Gitzo tripod choice (1 Viewer)

whenever I trap my fingers in the collapsing legs of the Manfrotto CF 443 I think of getting a decent Gitzo but as soon as I look up models which are recommened most of the model numbers show discontinued or no longer available or new model number---it seems to be a minefield!
Having almost decided on the 2380 head I am still at a loss as to legs---the Gitzo home site gives folded leg length (important when packing for air travel) but most distributors do not---maximum heights given by the latter presumably include centre column extensions which is not what we want--the Gitzo site does give max height without centre column up but I cannot find half the models I am looking at on their site---
So can anyone recommend a CF Gitzo tripod (short centre column) which can take a head and angled tripod and still be high enough for a 6ft birder without the centre column up and fold down to about 60cm or maybe up to 66cm---the 1257 seems a viable option but it is a tad expensive but the 1227 seems to have been discontinued and cheaper alternatives seem short on height--main use will be for the Svaro 80mm scope but maybe Canon 20D + 300f4 and 1.4 probably about the same weight

having looked at the web sites again the 1157 + fluide head seems to reach the desired height and be rather light---anyone use these legs?

The 1227 would have been about right for what you need, I think. I'm about 6' and it's just about right for me with the centre column down.

I'd assumed that the 6x model 1257 was a direct replacement for it but looking more closely at the spec on both Warehouse Express and Gitzo websites it's well down on size - 25.5cm lower on column-down height.

There seems to be a gap in the Gitzo range now with only the 1297 Basalt or one of the aluminium Reporter models filling in for the 1227

just as an aside the 1227 has been discontinued--ne wmodels are a lot more money as usual--
re the frotto I managed to re tension the legs via three nuts under the head so they no langer flop together quite as badly as before---