Vanguard Alta pro 263 AT directions

They're pretty horrible. Pictures that don't explain very much. Couple questions. I'm attaching a sbh-250 ballhead. I have everything together but just want to make sure it's correct.
1)it does not say how tight the quick release should be on the camera past finger tight. They give you a little tool to tighten the screw, but how past finger tight should it be turned bothe for safety and for not damaging the mount or camera? 1/4-1/2 turn?
The ballhead came with an stainless steel insert that I screwed onto the top of the tripod mount, then I screwed the bal into that and snugged it up, then tightened those three little set screws. This is correct? It looks like the tripod itself comes with an extra stainless steel adapter for the interface of the ballhead-tripod? The instruction don't really explain any of this whatsoever.
2) the instructions show a picture to loosen the hex screw on top of the ballhead where the quick release slides into. Do they mean to make sure that hex head is tight? Because I see zero reason to unscrew that.
3) the tripod legs come with two hex tools one male and one female. He male is for the set screws, what is that female hex tool for?
All in all its a very nice setup. I just wish it came with some instructions that made sense.

Where are you? Perhaps there's a photography club in your area? This might all be so much easier if you had someone in person to puzzle this through with you.

Frodge wrote in post #16380662
They're pretty horrible. Pictures that don't explain very much. Couple questions. I'm attaching a sbh-250 ballhead. I have everything together but just want to make sure it's correct.
1)it does not say how tight the quick release should be on the camera past finger tight. They give you a little tool to tighten the screw, but how past finger tight should it be turned bothe for safety and for not damaging the mount or camera? 1/4-1/2 turn?
The ballhead came with an stainless steel insert that I screwed onto the top of the tripod mount, then I screwed the bal into that and snugged it up, then tightened those three little set screws. This is correct? It looks like the tripod itself comes with an extra stainless steel adapter for the interface of the ballhead-tripod? The instruction don't really explain any of this whatsoever.
2) the instructions show a picture to loosen the hex screw on top of the ballhead where the quick release slides into. Do they mean to make sure that hex head is tight? Because I see zero reason to unscrew that.
3) the tripod legs come with two hex tools one male and one female. He male is for the set screws, what is that female hex tool for?
All in all its a very nice setup. I just wish it came with some instructions that made sense.

Sorry, but if you can't put together a simple thing like tripod and start your post with "They're horrible".. I am doubting who is?

And yes I do have the exact combo. It does have it's quirks, but it's the best bang for your buck.

One thing you might do is let Google be your friend. Do a search on "sbh-250 ballhead youtube" (without the quotes) and you will get several videos from which you can learn a great deal. One for instance is www.youtube.com/watch?​v=bzWgi6TiDA4.

rndman wrote in post #16383891
Sorry, but if you can't put together a simple thing like tripod and start your post with "They're horrible".. I am doubting who is?

And yes I do have the exact combo. It does have it's quirks, but it's the best bang for your buck.

I did put it together without even reading the instructions. The problem arose
When I scanned through te directions. Go take a peak if you still have them and come back and tell me how you feel about them. What quirks do you find in the setup? Just curious. So far mine has been solid. I've used it 5 or 6 times. Which way do you have the plate mounted on your camera. That's my biggest question.
Thanks John from pa.