Here's a few suggestions.
I'm old school and have used good old O'Connor 50D heads/Gitzo carbon fiber stix for years. Sure, they don't tilt 90˚ or have lighted bubbles, but they are rock solid, smooth as glass, built tough. I can even run a prompter on top of them with my HDX900. I highly recommend them and everybody thanks me when they get one. You can usually find them used on Ebay for $250-$750.
I tried a Manfrotto/Bogen 526 as a trial (A buddy is a rep for Bogen and let me test it for a while). Horrible. I could never get the head to be smooth, it just had a sticking issue starting and stopping. I chatted with the engineers, no dice. IMHO, they are just not ready for prime-time.
I did come across another nice head/system, the Libec H60. Very nice. Smooth, solid, lightweight and well worth the $$$$ compared to Sachtler, Vinton or some of the other heads.
http://www.libecsales.com/products/ls/h60.html
