Manfrotto 546 Tripod System With 504HD Fluid Head

a side from a smaller tripod I bought for my Sony FXl (backup camera) a few years ago, the only tripod I've really used in the past 17 years has been my Bogen/Manfrotto 3068 tripod with the 3066 head. It has stood under my Panasonic AG-455, AG-456, AG-DP800 Supercam, AG-DVC200, and Sony HVR-S270. Until the recent switch to smaller camcorders, this was the most popular tripod system with my local video association. It was inexpensive and pretty much indestructible - for me, it even remained standing through the 1994 Northridge, Calif., earthquake, which was a magnitude 6.7. The controls on the head are simple: pan-lock, tilt -lock, and drag. On the tripod, there's an elevator crank that can raise the camera up about 14" quickly.

The new Manfrotto 504 head/546 leg system, which Manfrotto recently sent to me for review, is a much different system. The most obvious thing you notice out of the box is the legs. The 3068 has two-stage, aluminum telescoping tubes. The 546 has a three-stage system. The upper two stages have two tubes each, and the lower third stage is a wider, single tube. At the bottom there are spiked feet with two spikes per foot. The majority of the time they will be covered by a rounded, triangular, removable foot. Moving up to the top, things get really interesting.

There are a few more controls on the 504HD head than I'm used to. Aside from the pan-and-tilt locks and resistance controls, there is a knob for counter balance allowing you to balance heavy cameras, without having to lock it down, allowing you to respond more quickly to action. There's also a resistance knob in the "tunnel" under the camera platform, as well as a bubble level with a builtin LED light to help with this.

Another feature that I love is the claw ball mount for the head, which allows you to set up the...