Geared Columns...

I'm looking at all my options for a tripod and the one feature I'm unsure of is a geared column. What are the benefits or downsides of this feature? One negative is it seems to increase the weight of the tripod. Any help would be appreciated.

A geared column is useful if a) using a very heavy camera rig which makes it challenging to raise/lower once the column is unlocked, or b) wishing to raise/ lower the camera and lens a small amount for framing purposes such as when shooting macro.

Having said that, I find that reason A is the only one which I have found need, so I use my 4x5 monorail camera on a massive Bogen tripod that has a geared center column. The rest of my stuff works plenty fine on a non-geared center column.

A downside of the geared column is that it makes it slower to collapse your tripod to move to another shooting position.

Thanks for the help. Looks like I don't need that feature at all. Saved some money and weight.