HEADS UP, LOTS OF SURVEYOR TRIPODS ON EBAY THIS WEEK

The ones listed earlier were also aluminum. One of my friends has been having trouble getting delivery of his tripod from this guy. I had no problems myself. Just FYI.

What are the suggestions to convert it to the normal photo mount? Is aggie's suggestions the best and quickest: Adaptor Screw...5/8 11 to 1/4 20 at Master Wholesale $4.78

I'm not using a majestic, but will soon be moving to a bogen 3047 (and if anyone has one for sale...)

The nount that comes with the tripod is very flimsy. I am in the process of having someone machine and adapter plate for me. Majestic heads go for as little as $25 on ebay right now.

wow, really?!? I guess I'll just need to check ebay every once in a while so that I can grab one. I will actually be cheaper than the 3047.
Thanks for the tip, Brian

jeremy

Actually, in looking at the majestic head, I may prefer the Bogen 3047 as my largest format is 4x5 and I also use a Mamiya M645 so the quick release system is a boon in that regard. I plan to use the surveyor tripod for the 4x5 and continue to use the Bogen 3021 for the medium format and the Bogen head would probably work better for both of them. If anyone has any ideas on this let me know!

I received my surveyor tripod today and I'm not really ever worried about buying a camera which would be too heavy for this thing as I can pretty much sit on it w/o anything happening. Now I just have to convert it to use the Bogen 3047 head I just purchased and I'll be ready to go! Has anyone come up with the best--read best compromise b/w sturdiness and cost--way to do this?

Jeremy, I had a 3047 mounted on my surveyors tripod for years up until I went to 12X20 and went to the Majestic head. You are correct that a surveyors tripod is pretty sturdy. On my surveyors tripod the hole in the upper plate was smaller then the base of the 3047 head. I took a 3/16 X1 inch strap of aluminum plate that was longer then the diameter of the hole in the tripod upper plate and drilled a large enough hole in the aluminum strap to allow the passage of a bolt of the correct size for the 3047 mount. I first threaded a nut onto the bolt then placed the aluminum strap on the bolt and brought it up from the bottom through the hole in the tripod upper plate. I then screwed the 3047 onto the bolt. When this was tight I screwed the nut up against the strap to tightened the whole affair into the tripod top plate. Hope that my directions make sense. If the hole in the tripod upper plate were too large for the 3047, I would then have a washer of sufficiently larger size shim the tripod upper plate. Good luck.

That makes perfect sense and the best part is that I already have the plate so I just need to run out and get the bolt and nut.

I have just uploaded some pics of my custom tripod head mount. My old man machined it out of super tough plastic.