The problem with "light" as in 2 pounds, is that you have this (normally) 12-14 pound thing sitting atop a 2 pound thing, and guess what? It's very, very top heavy. As in falling over on slopes, in wind, etc. You don't have this issue with a fly rod.
IMO you need some semblance of balance between tripod and camera weight for the combination to work well under field conditions.
So if you want a very light tripod, you need and extremely light 8x10, like the Wehman or Phillips. Also, you can get by with less tripod if you don't use very long lenses. A tripod that will barely work for an 8x10 with a 240mm lens may not work well with a 480mm or 600mm lens.
Cheers, Steve
Bookmarks