Gitzo 410 tripod & 525 rapid column

[watanabe`]

I got one of these off KEH a little more than 2 weeks ago and was too busy with studio projects (architecture grad student) to test it out.

I now find that with my head on it (a bogen 3047) the head, and entire center column, will rotate no matter how tightly the column is locked down.

I did a google or two and managed to turn up someone with a similar complaint, and someone replied that this is a standard 'feature' to these older 410's. I find that hard to believe as this makes the tripod fairly useless.

Any thoughts?

I ended up just buying a GT5531S for $848 with $68 dollars cashback from bing and the $40 mail-in rebate gitzo's running now, but I want to sell(too late to return) this 410, but don't want to off it on someone without fixing it. Thinking about using it as a laptop/lighting/etc stand if it's beyond hope.

 

[John Koehrer]

There should be a vertical pin sticking up from the plate at the top of the tripod and a hole in the bottom of the plate on the column. When these are aligned & mated the column won't rotate. When the column is extended the column will rotate. I think the newer tripods have a ridge on the column to prevent the rotation.