My experience with Velbon tripods (Maxi) was terrible. The head always drooped and one leg broke. I advise against tripods with an integrated head. My sad experience is that you are best off buying the legs and head separately.
Buy a ball head with an Arca Swiss clamp. You will also need a plate that mounts to the base of your camera. For legs, get the Feisol 3442. It is lightweight, stable and when closed, it easily fits in a suitcase.
Tis rig is going to cost about $500. If you don't want to spend that much, you might as well buy something really cheep and heavy.
You really answered your own question by saying it could be aluminum and it needs to support only 10 lbs. so start there and there are lots to choose from. I was looking recently at Oben tripods and there are several that support over 12 lbs. and the CF ones cost nearly twice as much as the aluminum ones.
The use the same ball head and the CF version weighs 2.50 lbs. versus 2.93 lbs. for the aluminum. If you don't mind the extra 7 ounces the savings is more than $200.
