It's an aluminum Gitzo 410C . The ears are the locking collars on the tripod leg. The "C" in 410C means the center column is gear driven. I have owned the same tripod model since 1986 and used as recently as two days ago. The tripod head is a Sinar tripod head: one of the four best heavy duty tripod heads ever made. The others are the Arca-Swiss C1 "Cube", the Foba ASMIA, and the large geared Majestic heads). Mark is using it to support his Sinar P2 8x10 camera.