Hi Guys. I need help picking out a tripod. I already have a very lightweight manfrotto, so I’m happy to go for another manfrotto as I love this tripod. It’s a beginner’s one, a very lightweight model that has a fixed head. The main reasons I want to upgrade are below:

My L lens on my 550D has proved a little too heavy for this tripod when angling the head down
I want to get a head that will allow me to take portrait photos as well as landscape orientation (for panos)
I would like to be able to shoot quite close to the ground (currently the tripod I have, when the legs are all locked up, the closest I can get to the ground is about 35cm)- I’ve seen some on the website than can get you as close as 8cm to the ground!

So there you have it. I’m going to keep this tripod for when I need to carry it around all day, but with the new one, preferably don’t want anything that’s going to be TOO heavy!

I’ve spent about 2 hours on the manfrotto website and just got really overwhelmed with the choices- had no idea they had SO many models! If you could point me in the right direction… it would be much appreciated! Thanks for your help guys!

Imogen