I have both a Berlebach and a twin-shank Bogen. The latter is a much finer piece of machinery, but there's an important feature that everyone talks about-- lack of vibration. I thought this was a bogus issue until I had to do some video with a telephoto lens, where the difference became immensely clear in favor of wood, as everyone in the past has said. So now I use the Bogen in the studio with strobes, where it's more flexible, and the wood tripod where vibration is an issue.