Will the 503LV Pan Handle fit the (old) 501 head?

[Alan Buckler]

Hi.
I'm trying to get a 2nd pan handle for our two studio tripods, and we use the "old" 501 manfrotto head (not the "new" 501DV head).

I definately want a 2nd pan-handle to make studio operations better, but i would like to use an "extended" or "telescopic" pan handle, to again, give even more flexibilty and control to the camera operator.

For the 501 head, the reccomended pan handle is the 501LV.
For the 503 head, the reccomended pan handle is the 503LV.

Now, the 503LV is a telescopic handle (as opposed to the 501LV, which is not), and i am trying to find out if this pan handle (503LV) will fit the 501 head.

The 503 and 501 heads look pretty similar (only an internal difference it seems) so i'm hoping that the pan handles will be interchangeable between heads. Does anybody have any answers?

Like i said, i will buy two 501LVs if the 503LV will not work with the 501 head, as i still want the 2nd pan handle, but if it will work then i will likely end up buying 4 of the telescopic 503LVs so i have 2 on each 501 tripod head.

Any help will be very appreciated, as i'd like to avoid purchasing the items blindly and wasting the money to find out!!

Alternatively, if anyone knows of a way to extend the 501LV handle, that would be interesting. I know that it is a two-stage handle that can be taken apart with an alan-key, so is there any "barrel" or handle piece out there that will fit inbetween the two sections, so i could extend the length of the arm? It wouldn't be "telescopic" or flexible to change the size, but it would give the extra length that can be useful in studio camera work. If there was such a piece, i'd be interested in getting 4 of them. Any thoughts?

[David Beisner]

Yes, it will.