I too have walked through the cheap to end up at the better. However, there is some practicality that seeps in here. This is your first camera (of hopefully many) and there are different uses and options to consider.

If you are a hiking type and plan to be packing the tripod for days at a time, certainly weight comes into the equation and you may need to use a smaller/lighter for the sake of even having a tripod vs. leaving it at home. Studio work is perhaps the polar opposite. If you are the studio the weight/strength etc become just a joy to work with vs. nudging the tripod and it topples over.

I have 3 regular tripods and a little table top.

The smallest, and least stable is for those really long walks and the photo will be incidental. It can carry the load of my 5d3 and 70-200 w/o too much fuss. I strap my backpack to the legs to give it stability and a bit of rigidity. It was less than $100 if memory serves me. An inexpensive ebay carbon fiber model.

Next up is a pretty stout tripod, about $200 certainly carries the load of everything I have and wouldn't think twice about taking it along on an overnight, etc - but not a multi night effort.

The "big boy" has legs in the 2" diameter range and I bet I could sling a seat under it and it would hold my more than needed weight. It is the one I reach for most often, it is a 3 section, flip lock beast - Would only take it on an overnight if photo was the goal of the overnight. Day trips - every time.

Now the head.

This is where quality really starts to show. I have two primary heads - a mid priced ball head w/ a pano base that is used 50% of the time. It is "over sized" for the little tripod but having a good head is soooo much faster than reframing wiggle and fiddle every shot w/ a cheap head that sags, etc. The other head is a comically large Really Right Stuff Pano/Gimbal head - LOVE IT - but ooof it was a lot of money and really giant overkill for anything other than my longest lenses or a very deliberate multi frame pano (my largest to date was a 202 frame set taken w/ a rented 5DsR - yea the computer was choking).

If you can - go w/ a head leg set in the $500-600 range and you will likely be happy for quite awhile on weekend/day trips, etc. You can cheap ebay for something between 100 and 200 and in 6 months be bashing an unfortunate tree with it. But you will have experienced the fiddle wiggle of a poor head and really appreciate the better ball head that is intrinsic in the better set up and have gotten 6 months of use. If it is a really small and light model (mine was) then it can go into the backpacking role.

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