Yesterday, when I was out celebrating the 4th, I took along my tripod (BM 190XPROB) to capture the fireworks and an interesting thing happened with the tripod itself. For each flip lock, there is a nut and bolt that holds the whole apparatus in place. The nut and bolt is covered by a plastic cap. As I was setting up my tripod, one of those little caps came off and got lost. Of course, it doesn't affect the funtioning of the tripod at all, but it bugged me.
Maybe it was a sign from the gear gods telling me to go for the Gitzo.
Heather