Manfrotto recalls all Nitrotech N8 Tripod Heads

They make good grip gear, and I've got a heavy-duty ball head from them which is terrific... But yeah, they never have managed to quite get their heads around fluid heads yet, or tripod legs.
 
Agreed, I have a lot of Manfrotto grip, it is fine. But their tripod heads are entry level, well made, but badly functional, none are capable of a smooth, slow diagonal pan. Have a half a dozen of them laying around from a few decades in the business. Hard to convince people that you get what you pay for with tripod heads and that they really need to invest at least $3k to $8k in a good tripod that will last them all or most of their career over buying an endless sucession of crappy Manfrottos.
 
puredrifting said:
Agreed, I have a lot of Manfrotto grip, it is fine. But their tripod heads are entry level, well made, but badly functional, none are capable of a smooth, slow diagonal pan. Have a half a dozen of them laying around from a few decades in the business. Hard to convince people that you get what you pay for with tripod heads and that they really need to invest at least $3k to $8k in a good tripod that will last them all or most of their career over buying an endless sucession of crappy Manfrottos.
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People don't get it. Tripods and heads aren't "sexy" like cameras and old sh!tty Russian still lenses. Guys blow their load on cameras and lenses and then try to save a buck on support. You get what you pay for. If you can't afford a new, good tripod set-up, buy a used, good tripod set-up.
 
An older, scuffed up but still high quality pro head/tripod set up is better than a brand new, shiny Manfrotto any day. Just snagged me an older Vinten Vision 10 for $300 and it works perfectly.
 
keithlango said:
An older, scuffed up but still high quality pro head/tripod set up is better than a brand new, shiny Manfrotto any day. Just snagged me an older Vinten Vision 10 for $300 and it works perfectly.
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Truer words were never spoken. As we move from shooting 1080 to 4k, 5k, 6k and 8k, many don't realize that with each jump in resolution, the microjitter from their crap tripod head and legs is amplified that much more since these higher resolution images encourage magnification of the image for reframing. What do you think you are magnifying besides your image when you zoom in on a 4k image on a 1080 timeline? You are amplfying jitter and erratic movement. It actually makes good physics sense to use the heaviest tripod and head you can afford, both in money and in weight you can carry. There is no substitute for mass and inertia. So to rephrase that, in general, small, lightweight tripods ALL suck, doesn't matter how well they are built. Case in point, the Sachtler ACE series. The "cheap" Sachtlers built to a price point to somewhat compete with the Manfrottos of the world. IMHO, they are only slightly better than the Manfrottos. Built better but still too light, too flimsy and too much plastic. Please, everyone, stop buying cameras they cannot afford and buy cameras they can afford where they can spend the same amount as their camera package on a tripod. In the end, a lower end camera that is a complete, professional supported package with a quality tripod will gather better images than a camera that costs more but has a crap tripod. I recently saw a $60k RED Weapon Helium 8K camera being used on a $500.00 Manfrotto 502. The person who bought/rented that package needs their head examined ;-)
 
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Many years ago I used a few Manfrotto heads and sticks and frankly they all sucked. If one is serious about making a living shooting video and sees a long time doing so I would go for high quality stuff.

But to Manfrottos credit they make nice light stands and the ones I have works great. They should stick (!) to making light stands.
 
The ART series legs were good for professionals, the 510 heads were decent. The later 519 heads were too light weight, even though they were rated to the same load. But these were also $2000+ usd tripods. The Vinten Vision 8's we have for a couple of cameras in the studio put them to shame, but at the price difference this is to be expected. If I had a new ART 542 and 510 head, I would be content for any rig I would be building for my use.
 
As a UK user with three Vinten heads from nearly new to very ancient - they all knock spots of Manfrottos. I have two of the 510s and there's just no comparison. The 5 and 8 series were my favourites.
 
You can probably get Manfrotto stuff serviced, but I bet the wait for parts is 3 months. That's one reason we stopped using the Manfrotto stuff, repairs were always 3 months out while I waited for parts. Even wear item parts.
 
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