Shopping for a tripod can be overwhelming. Quality, weight, functionality and price of each can vary significantly. And often times people buy one brand of tripod legs and a totally different head making it all the more confusing.
For my first tripod I went fairly cheap and bought a vortex pro gt. Very sturdy, I can glass standing up easily (I’m 6’1”), and the panning function is smooth. However, it’s aluminum and it’s about 4.5 lbs. but I got it on A&A Optics website as a refurb (was in perfect shape) for under $100 so I couldn’t complain as I had analysis paralysis pretty bad on my initial foray into this field. I’ve used this for western KS deer hunting where I’m hopping in and out of the truck a lot and my biggest hike is about 1.5 miles. I never camp either, so the weight isn’t a concern at all.
I was recently dinking around on amazon and saw the Slik sprint mini 2 pop up for some reason. It was $50 on amazon on Tuesday when I bought it (I just looked and price went up to $65) but notably, it weighs 1.7 lbs which is a big difference from my vortex model. Now this one doesn’t have a panning head, it uses a ball head that is not nearly as smooth and easy to control the optic so I’ve got an order for a Benro S2 head I paid $70 for on the way. This little tripod is also not as stout given its weight and size (only extends to ~ 43” and is also constructed from aluminum) but I’ve played with it some and think it will be an excellent tripod for the weight savings as I’ll be able to sit while glassing in most of my future adventures anyway. All in I expect this setup with the Benro head to come in at about 2 lbs making it a great backpacking companion.
Anyway those are two I am familiar with. You can go crazy with all the carbon and different pan heads and so forth but for what I use glass for and where my hunting gear priorities lie I will wait a little longer to buy a more spendy set up