26Jun Used Gear watch: Manfrotto 501HDV fluid head with Tripod
The Manfrotto 501HDV fluid head by itself will set you back around $180, add a decent pair of legs to that and you’re looking at a price of at least $350. I have two 501 heads as well as a 503 head and they’ve all served me well. If you’re in need of a decent fluid head tripod setup and don’t have $350 to spend you might want to check out this auction ending in about 9 hours.
At the time of this post (7:30 mountain time), the auction price is sitting at $132.50 for the Manfrotto 501HDV fluid head tripod combo. Bidding ends in the mid afternoon and if the price stays low this could save someone a hundred dollars or more on a nice video tripod setup. If you’re interested here’s the link.
June 27th, 2012 at 8:48 pm
This combo might be worth the price it was sold for the auction, but clearly not the retail price ! The head isn’t fluid : it’s teflon friction, and yes, you’ll feel the difference. As for the legs, they’re decent, but the “spreader” (not sure on the term here… the 3-part thing that holds the legs together open) is a weak point (ours broke).
June 27th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
I was under the impression that the 501hdv had a fluid cartage system, however I could be wrong. The legs included with that auction are telescoping with no spreader, so you could be thinking of a different model.