Ron,
Just quickly checking the Manfrotto range, basic tripod with ball head you can get for $144AU.
Depends what your friend wants to use it for and what kind of gear he wants to load on it but there should be many choices that won't cost a fortune.

Here is what I strongly believe for forums:

There were plenty of women on forums back in the early 2000's of all ages when photography was mostly with film.
Digital photography greatly changed things with alpha-photo-males wanting to demonstrate their expertise with digital photography and digital editing. It was the introduction of GAS.
Forums went from being fun, chatty places about all things photography to becoming all about tech and who is the biggest expert.
With this change came hostility and most women simply didn't want any part of it. The men continued on bickering.

The vibe online completely changed and is quite volatile on many forums today. That forums are mainly used by older enthusiasts makes it even worse. I have learned to stay clear of forums dominated by 60+ year olds for any hobby. I make this place my only exception.

I took a little attention away from modern gear in a couple of posts and must've been attacked for doing so after my first or second post. It's the way it is now. I don't expect women to ever come back in any great numbers unfortunately.

As a few have asked what is a real/serious camera…it’s whatever camera you felt first allowed you to truly explore and enjoy photography without feeling you had limitations. Depending on the era/time you entered photography, this could be a rather simple type of camera.

I owned an Olympus Trip 35 as a child but it wasn’t until I bought my Ricoh SLR that I felt I had a camera which would not hold me back.

Well there is real world and internet world. They are quite different.
Anyone with D3's, you're crazy to get rid of them imo.

Congrats! That's a deserving pic to be published!

Check with the photographer. Depends what you want done. Anything from a week to a month is normal. (To be expected)

What are you? The UHH bully? Keep following me around. I'm not one for bullies.

My point was pretty much made. If you look at kids in their 20's, they are using $50-100 cameras and will likely blow away the results a bunch of 60+ year olds will achieve with their Z9's and other top end gear.

The kids are worrying about learning, being creative, skill. It's a lost art. So many images with top end gear don't have the blatant fundamentals of photography correct. I'll add you in that group after checking 3 or 4 of your images.

Like I said elsewhere, not much has really changed since 1996 with gear for those who can use a camera well.

My best body is a Nikon D3x. Sorry, I really don't feel at any disadvantage with my 2008 camera and I also don't feel the Nikon D3x is any better than the Nikon F5 of 1996. I've used both extensively.

Will I get more keepers than a Z9 owner? Yes! I'll be focused on the photographic process. I won't be focused on trying to utilize all the new BS my camera has. I can already see the types of images these owners will produce. It's totally predictable. What will I see from the next 20 year old with his/her $50 eBay camera? I have no idea!

I have! I'm kinda surprised how many here started with the major brands to be honest. The people I knew back then, many started with cheaper brand camera makers. I started with my Ricoh shown in the opening post. I bought a bunch of Tamron lenses over time to go with it before I could entertain any thought of buying a Nikon.

No. Could see the vultures hovering and the thread would go to poo poo before it got a chance. Be other times to make the same points.

There is only you and me left who would do this!

Do you still own your first real/serious camera? (Add a pic!)
Do you still use it?

Early on I couldn't afford a big name brand so started off with this Ricoh. No regrets. The Ricoh KR-10M served it's purpose and was a great little camera. I haven't used it for decades but I'm going to give it a run sometime soon.
The KR-10M had quite good specification for the time. The kit lens pictured was also a reasonable performer.

(Photo below taken on my phone. Phones are good for stuff like this!)

https://i.ibb.co/SXz0j1H/KR-10M.jpg

Did you ever read the forum title???

Main Photography Discussion
This is where we talk about anything related to photography.

Just to excite you, I'll add a gear thread. You can come complain there next as it won't be on modern gear and probably won't be to your liking.

Ahhh...yes...and they use their phones instead of cameras.
This is where things may start changing a little over coming years.
The film revival has played a part with the old process giving the young an interest in photography.
They are moving away from their phones and discovering purpose made cameras have some benefit. Not only have some benefit but are fun to use.
There is interest and it is growing. Best thing a camera manufacturer could do right now is release a film camera but they have always been slow to move on markets.

I began working for a very established studio as an assistant back 3 decades ago. There was nothing that was more influential to my photography.

However, I wouldn’t recommend this approach today. Modern day professional photography is not what it was and I really feel the knowledge being passed on today is often contradicting or just plain wrong. The internet is as much a part of professional photography as taking pictures and internet likes/clicks are important. Photographers tend to look for sensationalism in order to get likes/clicks and subsequently photographic work. In order to get these, information can be skewed or complete BS. Some are also very well regarded but their success can be due more to what they do away from the camera than what they do behind the camera. I personally consider some modern day highly regarded pros as being massively overrated and poor photographers. It’s their work away from the camera bringing them success.

I’d approach modern learning today using multiple avenues, not one single person. Find as many sources as you can and then use your own best judgement as you develop experience for the advice you wish to take and the advice you wish to drop.

Learn the basic rules of photography and stick to them.