Thank you, guys!
I certainly try these Feisol and Induro tripods, gitzos are great, but little bit over my budget
I was thinking about Manfrotto 055CX3, maximum height is 177 cm + head and camera.
What about Velbond or Vanguard? have anyone tested their latest tripods?
Go somewhere to handle the tripods if you can, it took me only a couple of simple tests to figure out why I would want a more expensive Gitzo over a similarly sized Silk. Plant the tripod down, grab the top with your hands and twist, see how much it twists under pressure. Also push down from above to see if the legs flex or splay, check the bubble level and drag the tripod to a different spot without lifting it, if it has any flex it will actually tilt. In the studio this used to drive me crazy when I used an aluminum Manfrotto and had to readjust my level every time I moved the darn thing.
If you get a sufficiently pricy tripod, it doesn't matter whether it has a center column or not, my Gitzo 3 holds a camera fully extended with the column out better than my old pod did fully collapsed. It might matter if you want to mount a heavy and high-resolution camera on it, and need the thing to be absolutely solid, but frankly I use a 51mp, 2kg camera on mine and I've taken perfectly sharp images with it extended. Just remember to use mirror lockup, a 2-sec timer and hang your camera bag on the hook.
