I finally came across an image with the screw. Looks like an old website (the newer websiteseems to be markins.com/4.0/…) and I haven’t seen the screw in any other plateimage nor heard it mentioned in any of the threads I’ve read on ballheads. Thus I doubt it is part of thecurrent design, if it ever was, but here it is:Originally Posted by HDNitehawk
http://www.markins.com/2.0/eng/feature_01.html
Everything I can tell is that Markins is a favored brand, andperhaps the "top" pairing with the Gitzo traveler series. This may be more of the case with the 1541T, 1544T, and 2542Tas the head could actually fit within the legs. The design changed with the1542T as they extended the center column to get some additional height and nowthe head is either just beyond the feet with the column fully extended, or, withinthe feet but the center column sticks out the other side. To keep the most compact set up, this designchange, which many do not seem to like, favors shorter ball heads for the 1542Tvs narrow ball heads on the 1541T. For example, the RRS BH-40 is shorter but wider than the Markins Q3T. So, for the 1542T, without modification, the BH-40 would likely result in a more compact final collapse travel kit.
Here is a picture of the GT1542T without a ball head-- http://www.flickr.com/photos/chub84/5838235248/and the GT1541T with the markins Q3T http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerryart/3386113601/. Actually, I wonder if I they are phasing outthe GT1542T in favor of the GT1544T, which again seems to have room for theball head within the legs. But I amworking on a fix for the the GT1542T. Seems the center columns for Series 1 tripodsare interchangeable, so I’ve emailed Gitzo to see how much a “replacement”center column for the GT1541T would cost. First I have to decide how important it is to have the head between thelegs.
Some of the more interesting links regarding Markins I’vecome across:
http://www.hossedia.com/reviews/gitzo-traveler-markins-q3t/(later-- lost the tripod combo and replaced with RRS BH-40 and legs-seecomments—preferred the BH-40)
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=538298
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-999885.html
http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/non-nikon_articles/markins/index.html
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/610121/0
http://photo.net/filters-bags-tripods-accessories-forum/00YCLS
http://adaynotwasted.com/2010/08/the-perfect-travel-tripod/
http://www.wilsonism.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53&EntryID=19
It may seem that I am trying to sell, myself or you, on Markins, I am not. They simply kept coming up in my searches, even for RRS, and I hadn’t heard of them before and, from what I can tell the Markins Q3T and RRS BH-30 were the only ball heads designed for the Gitzo traveler series with most people I can find selecting the Q3T between the two.
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