Vinten vision blue spreader won't open

[Ben Edwards]

Hi, I have a Vinten Vison Blue and the spreader will not flatern (its the middle one, not one that fits on bottom). Stuck so the 3 legs are at around 30%. Sent it to vinten and they quoted me £96 to repair. Ime planing on selling the tripod and wondering if it is worth it. Cant find mutch about how mutch these are new or if there is an alternative. Or if there are any third party places to get it repaired in the UK.

All advice greatfuly recived,
Regards,
Ben

[W. Bill Magac]

I recently had issues with my older Sachtler FSB6/Speedlock 75 tripod kit. Brought the kit to Vitec’s USA facility in Shelton, Connecticut. Was quoted $700 USD repair cost for the tripod legs, not including the video head. Declined the repair and bought an E-Image EG06C2 kit for $1,049 USD plus tax. The kit has the GH06 head and carbon fiber legs. The head is very smooth and is perfect for my Panasonic CX350 camera.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1093073-REG/e_image_eg06c2_2_stage_carbon_fiber.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801

P.S. Tried uploading a 5.7MB photo of the camera on the tripod. Keep getting an upload failed error message. Any suggestions as to why the upload is failing?

[Chris Soucy]

Hi Ben........................

The standard spreader for the VB sticks looks like this:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1358414-REG/vinten_v4151_1001_mid_level_spreader_for_flowtech.html/BI/2855/KBID/3801

What you cannot see in the above photo is the TWO RED ARROWHEADS on the periphery of the hex faced knob that occupies the centre of the spreader.

In order to play with this gizmo it is perhaps easier to detach the spreader from the legs. Spread the legs as much as you can and squeeze together the two horizontally opposed buttons, one each side of the leg end of each spreader arm. This will release each of the spreader arms from the sticks and allow you to remove it for play time.

With the spreader in the fully closed (arms together) mode the central knob at the spreader centre should rotate about 60 degrees one way or the other. At one extreme the knob locks the spreader to a maximum spread of about 30 degrees. At the other extreme it allows the spreader to open fully so that it will sit flat on the floor/ table etc.

This mechanism is so inherently simple I cannot see how it could have failed. If, by some chance it has failed I'll leave you to do the math: 96 UK smackers from Vinten for a replacement (though if you ask the current Product Manager, possibly Barbara Jaumann but don't quote me, you might get a freebie) OR 228 US smackers from B&H USA.

Over to you.

Regards,


CS

[Andrew Smith]

Originally Posted by W. Bill Magac

P.S. Tried uploading a 5.7MB photo of the camera on the tripod. Keep getting an upload failed error message. Any suggestions as to why the upload is failing?

It's bound to be the size of the image file. Try reducing the size, either with something like Photoshop or web site like this one: https://compressimage.toolur.com/

Andrew

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Originally Posted by Ben Edwards

Hi, I have a Vinten Vison Blue and the spreader will not flatern (its the middle one, not one that fits on bottom). Stuck so the 3 legs are at around 30%. Sent it to vinten and they quoted me £96 to repair. Ime planing on selling the tripod and wondering if it is worth it. Cant find mutch about how mutch these are new or if there is an alternative. Or if there are any third party places to get it repaired in the UK.

I had a similar issue with a Sachtler Speedlock tripod. I was able to order the parts and fix it myself but it still cost a lot of money ($300) but since it's a $1,600 tripod it was worth it. For your situation comes down what's the used market for the tripod. Note most of these "repairs" are simply replacing the problem part. In your case the spreader. These parts can only be found from the manufacture and often cost a lot. If you only need to replace a pin then most of the cost will be labor but if they are replacing the entire spreader you could do that.