What's the deal with Linhof Tripods ?

[Bill_1856]

Ron, I have one like that, and it's a really great tripod. It's absolutely perfect for a MF camera. The problem is that to get the full 60" height, the center column has to be fully extended which could be be a little wobbly supporting a 4x5 camera. (The height with the column unextended is 46".) A lot of weight is saved by having an integral pan head. I just weighed mine at 4# 3 oz.

[Bob Salomon]

Ron,

You received a Report version which is too lite for view camera work. The Report series is no longer made.

The tripods that are made that are of interest is the 3414, 3449, 3317, and the two extra large tripods, the Heavy Duty Pro and the Profi III models.

Non Linhof tripod is currently made waith a head.

[neil poulsen]

I'll attest to bad design of early Linhof products.

For example, I have a heavy-duty Lihnof ball head, where the ball mechanism works great. HOWEVER, the 1/4" threaded tripod connection hole was put in a small metal disk about 3/4" in diameter and an eighth of an inch thick, and this disk was pounded into a centered receiving hole on the bottom of the head that was a necessary tight fit. But tip the camera or tripod at all, and this disk would pop out. Of course, this small disk remained securely fastend to the tripod, while rest of the head and the camera went careening to the ground. As I said, THIS WAS THE DESIGN OF THE HEAD!!! I couldn't believe it, when I discovered it. Fortunately, I was able to catch the wooden 8x10 camera before it crashed.

In another gaff of design with the huge tripod, there's a rod with a small handle that extends up the middle of the 3" center column, so that one can twist the handle from the bottom of the column to attach a head to the tripod at the top of the column. At the top end of this rod is an adaptor that has a 1/4" thread on one side and a 3/8" thread on the other. Through a third and larger thread on both sides, the adaptor screwed into the rod, thereby "enabling" one to use heads with either large or small holes by screwing the adaptor into the rod one way or another. So imagine, one turns from the bottom of the tripod column to fasten a head at the top of the column. Of course, one wants to apply enough torque, so that the head is securely fastened to the tripod. But, when it came time to remove the head, instead of unscrewing from the tripod head, it unscrewed where the adaptor connected to the rod, leaving the head still securely fastened to tripod clear up inside the 3" center column! I had to disassemble the entire center column to remove the head. Fortunately, this was possible. Unbelievable! This was a problem of design.

There's also been threads here in which people have complained about Technika's. If one uses a 360mm lens, part of the internals of the camera shadows onto the edge of the film. This is an error in design. It was explained that, when Linhof adapted the early 9cmX12cm Technikas to the larger U.S. 4x5 standard, they didn't correspondingly enlarge the camera body along with the film back. So, problems occur at longer focal lengths. For me, that's a head-shaker.

I don't mean to have this be a rant on Linhof. If one owns a Linhof, they can behold Linhof's solid build of their cameras. That is a thing of beauty. But good design on early equipment? Not from my point of view.

Perhaps this has changed recently, but when I think of intelligence of design, Linhof doesn't come to mind.

[Bob Salomon]

Neil,

You are appearing to be describing a Nuline 3 tripod which was designed by the then USA Linhof Distributor, Berkey Marketing. The Nuline series was made to Berkey's specifications by Linhof and were all tripods with a built-in head. One from the Report serise, one from the Light Weight series and one from the Twin Shank series. All had a special top plate that attached the head from inside the column.

No Linhof tripod has been made that way for over 30 years except for a small report tripod that Ron has acquired.

Linhof changed their ball head design over twenty years ago. What you are describing with your head was a problem with a series of tan ball heads previous to the current all black Profi II and Profi III heads.

Time marches on and so does condtruction.