Opteka disassembly

Has anyone taken the elevation swivel apart on one of these? I just purchased one and it has no friction adjustment so I'd like to add that feature.

I twisted the knob to the point that I felt something would break if I applied more force. I'd rather have it a little stiff than broken.

Overall this head seems like a good value for someone that doesn't mind tinkering. A little adjustment made the panning smooth enough. A small bronze shim under the retaining bolt head may remove any stickiness.

It would probably help to know the exact model you are referring to. Beyond that you might contact Opteka at http://opteka.com/cont​act-us.aspx. Doesn't seem to be any manuals that can help. Manfrotto for example has some parts list with diagrams which can help in coming up with possible solutions.

Opteka makes a large line of products, it would help to have some detail.

It's the GH1 swivel head.

TerryMiller wrote in post #17680068
It's the GH1 swivel head.

Some comments over at Amazon seem to indicate there are no instructions.

I do note this comment...some of its content may be applicable. Note in particular the area that is in bold.

After reading all of the Amazon reviews (many thanks to Diverhank for his excellent review) and considering the alternative products from Wimberley, RRS, Jobu, etc I decided to take a chance on the Opteka Gimbal Head. The head arrived yesterday. Here are my observations and impressions.

The head is made from cast aluminum and is covered with a rubbery coating.

It is rather crude in that the anodizing is thin and the parts are not well machined.

The knob that locks the head from moving horizontally did not function properly.

The movement of the vertical arm was uneven.

Two useless compasses.

My first thought was to just send it back and buy a Wimberley. However, since the price difference is $450 I decided to try and fix it since other reviewers had been successful.

1. I removed the horizontal adjustment knob and then filed down the boss to allow the adjustment screw to go deeper into the body of the head and thus fully engage and lock movement.

2. Next I took an X-acto knife and cut away the portion of the rubber coating that was interfering with movement of the vertical arm. If you decide to try this make sure that you remove the rubber you cut off from the mechanism or it may never work properly.

So after an hour of modification and setup I got it to work properly. I spent this morning shooting wildlife if my back yard. What a difference! I wish I had purchased a gimbal head sooner.
This was a difficult product to rate. If it had worked as well out of the box as it did after I fixed it I would have given it 5 stars for functionality and value and just ignored the aesthetics. But, it didn't work properly initially and many people will be unwilling or unable to fix it. Therefore, I deducted 2 stars. If the repair had not been successful or if I had returned it after my initial inspection I would have given it 1 star. The bottom line is that if you are willing to commit to doing some modification it is a good value. If you expect a perfectly functioning product out of the box you may get lucky as some other reviewers evidently had no problems but quite a few had the same issues that I encountered.

ADDED INFORMATION

Supposedly that gimbel head is a repackaged/rebadged Beike BK-45 Gimbal head. Googling that head I came up with this source on disassembly.

http://www.pentaxforum​s.com …ike-bk45-gimbal-head.html

The two sure do look similar, and sorry to say the Beike is less expensive. But reviews on the Beike indicate that the horizontal locking screw is often bent and makes it seem tight but might not be.

Thanks to everyone that posted. I just finished cleaning and adjusting the gimbal arm. The procedure is documented at http://www.millfam.org …-elevation-adjustment.pdf if anyone is interested. I don't know how to attach it to this post or if that's possible.