Tonis

On the negative side, I think the Manfrotto 701HDV is temperature sensitive to the extent that it can't be used at sub zero Celsius. Tonis

Hi Andrew, my first post here. I have been using similar setups for about 6 years and have come to the same exact conclusion: Budget wise suitable light weight compact legs, leveliling base and Manfrotto 701HDV head. For years I used that small Gitzo but it wasn't that good and eventually broke in air transit. Plus with compact "fluid" heads it's always great to have a longer sliding plate for better balancing with different lenses. Once I made a prototype levelling base for video which had an illuminated bubble level but back then there wasn't much interest in light weight professional accessories as it is now... All the best, Tonis from LCDVF/kinotehnik