Induro tripod catastrophe ! (beware)

Blue Deuce wrote in post #3198570
The aluminum sleeve that fits inside the center column came out. As I previously mentioned there was a film of some glue but it wasn't even applied uniformally on the sleeve.

I don't usually skimp on stuff. I was looking for a tripod, had a wad of cash in my pocket and made a impulsive purchase. I am terribly disapointed in Induro never taking the efforrt to respond to my email.

I don't know why I didn't take any photos. I think it made me sick looking at it. I will ask the guy at the camera store to do so and email them to me.

Wow! I am a little surprised this failure didn't give any indication prior. At the same time, it could be that once the glue gave way, the sleeve succumbed to gravity and the bounce of hiking and worked itself out; and plop goes the Wimberley .

Thanks for sharing, and do post the damage if you get something from the store.

I'll be taking close look at my center columns. Perhaps the lesson here is to check over your equipment prior to going to the field. Mechanical things do break. Five months though is a little too soon for my liking on a +$500 tripod.

This is one of those things - proper glue selection for shear strength and proper assembly process - that you cannot gain by knocking off another product. You need to learn these things by dealing with warranty returns, failure analysis and by doing reliability testing then improving the product based on what you learn from all that.

I see this sort of stuff all the time in my day job....

J

Not to derail the thread or anything, but just a dumb noob question here. Don't you keep a strap around you when carrying your rig over your shoulder? I'm a coward, and always hold the strap and the pod with the same hand.

My first field photo class, where they told us to just huck the pod on your shoulder instead of doing a full tear down, emphasized to keep your hand or shoulder through the camera strap, so that if the little 1/4 -20 screw that holds it all together fails, it hits you in the back, not the ground. No one in our group had anything longer than a 70-210 FD with a 2x at the time.

KirkHMB wrote in post #3204798
Not to derail the thread or anything, but just a dumb noob question here. Don't you keep a strap around you when carrying your rig over your shoulder? I'm a coward, and always hold the strap and the pod with the same hand.

My first field photo class, where they told us to just huck the pod on your shoulder instead of doing a full tear down, emphasized to keep your hand or shoulder through the camera strap, so that if the little 1/4 -20 screw that holds it all together fails, it hits you in the back, not the ground. No one in our group had anything longer than a 70-210 FD with a 2x at the time.

I personally dont use strap when toting the 500. I found that it seemed to catch on branches and stuff when walking in the woods.

Ouch! That sounds terrible indeed! The hardware failure after only a few months of use, and then not even a reply from Induro! You're really lucky that your gear suffered only a few scratches!

I considered getting Benro stuff, but I reconsidered after seeing some terrible pics of the inside of ballheads. Now I wonder whether I should also reconsider about the tripod On the other hand, many people seem to be happy with theirs, and I'm not looking for a cheap deal on a Gitzo but for something more lightweight than Manfrotto. (BTW @blonde: What was the make of the tripod that failed on you: Bogen/Manfrotto?) Induro doesn't sell in Europe, but Benros are supposedly the same, and they sell for half the price (and a third of a Gitzo). Cheaper than CF tripds from Manfrotto even. At that price it might be worth the hassle of always holding on to your camera strap as a backup. Although I don't wanna compromise on the safety of my equipment

Ratafluke wrote in post #3237016
Ouch! That sounds terrible indeed! The hardware failure after only a few months of use, and then not even a reply from Induro! You're really lucky that your gear suffered only a few scratches!

I considered getting Benro stuff, but I reconsidered after seeing some terrible pics of the inside of ballheads. Now I wonder whether I should also reconsider about the tripod On the other hand, many people seem to be happy with theirs, and I'm not looking for a cheap deal on a Gitzo but for something more lightweight than Manfrotto. (BTW @blonde: What was the make of the tripod that failed on you: Bogen/Manfrotto?) Induro doesn't sell in Europe, but Benros are supposedly the same, and they sell for half the price (and a third of a Gitzo). Cheaper than CF tripds from Manfrotto even. At that price it might be worth the hassle of always holding on to your camera strap as a backup. Although I don't wanna compromise on the safety of my equipment

the tripod that failed on me was a no name brand made for the local store. i have used manfrotto and it was solid as a rock...

Got a funny story to share.

Two days ago I was out on location with a friend using the Supermarket Special. There was quite a breeze blowing and his tripod LITERALLY became airborne - I had to catch it!!

