Any Gitzo carbon fibre tripod experts out there? (1 Viewer)

[dougan]

I just bought this online from a camera shop, it was advertised as a Gitzo Series 2 Mountaineer. I emailed them prior to buying it for a exact model number. I had a reply saying they believed it was the GT2532. It is pretty obvious it is not this model, the metal leg inserts below the head are a smooth grey finish, where every model I can find, the finish looks like it is textured, and not plain. There are no stickers on the legs.

Has anyone any idea which model it actually is?

 

[Tringa45]

"Made in France" suggests it was produced prior to 2005. Current Gitzos are made in Italy.

John

 

[dougan]

"Made in France" suggests it was produced prior to 2005. Current Gitzos are made in Italy.

John

Thanks John, that's interesting to know.

 

[fazalmajid]

Gitzo is owned by Manfrotto now, which is why they are made in Italy. I don't know what if any French pedigree remains.

 

[mbb]

From a certain moment in time, Gitzo started to use a very easy to read coding system for their product.
With e.g. GT2532 means it is a Gitzo (G) tripod (T), of maximum section width serie 2 (the higher the number, the thicker the section), in carbon (material number 5), with 3 sections per leg, and the iteration/version/generation number 2.
(With sometimes some additions like L or S depending on e.g. extra length etc. But more about that can be found in their catalogues online, e.g. looking for the PDF's via Google, where there are summary tables.)
More info under "model naming conventions" on Gitzo - Wikipedia .
That coding system was used since 2007 according to this wikipedia page.

Before that, I don't know what the coding system was, but I have noticed older tripod models to e.g. not include the 'T' in their model number.


edit:
now reading the previous answer from John referring to it probably being from before 2005, the info I have posted above is probably not as relevant anymore. Sorry!

 

[Hav]

I have 2 Gitzo tripods, 1540F and 2540F, I think for birding, new gitzo carbon fibre 1 series(G1XXX) is strong enough to hold a scope, max load is 8kg. it is lighter, once I loaded my contax N1 with 400mm/4 which is almost 3 kg lens , all to together is 4kg, it is very stable.

 

[Tringa45]

I have 2 Gitzo tripods, 1540F and 2540F, I think for birding, new gitzo carbon fibre 1 series(G1XXX) is strong enough to hold a scope, max load is 8kg. it is lighter, once I loaded my contax N1 with 400mm/4 which is almost 3 kg lens , all to together is 4kg, it is very stable.

It's not just about weight. Your 400 mm lens represents an 8x magnification with respect to a 50 mm standard lens and the shutter is open for just a small fraction of a second.
Birders use scopes for extended observation at magnifications up to 60x-70x, so any angular disturbance (vibration) is going to be very noticable.
These vibrations can be set off by a coastal breeze or merely by touching the focusser if the tripod legs are too flexible.

John

 

[Hav]

You are right, I haven't tried to load scope to compare before, I thought Zeiss FL 65T* is lighter than contax 400mm/4, I will do the test later this spring