Problems with a Giotto head! (1 Viewer)

My new Giotto's MTL 93/83 Tripod just arrived today & although I'm delighted with most of it, I was a little disappointed to find that one of the 3 spirit levels in the head, was empty.

In the photo below, you may be able to see that it's the one on the right.

Now I have seen it priced for as much as £170, so I suppose, as I was lucky enough to get mine from Amazon for only £80, I shouldn't complain too much & maybe I can put up with one cracked spirit level.

I'll be using this mostly for tele shots of Birds with my FZ150, but I'm also hoping to get a lot of use from it, with my Macro Lens. It's built like a tank & is a huge step up from the flimsy wee cheapy I have been using.

However, one problem I do notice, is that although I tighten up the head plate to the camera, beforehand, once I attach them to the head, there is a fair bit of play, which means the camera isn't actually solidly anchored to the plate, so it moves & turns easily, which means I physically have to hold it carefully, instead of it being solidly fixed & static. ||

Am I doing something wrong or is this a design fault? :eek!:

How do other folks here find the head on this Tripod?

Cheers,
Dick

sounds like 1 the stud is to long or 2 the hole in the camera isn't deep enough.

you could make a spacer to correct this out of an old iner tube .
Rob.

GYRob said:

sounds like 1 the stud is to long or 2 the hole in the camera isn't deep enough.

you could make a spacer to correct this out of an old iner tube .
Rob.

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Strangely Rob, there is no hole in the base of the camera, so there is no anchor hole for the stud, which is clearly why there is so much movement. ||

Cheers,
Dick

Ptarmi said:

Strangely Rob, there is no hole in the base of the camera, so there is no anchor hole for the stud, which is clearly why there is so much movement. ||

Cheers,
Dick

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Surely there is the screw mount hole in the camera, just no hole for a separate stud that helps hold the camera from gradually loosening because of vibration. If the stud is keeping the camera from screwing down properly, you might have to remove it, because there is no provision for it afaik on the camera base.
As GYRob suggests, a spacer from an inner tube or similar stuff should hold the camera quite adequately, with or without the stud..

etudiant said:

Surely there is the screw mount hole in the camera, just no hole for a separate stud that helps hold the camera from gradually loosening because of vibration. If the stud is keeping the camera from screwing down properly, you might have to remove it, because there is no provision for it afaik on the camera base.
As GYRob suggests, a spacer from an inner tube or similar stuff should hold the camera quite adequately, with or without the stud..

Click to expand...

Oh yes, the srcew hole is there alright, bit sadly no stud hole. |=(|

I'll try the inner tube trick.

Cheers,
Dick

Ptarmi said:

Oh yes, the srcew hole is there alright, bit sadly no stud hole. |=(|

I'll try the inner tube trick.

Cheers,
Dick

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A quick release plate might be another option.
I seem to remember some of them have a retractable(removable) stud, so the plate will hold the camera tightly and I'm sure the plates have provision for the tripod stud. More $$, but also allows quick switch from camera to scope or other camera, if needed.