Does anyone use Gitzo

[JR1]

I have Manfrotto and Giottos, I was wondering IF Gitzo was worth the extra

Thanks

[Mark von Kanel]

Dunno Jeremy, but i do have a 3 legged friend that i use for travel thats very good, i like my giottos as well though bit its heavy for travel though. so i use it for studio stuff

[Glenn NK]

I've owned all three (one Giottos, two Manfrottos and one Gitzo).

The Giotto and the Manfrottos were aluminum; the weight of the Manfrottos and the awkward leg clamps induced me to part with them; the Giotto had technical problems (it had an articulating arm that was difficult to lock - the camera would frequently drop down when the lock slipped).

Only the Gitzo is still with me. Sold the others.

My son recently acquired a relatively unknown tripod (bought it for his birthday). It seems to be as well made a the Gitzos (twist locks not level locks on the legs).

http://www.flm-gmbh.de/en/products/tripods/

Whether or not a Gitzo is "worth the extra" is quite subjective I think and difficult to ascertain.

Glenn

[Manfred M]

Girzo is manufactured in the same factory as Manfrotto and has been for the last 10 years. Both brands are owned by Vitec Group which is based in the UK. It also owns other premium tripod brands; O'Conner, Sachtler and Vinten (these are video / movie lines).

A number of commercial photographers that I know do use them, and borrowed one to try to see how it stacked up versus the competition before I bought my last tripod. The consensus seems to be that at one point, the were in a class of their own, but there are others that have caught up and even surpassed them from a quality / value standpoint. Novoflex (European) and Really Right Stuff (RRS) (USA) seem to fall into this category.

What I don't like about the Gitzos is that they use a cast main body and components (the appearance is that they use a sand casting) and they use a pulltrusion process for making their carbon fibre legs. Both these processes are really out of keeping for best practices in modern manufacturing, but I expect they use them to keep tooling and production costs down. I think high quality hand-layup is a better production method for carbon fibre and single piece CNC milled construction for the mechanical components would be my preference there too.

As for the ball heads, Gitzo, like Manfrotto, tend to be their standard proprietary quick release designs. If you opt for the Gitzo legs, I would tend to look at alternatives, like RRS, Novoflex, Kirk or Markins (or even Arca-Swiss). They all seem to be viewed as being superior to the Gitzo offerings.

So what did I end up doing? I heard Peter Hurley praising the Feisol products on line so I looked into it. I ended up going with the Feisol 3372LV tripod, which is a 3-section design. Allan Short (Polar01) has the Feisol 3472, which is similar, but a 4-section design.

http://www.feisol.com/

So far as I can tell, the Feisol (a Tawanese company) meets / beats the Gitzo specs, uses superior manufacturing technology when it produces its subcomponents. The company started out as a carbon fibre tube manufacturer and branched out into tripods later on. I know Allan went with one of the Feisol heads, and I opted for the heavy duty RRS BH55 (recommended by Colin Southern, who uses it on his Gitzo). For me, I made the right choice, and got a really sturdy tripod / head combo for the same price as the legs would have cost me going to Gitzo. It blows the Manfrottos right out of the water; I've never used the Giottos, so can't comment there.

[rpcrowe]

I have a Giottos MT-8180 Carbon Fiber Tripod which is a great set of legs. I have a Giottois MH-1300 head on my Giottos MT-8180 legs and I am not absolutely keen on that head because the Arca Compatible clamp is not totally compatible with all Arca plates.

[JR1]

Thanks GD never knew that about one company making both.

I have Giottos alloy and a few Manfrotto inc the 055 CF/Mag with Benro GH2C gimbal but have a chance to get a mint

Gitzo GT3530LS Long Systematic 6X

for £300

[Manfred M]

Sound like a deal that is worth going after. Great price for a heavy-duty Gitzo set of sticks.

[JR1]

Sound like a deal that is worth going after. Great price for a heavy-duty Gitzo set of sticks.

Thank you, I will sell two I don't need at the local club,

[JR1]

Hmmmmm

Gitzo Carbon 6 GT3530LS and Wimberley head arrived today, I have to say whilst they are very nice I do believe that when you are talking higher range mounts, there is in fact little noticeable difference between this setup and my Manfrotto 055CF/Mag with thwe Benro GH2C head.

I would NOT pay NEW prices for the Wimberlay or Gitzo, pre owned they are very nice, mint but to me you pay a lot in premium for the name.