Broken Induro BHL1 Ball Head

[Mark-B]

In what seems to be a very disturbing trend of me dropping my gear on the concrete, my tripod hit the pavement tonight (it was a 5D2 & 17-40 last month). I was using an Induro AT213 tripod with the BHL1 ball head.

I had just taken off the camera and folded up the tripod. I had a Think Tank Retrospective on one shoulder and a camera hanging on the other shoulder. I laid the tripod across the top of the camera bag then raised up the camera to make a quick adjustment. The tripod fell when I did this and dropped about 3 1/2 feet to the ground. It hit head first with impact on one corner and on the locking knob. The pressure on the locking knob pushed it downward and broke a piece off from the bottom of the head.

Surely this is defective manufacturing and not user error, right? That's what I'm telling Induro anyway. We'll see how that goes!

[vsg28]

You will be lucky if they honor this honestly, warranty covers manufacturer defect only. I am hoping they still help you out anyway

[pterpm]

Wow,sorry to heard that. Just a few day a go, i drop my tripod on the concrete too, but lucky that i not mount my 7d ontop of that.feeeww. The ball head was crash a little bit but still useable. I have Vanguard SBH-250 and Manfrotto 190XPROB , the ball head was solid metal

[peter_n]

From your last two pictures it looks like the bottom of the clamp sheared off. I'd put this down to faulty manufacturing; it's probably a cast part which is why it sheared with the sudden force. If you're within the warranty period they should replace it.

[René Damkot]

Could be faulty manufacturing or just being hit with enough force.

Cast metals tend to do that if you hit it with sudden force. I'm not too surprised it broke, and IMO you should consider them generous if they replace it under warranty.

[Mark-B]

Impact is not covered under warranty. They offered to fix it for $110, sell me a demo model with warranty for $113, or I could keep the broken one and buy myself a new one from B&H for $190.

Someone from Mac Group contacted me to write a blog post for the Induro website not long ago. I'm now trying to use that to my advantage and get this thing replaced for free or much cheaper than $113.

I've been very satisfied with the ball head, but don't want to pay since I just bought it a few months ago.

[Samgoit]

I would write back and ask it they would consider selling you just the QR mechanism sans plate. If it's like other heads, and it appears to be, it's a simple matter of one allen bolt and should be simplistic to change.

[luciddreamer]

Originally Posted by Mark-B

Impact is not covered under warranty. They offered to fix it for $110, sell me a demo model with warranty for $113, or I could keep the broken one and buy myself a new one from B&H for $190.

Someone from Mac Group contacted me to write a blog post for the Induro website not long ago. I'm now trying to use that to my advantage and get this thing replaced for free or much cheaper than $113.

I've been very satisfied with the ball head, but don't want to pay since I just bought it a few months ago.

Lets say I buy a brand new car then crash it in a few months. By your reasoning, the manufacturer should replace it because I don't want to pay for fixing it after only owning it a few months. I imagine the car makers would go out of business pretty quick that way.

Maybe you sell photos, if a customer burns them with a cigarette in a few months would you replace the photos because they only had them a few months? Would you consider their carelessness your fault and give them new ones for free? Shouldn't your photos be cigarette proof?

Seems to me you're the one being unreasonable, not the manufacturer. Sorry for your financial loss but it happens. I've dropped a few things myself but I didn't expect someone else to pay for my carelessness. Can't understand why you do.

[Samgoit]

I believe this is the same QR, and you get an extra plate. All cheaper than sending it to Induro.

http://www.amazon.com/Induro-Tripods...keywords=QRT70

Edit: My mistake, they are different (no bubble level). I bet they are compatible, though. That should be easy to confirm.

[DavidR]

Originally Posted by Samgoit

I would write back and ask it they would consider selling you just the QR mechanism sans plate. If it's like other heads, and it appears to be, it's a simple matter of one allen bolt and should be simplistic to change.

+1.

[johnf3f]

I don't think they will cover this. However I recently bought one of these QR clamps and it's pretty good:http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2208529801...84.m1439.l2649

[adammazza]

Originally Posted by luciddreamer

Lets say I buy a brand new car then crash it in a few months. By your reasoning, the manufacturer should replace it because I don't want to pay for fixing it after only owning it a few months. I imagine the car makers would go out of business pretty quick that way.

Maybe you sell photos, if a customer burns them with a cigarette in a few months would you replace the photos because they only had them a few months? Would you consider their carelessness your fault and give them new ones for free? Shouldn't your photos be cigarette proof?

Seems to me you're the one being unreasonable, not the manufacturer. Sorry for your financial loss but it happens. I've dropped a few things myself but I didn't expect someone else to pay for my carelessness. Can't understand why you do.

+1 you dropped it from 3+ feet on concrete...

[Mark-B]

Originally Posted by Samgoit

I would write back and ask it they would consider selling you just the QR mechanism sans plate.

No, they won't, because they don't keep them in stock (this is the Mac Group) and there could be more damage than meets the eye.

If it's like other heads, and it appears to be, it's a simple matter of one allen bolt and should be simplistic to change.

Not so simple. I tried for about 15 minutes, then started to strip the bolt and bend the allen wrench. That thing's in there pretty good. I don't have anything to lose at this point, so I'll work on it more later. The guy on the phone told me I might not be able to do it by hand.

Originally Posted by Samgoit

I believe this is the same QR, and you get an extra plate. All cheaper than sending it to Induro.

http://www.amazon.com/Induro-Tripods...keywords=QRT70

Thanks for the link. That should solve my problem if I can get the other one off.

[Mark-B]

Originally Posted by luciddreamer

Seems to me you're the one being unreasonable

Who said anything about anyone being unreasonable? Not me. I just passed on the information I got from the service department.

[Samgoit]

Originally Posted by Mark-B

Not so simple. I tried for about 15 minutes, then started to strip the bolt and bend the allen wrench. That thing's in there pretty good. I don't have anything to lose at this point, so I'll work on it more later. The guy on the phone told me I might not be able to do it by hand.

It's thread locker. Try heating it while applying constant torque. A vise is basically a must. I've pulled a few QRs off. They certainly can be a bitch. I just pulled a QR off a Benro. The thread locker was excessive to say the least.

Manfrotto, on the other hand, not a drop. Good on the Italians.