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Tripod adapter for Manfrotto 701rc2 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter BobM
- Start date
Hi Dan, here is a picture of mine, that by the way is for sale, as I do not digiscope anymore, $60.00 for the lot, includes shipping, retails for close to $175.00cdn, I have attached 2 pics to show the amount of play on the slider, includes 2 plates, cheers, contact me thru PM if you are interested, Michael.
Attachments
701rc2 "jerkyness"
OK, put my Meade ETX scope on it, moved the adjusting plate all the way back so it's almost balanced at horizontal. Will not hold in either direction without "some" tightening of the locking knob. Doesn't take much, just until it starts to tighten, then it holds fine... but then it gets the "jerkyness" per Bob's description. I find leaving it loose with my hand on the knob works, so I can lock it as needed. Once locked, it and the Berlebach are very stable. It even holds the moon still!
OK, put my Meade ETX scope on it, moved the adjusting plate all the way back so it's almost balanced at horizontal. Will not hold in either direction without "some" tightening of the locking knob. Doesn't take much, just until it starts to tighten, then it holds fine... but then it gets the "jerkyness" per Bob's description. I find leaving it loose with my hand on the knob works, so I can lock it as needed. Once locked, it and the Berlebach are very stable. It even holds the moon still!
kabsetz said:
TConnors said:
I've played with at least 4 different 701rc2 heads (demos at dealers), and all of them exhibited this behavior -- they are not very smooth as soon as any drag is applied (this applies to both pan and tilt axis). The problem is that, as with every other inexpensive fluid head I am aware of, the additional drag is applied not through a fluid mechanism but by the increased application of friction against a teflon pad. The 701rc2 is an improvement over the 700rc2, which was lousy, but in my experience it is significantly less smooth when drag is applied than the Bogen 3130 head. The 3130 also uses a friction mechanism to apply drag -- you have to move up to the Bogen 503 to get a head which applies drag purely through increasing fluid resistance -- but perhaps because of it's larger size (hence greater possible contact area of its friction pad) -- the 3130 allows smoother starts and stops with drag applied than does the 701rc2.
I liked the sliding plate, leveling spring, bubble level, fully orientable handle, and light weight of the 701rc2. For use purely as a scoping mount it may be fine. But I need my scope head to do double duty as a light-weight video head with a 2.5lb prosumer camera in circumstances where my Sachtler is too heavy to carry. For this purpose the 701rc2 is inadequate, while the 3130 is (just barely) acceptable.
Zack
Exactly, just want to make sure it was "normal". I may sell it on Ebay and buy the 3130. I thought the 3130 felt very smooth in the store and you could set the drag to hold and not get the jerky start-stop action. I really don't like the springy action on the 701rc2, even with a 7# scope on it, it floats around.
