So... I took apart my tripod

S

S.C

Active member
I love doing DIY stuff and I was bored today, so I decided to take apart my tripod. both the legs and the head were broken down the most physically possible, and i found a bunch of junk inside of the legs and stuff. no im going to do a thorough cleaning, and since my legs are 20-25 years old maybe replace a few screws. Gonna also work on the fluidity of my head a little with the cartridge!

Tripod is the Bogen 3020 (Old version #055, slightly heavier duty) with the Manfrotto 128RC Fluid head (501HDV will hopefully be in the somewhat near future!

Lot more parts than I expected!

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Didn't take too many tools either.
 
So this is why nice tri-pods cost so much :/

I saw somebody the other day shooting with a 5D mII and a big ass fucking tripod.

the very bottom legs were like 2 in. in diameter -___-
 
yea, thats what i was thinking though. these legs are so legit though, sturdier than the 055's and i payed $70 shipped for them!
 
I've been seriously considering beefing up my cheap ass $60 tripod due to issues ive been having and the fact im broke right now. tonight im gonna go buy some lead weights and put them in my bottom legs to hold this thing down a bit more. Then i need to buy a new head.Right now mine is mostly pladtic and is a pistol grip, it has a release switch so you can pan, but it pans un-evenly. Any tips/suggestions on new heads to buy? $100 and down?
 
I consider my tripod incredible for the price, but if you go lower, everything else sucks.

get old bogen legs (the old name of manfrotto)

the 3001 series is basically the 190 series now

the 3020 is basically the 055 series now

look around on ebay for a while to find a deal on one of these. id say you can find the 3001 for like 60 pretty easily and the 3020 for 80-90 (i got a deal on mine)

As for the head, get the 501hdv if you can, but thats like $150-170

If you dont have that kind of money, get the manfrotto 128rc. $100 new, but i got one on sale for $65 on B&H and im sure you can find cheaper on ebay
 
ive always been skeptical of anything thats not made by a trusted brand like manfrotto (or anything nicer). before this tripod, I have literally broken seven different tripods; thank the lord for best buy service (always got free replacements) and my last two had heads extremely similar to that
 
this is a shitty "fluid" head tripod, you need to stop promoting it in every god damn tripod thread.
 
I am sorry. I know its not a good head. When kids ask whats the best head for under $100 dollars though I think its the best. Then again I really hate the 701 head so I guess its biased. Hows this...

SAVE YOUR DAMN MONEY AND GET A GOOD HEAD!!!!!
 
I just bought a Slik U212 that came with a pan and tilt head. The legs are supposed to be like real oldschool heavy duty shit. I'll replace the head come winter with something nicer in the $150-$250 range which will be dope. People wrote in reviews that they've used the legs for like 25 years+, I'm super excited to use this everywhere!

Yeah OP have a good time putting that baby back together. so many bolts and screws it's daunting.
 
I had an old tripod that I took apart, and put the head on one leg so it was a monopod. It worked, but a few days after realized I'd gotten glue inside the legs so all of them were stuck. It was worth a shot though.
 
My advice:

Buy a vintage Manfrotto head/legs. Their new stuff is really crappy, even for the price (Libec makes better friction heads for the price.)

Also, if you want some ultra sturdy legs, go to a hardware store and buy surveying legs; they are dirt cheap and every bit as stable as $1k camera legs...
 
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