I second Eric Tams comments on his friends 1228 Gitzo platform comming unglued making for an unstable ball head setup. A friend of mine had the same thing happened in Jasper this year and it made life very difficult because his wife had the same tripod and hers to came unglued. I recommend gitzo recall all their fibre tripods and refund these unfortunate people and go back to the drawing board. To be fair, I love their 341 and 410 models. The Bogen automatic monopod with the ball head and brace is pretty near wonderful.
Nothing works better for quick height changes at concerts, shooting children, etc.
Photos printed on CD cover. Both heads have Arca Swiss style QR''s. I would prefer there only be 3 leg segments, but each one longer so the tripod still extends to the same height with no center column, and no center column, as on my 410. There is a new 1227 model that has 3 segments, but I think it still has a center column. Still, even with the lowest leg segments extended, the tripod is very rigid.