Beware of older Vinten fluid heads.

[Chris Santucci]

I just bought and am returning a 2nd older Vinten fluid head. Both had non-functioning counterweight adjustments and the repair cost is like almost 800 bucks. Their counterweight system must be the worst design ever.

 

[Tom Wills]

Were they ex-news? I know that back when my dad worked in TV, he brought me home a Vinten Vision 10 to play with, and the thing looked like it had (and may have) fallen out of a moving vehicle. Knobs missing, plates all mangled, tape residue. It seemed like a miracle that the thing worked. Plus, it would figure that with the same ENG camera on it every day, the counterbalance mechanism might get broken without anyone noticing.

I am just waiting for the day when you show up on location with an O'Connor 1030, however.

 

[Chris Santucci]

HAHAHAHA. No... Ronford Baker, maybe though.

No, they don't look abused, just both have non working counterbalance. I'm about to just get a new Manfrotto setup now because it's hard to find good used heads that are fully functioning from these non-users on eBay.

 

[Kit Hannah]

Were they ex-news?...fallen out of a moving vehicle. Knobs missing, plates all mangled, tape residue. It seemed like a miracle that the thing worked.

Most news gear looks like this... Many local network stations have piles of broken gear or barely working gear. News is a business and is treated as such. My buddy's CBS affiliate is still using 15 year old Panasonic Cameras, amazing that they still work. EVERYTHING is a workaround. They are beat to hell.

 

[NotJonGreco]

When I worked in news, we had these old Satchlers. Out of the 5 we had, 1 worked well. I used to race the other crews to the gear room to get the good stuff haha.

I too have had problems with the older vinten fluid heads. I've worked with two, both of which must have been 5 or 6 years old at least...they become very jumpy.