Never used a Giottos, but for the budget you're looking at, the Velbon Sherpa stuff is good. Don't advise buying a Velbon CF5xx model though (much as I don't recommend Manfrotto 190 series), too light for their own good.
The best thing you can do is go to a shop and have a good play with some. You can learn a lot by having a "wobble" with a range of items, far more than you'd ever learn from internet forum opinion.
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