I’m just a rookie owner of my very first Gitzo tripod, but I’m a firm believer in the old saying: ”An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

It was only a day or two after giddily placing my order for my GT3541XLS Systematic tripod that I stumbled across a forum topic titled “Gitzo base plate fell out.”  I curiously read on, wondering what the hell these people were talking about. Base plates? What are they, and why would they be falling out?

As I continued to read, a collection of very similar sounding, bone-chilling horror stories unfolded before me… thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment suddenly “free-falling” from shoulders due to loose screws and base plates. “Sweet Jesus,” I said to myself over and over as I rubbed my temple.

This wasn’t just one or two isolated incidents either – I was finding out that the Gitzo Systematic series was regarded as quite the serial killer among folks who carried shoulder mounted heavy artillery. Not what I wanted to be reading after blowing that kind of cash on what was regarded as “one of the best tripods you can buy” by quite a few people.

Here are the links to a couple of the posts describing the issue:

http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=131075

http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=140837

Now, I’m no engineer – but my mechanical aptitude is stellar. Ask anyone that knows me and they’ll let you know that I can dissect and repair just about anything with or without parts. I’d never held a Gitzo tripod before and had no idea what was happening, but after seeing just a few images online it was easy to see what was going on.

The Systematic series was designed to be modular… meaning that the legs are basically attached to a giant “C” shaped clamp.  A tension bolt screws down the “C” on whatever’s in the center of it – this could be a geared center column, a leveling head, or a base plate. The problem was that the circular base plates only had about a quarter inch of meat that sat flat inside the inner diameter of the “C” (imagine a really squashed muffin or a mushroom).

Not a lot of surface area on the edges to grip onto. If for whatever reason that tension bolt became a hair loose, or the weight of a big lens + ballhead was simply too much to hang onto while held sideways – viola, you’ve got a disasterous freefall situation.

Luckily, Gitzo had included a nice threaded hole in the bottom of these “base plates” that were spontaneously growing wings, and the ingenious folks over at NatureScapes.net decided to make a beautifully crafted piece of CNC machined aluminum that could screw right into it. These flat “safety plates” are made to fit precisely inside the bottom side of the “C” clamp but have a flange on the outer edge that makes it impossible for the top base plate to ever pop out in the other direction again.

I don’t know who came up with the design, but if it was you Greg, (Greg Downing) please accept my sincerest thanks. Your modest invention has saved me quite a bit of anxiety, and was well worth the $69.95.

Am I happy that I had to spend an extra $70 bucks on top of an already expensive tripod? Hell no. Was it worth the peace of mind? Without a doubt. IMO, this really shouldn’t be happening to tripods of this caliber and they shouldn’t leave it up to the end user to find third party tools to fix a known problem with their product.

Gitzo, it’s within your power to include a plate such as this with all new tripods or make a minor design change to add some kind of retention mechanism to totally immobilize and secure the base plates. The new tripod design from RRS has done just that, by adding three set screws in the ring to solve the same issue.

As a footnote, I’d like to say that I am in no way associated with the NSN store, nor am I receiving any type of kickback here. I’m just trying to pass word along to any fellow Gitzo owners. I also don’t “have it in” for Gitzo. They make fantastic gear, but like anything, there’s room for improvement. In no way did my Gitzo arrive from the factory feeling loose or dangerous. All the nuts and bolts were tight right out of the box, and I did my best to spin and pull on the base plate in an effort to see if it would budge. It was like a rock.

For all I know, my base plate might have stayed true through ten winters of cold weather and being tossed over my shoulder a million times. But after seeing how the plate is designed and reading the horror stories from people who this has actually happened to, there’s no doubt in my mind that the danger of it occurring does exist. It may be rare and remote but it’s a chance I don’t want to take.

Folks interested in picking up a Safety Plate can do so at the NatureScapes.net store:

http://www.naturescapes.net/store/product.php?productid=453&cat=19&page=1