1) I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHERE TO TAKE PHOTOS. No, the manual doesn't say you can, but contrary to what another poster wrote, you can select HD/D1/CIF and that's it! There is no empty space for photos. 2) A tripod is NOT included with the camera. The SD card does NOT come with the camera. Charger, battery pack, HD/audio cable, USB extender, carrying case (maybe something else, can't remember.) There may be a discrepancy between reviews depending on where you bought it. Maybe some of them will take photos, maybe some will come with tripods, but DON'T THINK this will be yours. I suppose it depends on where you buy it, or some DGX jerks troll reviews to encourage you to buy their cheap camera. The quality is decent for HD outdoors. Becomes grainy indoors in low light. Go to youtube there are LOTS of people with these cameras and you can see the quality. Most professional reviews (pretty much all) say this camera is a piece of crap and of course compared to a $900 camera but you can find this camera for around $50 in some places so if you want it cheap Using HD As long as $900 HD cameras are dropping in price, it's not a bad deal.