Thursday 15 March 2012

Tripod Story...


I had to buy a new tripod head last week, I opted for the Manfrotto 804RC, my previous head, the Manfrotto 490 ball head gave up the ghost after just 3 years and one repair. I'm actually quite pleased with the 804, it's a classic 3-way pan and tilt head and it's had a bit of work to do and so far has coped nicely. The 490 was a replacement for my trusty old 029 3-way pan and tilt head, that served we very well for 15 heavy years of use, it used to have a 5x4 camera almost permanently attached to it until my digital camera came along. The 490 head has been a bit of a thorn in my side to be honest, at first it was brilliant, but after just over a year it started playing up and would sometimes be very difficult to use, very stiff. The one day, solid! So off it went for repair, apparently it was all down to a rubber grommet, so £45 later back it came, fixed, with a warning from the repair technician that it WOULD happen again, great!


And so it did, not completely solid, but enough to warrant a change. I admit I trawled the net and found a company on Amazon selling the 804 for £46, which is very cheap, I hit that 'BUY NOW' button pretty smartish. So now my 'very old' 075 tripod legs have another new head, I'm hoping it lasts for a good few years... 15 years is my record, lets see how long this one holds up.

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