Video tripod

Yep, just another name, or No name.... And cheaper... ;)

Ball head or fluid head? Ball is great for photos but forget a smooth pan or tilt on footage without a fluid head.

As far as heads are concerned I have the 501HDV on another tripod and am looking at the MVH500A for a lighter outfit. For stills I never liked ball heads and always use a 3 way.

Ball heads are great for stationary setups or on top of a slider with a locked down camera. The tripod combo you are looking at is fantastic with the half ball/video pan/tilt head. That half ball will make leveling a snap and very quick. I use my video pods a lot even for stills because of exactly those reasons. Very cool tripod/head combo indeed.

Thanks for the comments and thoughts. There's another similar combo I'm looking at which might be a bit lighter but I feel that this is about as light as it gets as I want a tripod that's about my height.

Quite nice that these newer, cheaper heads seem to be fluid rather than friction.

I'll post back with what I end up with.

I've just received the tripod and head - it's perfect for my needs.

I decided to go with the:

755CX3 tripod and MVH500AH flat base video head.

It's the smallest and lightest I could find which fits my needs of a comfortable eye height camera (with the possibility of a little higher) when standing - having a substantial feel to it - plus fluid head.

That, plus the 561BHDV monopod and a bean bag, will do me for most circumstances.