Used Manfrotto Manfrotto 701RC2 Fluid Head - Supports 9 Lbs

2008-03-02T19:00:00

I can thoroughly recommend this head to anyone who is contemplating it for Field/Spotting scope use. I have enough faith in it to carry my Swarovski ATS 65 HD mounted to it when wandering around, and have not had the clamp let go (as yet). It is light, smooth, well made in the Manfrotto tradition, and locks down solid. The key to its stability however, is to mount it on a decent set of legs, and I find it hard to recommend the Manfrotto 190 MF3 (Carbon fiber) that is sometimes combined with this head as a kit (the MF4 is even worse!). This company has yet to discover how to properly counter-balance their heavy tripod bases/leg locks with the lightweight legs. It feels very unstable, with little lateral adjustment available in the legs (almost vertical, or laid out flat!). This terrific little head works just great on my old Gitzo G1228, and I've seen many birders here in Japan using it on Gitzo's newer Basalt series with success. One gripe with the clamp is that it its locking lever (RC2 type plate) does not lock in place, so extra care is needed to make sure it's pushed fully home. One little accessory definitely worth adding is Bogen/Manfrotto's 200USS adapter plate for spotting scopes. It works like a gem, and doesn't allow any twisting on the head. To my mind, this is a far superior head to Swarovski's own version (Made to their specifications BY Manfrotto!). It's $200 cheaper, stronger, and has none of the cheap plastic parts that have been added to the Swarovski version . I feel it's more suitable for scopes than video cameras, as there are smoother panning heads out there in this price range, though perhaps not so well put together as this gem.

Yukihyo

2007-08-24T21:00:00

I use this head with my Canon HV20 video camera. I've noticed that the pan (left-right) has a bit of initial friction that makes it "stick" slightly. Perhaps this is partly due to the light weight of the camera, but the tilt (up-down) works flawlessly w/o any sticking at all.

Lee