Any Manfrotto 438 Camera Leveller Owners Here?

I received my new Manfrotto 438 camera levelling ball attachment today and wasn't too pleased with its operation. It almost jammed when operated as the lower edge of the 'ball' part caught up on the machining marks of the lower casting. This was with no weight on it at all, which got considerably worse when pressing down on it to simulate the weight of the camera and head.

I didn't want the inconvenience of sending it back and waiting for a new one (which would probably be the same) so I took it to bits and had a look. It was binding on quite a large part of the bearing surface on one side, as if the two items didn't correspond in their shape.

Anyway, after taking it apart and spending two hours working the items against each other with some cutting paste, and finally some abrasive polish before re-greasing it, I got it working smoothly.

I'm just wondering if any of you have a 438 and have had the same problem.

Mike

Mine worked great out of the box with no problems. The only thing that happened to me was that the screw for the locking lever fell out while shooting one day - new screw and some loc-tite and all has been well for over a year now. I do not recall noticing any type of grease on mine and I have not added any - it works pretty smooth and seems like grease would attract dirt and act like sandpaper. Sorry to hear you had to do some creative finishing to get yours to work.

Peace
Mark

Thanks All is well now!

Mine was greased with white grease, around the ball and locking lever pivot. I assumed that Manfrotto greased everything because both my tripod heads were greased, as were the leg clamps on my tripod.

Mike

Mike,

Manfrotto kit can be a little rough round the edges. I had to do exactly the same thing with cutting paste on a 486 ballhead. Oh yes, it was smothered in grease as well.

Mine (actually the older model 3502) was just a little stiff in the beginning. Just a little use smoothed it up and it's great now.

You don't want to overtighten the clamp, and I believe (it's been a while since I've adjust it at all) that you can adjust the position of the clamp lever on its shaft so that it clamps as tight as you wish when you move the lever full-stroke closed.

Thank you both.

Richard, glad to hear it's not just me then! On mine I ended up with a nice shiny lower edge to the 'ball' section and a slight, extra-shiny widening (maybe a couple of thousandths) of the lower casting on one side. God knows how they managed to machine it slightly oval!

Skip, I took measurements from mine before I took it to bits, but it didn't clamp exactly the same when I had ground it in, so I made the adjustment on the two spring-loaded countersunk bolts.

Mike

Mike,

The beauty of having a simple but solid construction is we are able to do things like this. If my Markins M10 ever gives me grief, I'd think twice before tearing it apart, but Manfrotto stuff rewards the curious streak in us all.

The engineer in me likes "simple" things. It normally means "good design".

Richard

I suppose that's one way of looking at it! I would have preferred it if they had machined the damned thing properly in the first place though, leaving me with more time to dismantle other things!

Mike