I'm most likely the exception but I take extreme care of my equipment. I've
have very,very few issues with any of my camera equipment. The only time my
equipment spends time in the trunk of my vehicles is the travel to and from
my shooting location.
I have some equipment bought with the express purpose of spur of the moment
photography but even that I wouldn't leave to roll around in the trunk of my
car.
Kenneth Waller
https://pentaxphotogallery.com/artist-gallery/?artist_id=107215
----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Colen" <[email protected]>
To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2019 7:30 PM
Subject: Re: Benro / Induro Customer service
On Nov 11, 2019, at 4:13 PM, Ken Waller <[email protected]> wrote:
Good to hear about your positive experience with them, but perhaps if you
had bought a higher end head you wouldn't have had this event. If that
had happened to me in the field I'd be pissed.
You generally get what you pay for.
Welcome to the Sam Vimes boots theory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Vimes#Boots_theory_of_socio-economic_unfairness
Sam Vimes is also renowned for his "Boots Theory of socio-economic
unfairness", as posited in Men at Arms:
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they
managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus
allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an
affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and
then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars.
Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles
were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy
night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who
could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his
feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford
cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time
and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic
unfairness.
Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
I have had high end heads and tripods over the last 25 years and none of
them have ever let me down or required repair and they have been used
extensively all over North America.
That’s possible. On the other hand the Induro goes for $230, the BH55
sells for $490, so for the cost of the RRS, I could have a BHD3 on my
tripod and a brand new spare in my car. Note that the problem wasn’t with
the mechanism, it was with the knobs that stick out, and when it happened
I was carrying the tripod in my van, next to various tools for work.
I’m curious, what percentage of the time do they spend in the trunk of
your car, ready to be used, and what percentage of the time are they
sitting someplace safe at home where they aren’t at risk of being banged
against stuff. As they say, it’s not the years, it’s the mileage.
So it wasn’t so much a case of my tripod being used for ten years, it is
more a case of it having been abused for ten years.
I’ll also note that I did not claim that the Induro was *better* or even
*as good* as the RRS, I said that it is an exceptional value. When I
bought mine, I didn’t have $500 lying around. Frankly, I didn’t have $200
either, but it was possible to pretend that I had $200 with the plan of it
lasting me a few years until I did have $500.
Kenneth Waller
https://pentaxphotogallery.com/artist-gallery/?artist_id=107215
----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry Colen" <[email protected]>
Subject: Benro / Induro Customer service
I’ve always been impressed by the value of Benro and Induro gear. About
ten years ago I bought an Induro BHD3 ball head. My theory was that the
2” RRS ballhead might be sturdier than the 2” Induro, but for that
money I could get the 3” Induro which for the price would be sturdier.
It has spent most of the past ten years in the trunk of my car. I’ve
gotten most of my best photos because I had my camera gear with me when
the opportunity presented itself and a tripod that I left at home doesn’t
do me any good at all.
Ten years of abuse took their toll and the pan adjustment knob on the
ball head broke off a couple of days ago. I tried to find replacement
parts on the Induro website and they just had a for leaving a message.
Long story short, I ended up talking to Chris (in White Plains) on the
phone, he is sending me replacements for all three knobs (listed on the
invoice as $35) for FREE. My plate clamp has taken some abuse over the
years and I did buy a new one (upgrading to the benro equivalent with a
bubble level).
Chris also took time to talk with me, answer technical questions (about
this and other Benro/Induro gear) and was very pleasant the whole time.
For those with unlimited budgets, other brands might make better gear at
the top end, but I’d like to share how impressed I am with Benro/Induros
value, and customer service (at least here in the US).
I did ask him about upgrading ball heads and his comment was that the
BHD3 is a tank, it doesn’t have any gimmicks, it’s just solid and few
others would probably have survived so many years of abuse.
--
Larry Colen
[email protected]
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Larry Colen
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