Thanks for the suggestion John. I did a bit of research and the 561 Manfrotto looks great. Only issue I've read about is the pan motion not being that smooth and some people replacing the head with a velbon or something else. Have you experienced any of these issues?

Other problem is that they seem to be out of stock at stores around the US and no ones quite sure how many months it will take for them to become available.

But a 562 with a cheap fluid head might be an option ...