Well, minimum height (checked with a canon 350D, so a teeny bit smaller than your D80) from the ground is about 11cm, and it's got the quick release leg-tops which help when it comes to quickly adjusting your height. The centre column feature works really well too- quick and no less stable than when it's fully upright. My only criticism really is the fact that the tripod takes up a lot of room when it's in it's "low" position- I found the Manfrotto Modo was as stable at the low heights, and took up less room because it had the screw-off centre column, only it doesn't support the longer lenses well enough.....
The tripod dilemma is going to be full of compromises I think. Ideally I suppose you'd have both- the 190XPRO for field work, and the Modo for staged Macro work....
