RE: [Leica] [Off topic] Gitzo: G026 Compact Performance

[Joe Berenbaum <joe-b@dircon.co.uk>]

At 22:12 28/02/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Joe,
>Thanks a lot for your advice. I already have a heavy Manfrotto, and Leica's
>small table tripod w/ ballhead. Both have their uses, but I am looking for
>something in between. Light enough that I can bring it also when I'm not
>driving, small enough that it can go relatively unnoticed.
>Does your reservation about the small Gitzo heads apply to the m. 175 as
>well as their smallest one?
>You didn't mention if you use this tripod a lot or it is collecting dust.
>Regards,
>Tore

I use it more than any other tripod. I can get it in a tripod bag and carry
it over my shoulder and it is virtually invisible. I can even leave a
Rollei 35 on it and it all still goes in the tripod bag! As for the small
Gitzo heads, I can't see an m. 175 in the catalogue- in this one they are
all G-something. The second smallest in this catalogue is the G1175, which
may well be fine and might work well on the 026 tripod, but without seeing
or trying one I can't really tell. My reservation is based on getting the
corresponding small Gitzo ballhead when I ordered a Gitzo G120 (Sport
Performance), which I also find a very good, but larger and more solid,
tripod (still on the light side though). The head that came with this one
was unusable because the lever for tightening the ball was an unpleasant
little bar that was very hard on the fingers. I found I couldn't tighten
the ball enough to hold the camera up, so I returned the head. My test for
tiny tripod ball heads is that they must be capable of holding a
lightweight 35mm SLR with a small lens- otherwise it is too limited for me
(note- the Manfrotto Mini Ball 342 can hold a square format medium format
SLR such as a Rollei 6000 or SL66 with one of the lighter lenses on it, so
this isn't an unrealistic requirement). Possibly I could have tightened
that small Gitzo head enough if I had great resistance to pain, but
pressing very hard on tiny bits of metal with my fingers is not my idea of
fun. In the current Gitzo catalogue  the smallest ball head looks
worryingly similar to the one I found unusable, and is, I believe, the
coorect head from the Gitzo range for the series 0 tripods- you just match
the first digit for the tripod series with the first digit of the head
number, thus for tripod 026, you would used head 075. The Manfotto head I
use on the 075 is what they call the Mini Ball Head, no 342- this has a
corresponding Bogen number that is, of course, a diffeent number. It seems
to be the smallest head in the Bogen range, last time I looked, but is the
second smallest in the Manfrotto catalogue. I can probably find the Bogen
catalogue number if you want me to look it up. An M body can be used
vertically on this head on the G026 tripod due to having the tripod socket
at one end, but other bodies possibly not- this is due to the way the head
fits the tripod collumn top, which is wider than the head. Possibly the
Leica ball head that you use on the Leica table tripod would work also,
depending on thread sizes.

Joe Berenbaum