silly tripod load capacity question....

Brrrt_tsssh wrote in post #2399158
But, if you have the camera in portrait position (think thats what you call it??) I.e tilted on its side, all the weight of the camera will be supported via the wee screw in bolt that fixes the camera to the tripod, that would break first as all the load is transferred to the tripod via that, so if you knew the material of that and thread size, you could figure out how much it could support before failing and the camera dropping off, plus a longer lense will cause the load to be further out, therefore increasing the stress on the bolt in both the portrait and landscape positions....

The wee screw can support my bodyweight.

Are you in mechanical or biomedical engineering?

Sloany wrote in post #2396766
IMO, i would look at the 1/4-20 0r 3/8 stud first. If it is cheap metal, it will snap quite easily. I have seen more than once, photographers walking in the woods with their tripod on their shoulder, camera and big lens mounted on the tripod. Three have had their gear wind up taking a dump to the ground because the stud broke.

And what sort of tripods were they using? Were they decent quality tripods or some super cheapie version with a plastic mounting screw or something like that? Did you actually witness the broken mounting screws or did the screws merely come loose because they were not tightened in the first place?

In more than 40 years as a photographer, I have never heard of a tripod's mounting screw breaking much less seen one. I have seen them come loose from time to time.

Merely stating that you have seen the studs break without giving any more detail is not fair to the many very capable tripod systems that are out there.

I very seriously doubt that I could deliberately break the camera mounting screws in any of my tripods, and that includes the couple of very inexpensive tabletop tripods we have for my wife's digital point-n-shoot.

Cathpah wrote in post #2392838
Does that mean when I have a 70-200/100-400 attached to either of my bodies I can't hang anything heavier than an apple (figuratively speaking of course) from the hook on the centerpost? I am used to hanging my camera bag from the center post.

For a tripod that is as well designed and built as the Gitzo, the hook on the center post is a weak sister. I had a 1257 and normally suspended my 12-18 pound pack from the hook. The flimsy washer that retains the spring gave way. I ended up threading the hook shaft and had a robust part.

I agree that hanging a pack or weight from a light tripod improves the stability tremendously. It is too easy to move a light tripod regardless of how strong the tripod is. Adding some weight that is low works well.

Jeff

I ended up fixing two of the tripods by making 2 new studs and adding a C clip as a retainer. One tripod was an early PRO Vivitar #1321, the other was a 7 year old Manfroto.

All i am saying is to give any of them a good long look. I inspect all my stuff on a routine basis. On rare occasions, I have had 1 1/2" Grade 8 bolts fail. Anything can happen at any time. I prefer not to carry my bigger lenses and camera mounted to my tripod while i`m bouncing around the hills and valleys.