i recently bought my 7th tripod. horses for courses, they say, but finally i got a gitzo. all the others before where mainly manfrotto of all available sizes, i just wasn't ready ro pay so much. but with the basalt series they reach affordable levels. there is one called 2940L, which gitzo seems to hide from view (they don't even show it on their website), as all the other basalts where just too low to be used standing upright. for any height above 1,60 m they want you to go carbon, but the 2940 goes up tho eye-level.
i combined that with a RRS BH-40, which is good, though the wobbely main knob-design doesn't feel too impressive, and you have a very sturdy and portable tripod combination.
stefan