There seems to be quite a few leitz tiltall tripods on e-bay all the time

has anyone had any experance with them ..how good are they ect....

-- tom Hipple (elizabethmmg@msn.com), August 25, 2001

Answers

Tilt-alls are very sturdy and very basic tripods, a little old- fashioned to operate, sort of like the Leica. 8^) - I've had the compact version with a removable head for 20 years or so. Leitz bought the Tilt-all company in the early 70's - they'd been making tripods for years before. I have no idea whether they are still in production - I think Leitz sold the design to an English company some time in the 80s and quit making them (?). Leitz versions are all black - the original Tiltalls are usually silver.

They have twist-lock 3-section legs, and two twist-locks on a neck at the top, one for rotation and one to lock/unlock the center post. The tilt head has two twist-lock lever arms - one for side-to-side tilt and one to point the camera up and down. You have to unlock/lock the leg sections in a specific order top to bottom, or the section you're trying to adjust just twists without locking/unlocking. The legs ends have big hemispherical rubber tips to protect floors, but by twisting the tips you can extend threaded half-inch spikes for use on slopes or slippery ground.

I got the compact version for size, but I've found the removable head to be very useful too. Despite the name the tilts are a little clumsy on the normal head - you can only swing the camera counterclockwise for verticals, and the aiming levers bump into the tripod base in some configurations - so I often replace the standard head with a ball head, which is much more flexible.

The compact tripod, fully extended, lifts a 35mm camera finder just up to my eye level (5 1/2 feet). The full-sized tripod extends about another foot in total.

I've never felt the need for any other tripod, even though some of the rubber parts are starting to corrode on mine. The Tilt-all is turdy enough for medium format, and I've used mine for compact 4x5s without a problem on occasion.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), August 25, 2001.

In the last paragraph that should obviously be STURDY (eeeek!).

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), August 25, 2001.

Andy: I thought your originally posted adjective was a closer description of its actual performance!!! I had one a long time ago and got rid of it as IMO, it was nowhere near as good as a Gitzo - but probably okay for smaller medium format cameras. BTW, mine was blue anodized, not the usual black or silver - probably worth a fortune now as a collector item!

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), August 25, 2001.

It is the world's greatest tripod for 4x5 Speed Graphics and 16mm Cine-Kodaks. They last forever and will continue working after taking abuse that would turn a Gitzo into a pretzel. There is one error in an earlier response; on the Leitz version, the rotation of the head and clamp for raising/lowering the center column are controlled by two handles (interchangable with the handles that control pitch and yaw). They weich 6 pounds. For use with a Leica they need a good ball head instead of the very excellent head supplied.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), August 25, 2001.

I had one a while ago, it is the only tripod I've ever sold. Mine was the Leitz version, black, with knobs for pan and column-lift. I didn't like that the head on mine was fixed to the center column and the leg angles weren't adjustable. Mostly, the center column wobbled and I found out that there was a thin piece of either cardboard or felt inside the column tube that was supposed to act as like a bearing race to prevent the wobble, and it had rotted out. I tried unsuccessfully to substitute something for it. Finally a collector- friend bought it despite the wobble...that was before the "re-issue", now I think he's sorry he did.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), August 25, 2001.

The black tiltall is to be preferred to the bare aluminum one, because the aluminum rubs off on your hands--or at least mine had this problem. My hands were always filthy when using this tripod. It's the main reason I got rid of it for a Bogen. The other thing about it is that if the tilt knob is a bit looser than you thought, and you have a heavy rig on it--especially with a long lens--the tiltall is more apt than, say, a Bogen, to allow the camera to flop forward, possibly doing some damage. It's because the camera attachment point is higher above the pivot compared to many other heads. This puts the center of gravity up higher, making the rig less stable. The tightening collars on the legs are also harder to deal with than the flip-locks on a Bogen, or even, IMHO, the collars on a Gitzo.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), August 25, 2001.

Thank you to all the people who have responded to my tiltall question.

-- tom Hipple (elizabethmmg@msn.com), August 25, 2001.

Beware the current Tiltalls. Made in Taiwan, and using the original design, but nowhere near as well made.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), August 26, 2001.

Look for an older, silver one with a Marchoni [sic] label. Had mine since 1964. Never failed to work properly. I don't use it for anything larger than a Crown Graflex though.

-- Alec (alecj@bellsouth.net), August 26, 2001.

The older ones are a good tripod. The head takes a little getting used to. If you get a deal on it them it is a good buy. But a new Bogen is just as good.

-- Robin Smith (smith_robin@hotmail.com), August 27, 2001.