Most of the dealers here offer either Manfrotto or Gitzo products. So it does not wonder that these are the first choice for many people.
At least where I live the shops display a variety of tripods (Manfrotto, Gitzo, Benro, Sirui etc.) but the models which I am interested in typically have to be ordered separately. I don't use Gitzo because it is widely available but because it has the characteristics I'm looking for at a price I can afford.
The price I found in Europe for RRS TVC-43 is £1498 = 1755 EUR, whereas the Gitzo 4-series I use cost about 1000 EUR. The Gitzo came with snow shoes as standard accessory (and spikes are built in as one feature that costs extra for the RRS), and above all its minimum height is around 9-10cm if I recall correctly (18cm for the RRS). I find it very stable and well made. I'm not saying the RRS cannot be better - I am sure it is excellent, but if equipped to the same level (spikes, snow shoes etc.), it costs about 2x of the price of the Gitzo 4 series, so it ought to be substantially better.
The one area where I find Gitzo to be weak is ability to cope with immersion of the locks to the water (which is to be avoided, as if it is very cold the water gets inside and freezes the locks) - but does the RRS handle this any better?
I think money also matters as many people seem to use undersized tripods for their long lens work and just turn on VR to compensate. I find this approach very unsatisfactory. My 3-series vibrates quite a lot with 500mm (VR OFF) unless I keep it to knee level and I don't use this combination any more. VR SPORT does alleviate the vibration but I find controlling the lens more pleasant and "free" when VR is OFF, then there is no drag, floating feeling or whirring sound due to the VR.
It can be fruitdul thougfh to search for potentially better niche-products.
I can't realistically carry multiple tripods in the field to cover situations where I may need to get low or high, one tripod has to be able to do it all. Obviously different people have different requirements, which is partly why there are so many tripods on the market. Someone who only uses long lenses would have different requirements than another photographer who shoots a variety of subjects.
Thera are a lot of viable support options for dast superteles, for the most critical point appears to be the tripod collar design of the lens and the possibility and qualitiy of replacements.
Yes, this is important, but fortunately Nikon have been improving their tripod collars in recent years from what they used to be. Unfortunately the price of the lenses has gone up as well.