I cannot see for the life of me why ANYONE would pay close to $600.00 for what is clearly an attempt at copying the best there is, and THEN expect it to perform like the best there is?
I am sorry for your nightmare bud, but I hope everyone else here that reads this gets the picture.
When I have $10,000.00 worth of gear hanging off the end of anything it is going to be a Gitzo, period.

I personally think that no matter what tripod you have you should not trust it completely. This is another use for the POTN strap. When I carry my rig on the tripod the strap is also wrapped around the tripod so if anything does happen it only falls a short distance.

not a good feeling! Glad its all ok.

Deuce... did your tripod have a "pin" through the top of the carbon fiber tube into the aluminum insert (which came out)?

I noticed on my new Induro C-014 that they have put in a crosspin through the carbon fiber center tube into the aluminum top-plate attachment insert, which the top plate screws down into. They also have put in a cross pin in the bottom of the center post where the insert for a weight hanger is installed.

What I'm wondering is if your center post lacked this cross pin, contributing to the drop. Perhaps in response to experiences such as yours, they have upgraded the design to include the cross pin. Does the Gitzo design include a cross pin in this area? I would certainly think so.

In any event, with a huge/expensive lens & camera hanging off of the tripod, regardless of the tripod brand, based on your experience, I think I'll use a strap as a back-up level of security. Thanks for your post.

DHart wrote in post #5065510
Deuce... did your tripod have a "pin" through the top of the carbon fiber tube into the aluminum insert (which came out)?

I noticed on my new Induro C-014 that they have put in a crosspin through the carbon fiber center tube into the aluminum top-plate attachment insert, which the top plate screws down into. They also have put in a cross pin in the bottom of the center post where the insert for a weight hanger is installed.

What I'm wondering is if your center post lacked this cross pin, contributing to the drop. Perhaps in response to experiences such as yours, they have upgraded the design to include the cross pin. Does the Gitzo design include a cross pin in this area? I would certainly think so.

In any event, with a huge/expensive lens & camera hanging off of the tripod, regardless of the tripod brand, based on your experience, I think I'll use a strap as a back-up level of security. Thanks for your post.

No pin was on my Induro. Maybe they did take incidents like mine into account and changed the design.

Gitzo has a different mounting system all together. You mount the Wimberley inside a collar and tighten it down with a nut and bolt design.

Hi just read this thread. My question is who carries a really heavy camera kit on their tripod?
The advice I was given was never ever, ever, ever! carry your camera on your tripod, for any reason! Did your lens/camera setup exceed the tripod capacity carrying weight? Especially over your shoulder? I have 2 Induro tripods, aluminium and carbon fibre and they are absolutely fantastic in every respect.
The tripod may have failed due to strains that exceeded manufacturers expectations which are completely out of their control.

Hi Dave, welcome to POTN.

Did you regularly shoot birds with a big prime like a 500mm on 1D?
Did the fellow that gave you that advice shoot wildlife with the kind of equipment being discussed in this thread?


If not, then you may not understand. Literally every fellow birder I know, myself included is in the habit of slinging a loaded tripod over our shoulder to get from point to point between shooting. It's just how it's done. And we expect our equipment to keep up with us.

On a separate note, this is one thread I am surprised I missed back when it was posted.

In hindsight, I am very glad I did miss it. Why? It definitely might have colored me against ever trying Induro.

I did try Induro, first with an insane clearance sale on tiny flyweight "0" series travel CF tripod. I liked it so much that when another sale came up for a, you guessed it, CT313, I grabbed it! Exactly like the one in the original post.

I already owned a Gitzo systematic, so i could compare directly. The Gitzo remained my main wildlife tripod, due mostly to it's being systematic series 3, and could use the leveling base I prefer, but that 313 has now seen years of service.

Later I got an Induro Grande CT404 series. It's been my biggest sturdiest tripod for about 10 years, mounting my 500mm and my Sigmonster 300-800mm with 1D4/1DXIII (a 13 pound lens)

I am sure Gitzo QC remains superior to Induro, but the ones I have had have been fantastic. For $100.00 off of a $600.00 tripod, i agree, I'd go with the Gitzo, but unlike Gitzo I have seen the older line of Induro tripods go on "stupid low price" clearance whenever they come out with an update. At that point savings can be less than half the cost of an equivalent Gitzo.