was pushing the limits of it. I'll also mention that I'm 6'3", and depending on the camera or lens I have mounted on it I don't have to raise the center column or possibly only raise it about an inch. The ground glass on my Speed Graphic is right at eye level for me without raising the colunm. With the legs fully extended, it's actually too tall for me to use the waist level finder on a Rolleiflex, and even larger medium format SLRs push the limits. I often end up retracting the legs an inch or two so that I can satisfactorily see the ground glass. I sometimes-horror of horrors-even use a prism on medium format(45º prisms are handy for this, although I don't generally use a prism when hand holding MF).
There are folks out there who will have you spend $1K or better on a set of Gitzo legs and Really Right Stuff or Arca-Swiss ball head. I'd have to pay more than that to get a Gitzo tall enough for me. There's also the fact that I have a lot of heavy lenses and bodies(at the time I was shopping, my "benchmark" was Canon 400m f/4.5 with a T90 or F-1 hanging off the back-now days an F5 or D2S with an 80-200 2.8 would be my weight benchmark even though that's a rarely used combination. Most of the good ball heads are designed to be used with quick release plates, and if you have multiple bodies and lenses with tripod mounts you really need a separate QR plate for every item(they're not super easy to install). I now have three DSLRs that I use regularly(D2X, D300, D800) along with several 35mm film SLRs(I'd probably want one on my F4, F5, F100, and one on at least one of my F2s) and various medium format bodies. The QR plates aren't cheap.
The Tilt-All is heavy, which is a pain when I'm going very far away from the car. Carbon fiber tripods are definitely a lot lighter, and even Gitzo aluminum legs are a bit lighter. Furthermore, some don't like the twist locks on the legs, although you'll find the same on a lot of high end tripods. One feature I really do miss is that many high end legs will allow you to spread them apart varying amounts to get lower to the ground, although not extending the legs all the way can allow you to get more or less the same effect. If I need to get lower than doing that allows, I'll use the cute little Leitz table-top legs along with the superb ball head(this unit honestly is overkill for the Leica it came with-it will hold a view camera without batting an eye).
Many folks don't like pan-tilt heads for still photography and favor ball heads. Personally, even though a pan-tilt can be a bit more fiddly, I still like the fact that I can get absolute control over one axis while leaving the others alone.
One other common criticism is that it lacks a QR system, although you can add one if you wish.
Like I said, at the time I bought it as a good, sturdy even if dated unit to hold me until I could spend $1K on a good head and legs(I was in college at the time). As I said, I ended up finding that it worked fine for me.
