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Gitzo 1345 Mk II Tripod
Originally written circa 2000

I finally caved into my longstanding desire to own a Gitzo and bought my first product from the land of Gaul a few weeks ago. Up until this time I had been a devoted user of Manfrotto products with four tripods and five heads used in the past. I broke from the Manfrotto monopoly with my purchase of the Arca Swiss B1 ballhead and found that neither of my two tripods on hand at the time seemed imminently suitable to take full advantage of the qualities of the B1 and its load capacity.

With tripods one is always fighting conflicting qualities desired in load bearing versus weight and ease of use. The larger the film format or telephoto lens, the larger the tripod and head combo must be to ensure stability and rigidity. In many ways the fighting of vibration, the enemy of sharp results on film is much like the fight against vibration in the world of high fidelity audio speakers. Vibration muddies the results for the eyes (photography) and ears (audio) and many different attempts and materials have been utilized to tame it. For speakers it’s solid cabinet construction braced and damped internally and then spiked to channel vibration into an inert surface, which is the floor. Vibration also plays havoc with minute audio signals travelling through record player tone arms and exotic materials such as carbon fiber have been used because carbon fiber is a more inert material as well as being very strong and lightweight. Those familiar with carbon fiber should find it little surprising that the big revolution going on in tripod design is with carbon fiber models.

Wood is also another very inert material that allows for vibration to flow through its material rather then try to suppress it as most metal tripods attempt to do. Wooden tripods such as those made by Ries are favored among many large format photographers for their superior vibration channeling abilities. Note that I mention vibration channeling instead of controlling or dampening because one can never get rid of vibration, just lessen it and in some cases, tune it out. In audio, Michael Green of Roomtunes fame and the Shun Mook principals espouse vibration tuning instead of eliminating and both have become quite successful in their applications of tuning devices.

There is just one problem to using wood and carbon fiber for lessening the effects of vibration in photography though and that’s cost. Wooden and carbon fiber tripods are very expensive for what they offer and seemingly without surprise only the big name professionals or well heeled among us can afford such luxuries. For the rest of us we have to stick to metal, usually aluminum or a mixed alloy, and for metal tripods one name stands out as being king of stability and load bearing without being bearish in weight, Gitzo.

Manfrotto and Slik among others are known for offering good value for the money and from my experience with the Manfrotto tripods there is little out there to beat the 055C (Bogen 3020 series in the USA) in terms of cost, weight and load capacity. The 55C with various heads, has been my main tripod for almost all of my photographic history. Still less then $200 CAN and available in a kit with the Manfrotto 141 Pan/tilt head for a very reasonable price, the 55C offers an excellent way to obtain stability for the 35mm photographer using up to a 300mm f2.8 lens. But go beyond that size of lens or into larger formats of film and the 55C begins to loose its ability to keep up. Put a good ball head on it like the Arca Swiss and it can still do all right for medium format so long as your lenses don’t get too long but its 6kg (about 13 lbs) load capacity begins to become a bother as you wonder about getting critical sharpness from your exposures.

I was a faced with this situation a little while ago and desired a stronger tripod and so I bought the much larger and heavier Manfrotto 075 tripod and very massive 229 Pro pan/tilt head. I used this combination a few times in the field and having to hump that heavy bastard in the bush and over rocks was not conducive to getting good images due to the back strain I was getting not to mention weary arms and legs. My exuberance for Manfrotto tripods was beginning to wane. The real death knell was when my friend Wilson bought a Gitzo 340 tripod and allowed me to use it for a few shoots. I didn’t care for the long leg lengths of the 340 that made it taller then I preferred from a field tripod but I did appreciate its weight to load ratio. The 340 weighs about the same as the 55C but with nearly all of the load capacity of the 075. Using the 340 also revealed that Gitzo tripods do indeed feel stiffer and more stable then Manfrotto tripods and so the die was cast and I gleaned over the Gitzo catalogue to see which one I would choose.

The obvious choice was a carbon fiber model for excellent weight to load ratio but given the asking price it was one that even my well-heeled Leica shooting friend wasn’t prepared to make yet (will soon I suspect). We both lusted after the 1548 for its tremendous loading bearing; I for future large format desires and Wilson for his current Pentax 67II system. But the damn thing costs nearly a dollar per its number designation (1548 is about $1500 CAN). Not for me so I went looking at the Inter-Pro Studex line which is otherwise known as the 300 (old series) or 1300 (new series, now in Mark II guise) series.

There is a LARGE number of tripods available from Gitzo because they have so many varieties per major group. You got your tabletop tripod, your Weekend series, your Reporter series, your Studex series, your Inter Pro Studex Series, your Pro Studex series and finally your Tele Studex series and oh, one more, the Mountaineer carbon fiber series. Then within each series you have the standard three-section models with center columns or without. You have your four-section models with center columns or without. You have your three-section performance tripod or your four-section performance. In essence you have a tremendous amount of choice and much more so then its nearest competitor Manfrotto, which by the way is owned by the same parent company that owns Gitzo. A British company owns a French and an Italian tripod maker, go figure?

My criteria for a tripod was for load bearing first, lightweight second and ruggedness third. Non carbon fiber Gitzo tripods are still expensive and the one that I settled on cost me nearly as much as all four of my Manfrotto tripods combined. I bought it at Dunne and Rundle and got a good price on it but at other stores the same Gitzo would have cost more then the four Manfrotto’s. I was willing to pay the price after playing around with Manfrotto tripods for long enough and nearly putting myself in a chiropractor’s office with my last one. Other factors desired were for a four-sectioned tripod to allow for a more compact closed-down height to make it easier to pack around in the field. Also a model without a center column would make for a much better low level platform and allow for excellent macro ability. Manfrotto tripods do not allow for easy removal of the their center columns but Kirk Enterprises sells modified versions of the two most popular models to satisfy those wanting the lower cost Manfrotto’s with Gitzo-like low height performance.

The model I finally chose was the Inter Pro Studex 1345 Mk II. A four-section tripod with no center column and weighs just over 6lbs and can handles loads up to 10kg (22lbs). This compares very well against the Manfrotto 075, which weighs in at 10lbs and only handles 24lbs loads. The 55C in comparison also weighed in at about 6lbs but only handles 6kg loads (13lbs). Additionally the 075 Manfrotto with the 229 Pro Head on it would then climb to 15lbs total weight while the 1345 Gitzo with the Arca Swiss B1 head goes up to 7½lbs total weight. The 1345 also compared well against its much more expensive carbon fiber cousin the 1348, as the 1345 only weighed one pound more and loses only two kilograms in load bearing. In this regard the 1345 can be seen as excellent value in light of the recent carbon fibre offerings from Gitzo, Manfrotto and Slik among others but it is still quite expensive by most normal comparisons.

What tangible benefits does the Gitzo offer over the others? Sturdiness and compactability were my main issues and the 1345 and all other Gitzo’s offer these features in models that won’t break your back. When extending a leg section of my Manfrotto tripods there was always noticeable play at the locking section with each leg section. After being locked up the leg section seemed fine though but the slight wobbliness didn’t provide much confidence and this was apparent with the massive 075 tripod too. When pushing the leg sections back up there was no resistance like there is with Gitzo tripods. The Gitzo leg sections have air resistance for pulling leg sections out and for pushing them back in which makes for a bit of extra safety in not having immediate give like Manfrotto leg sections.

The Gitzo is also quite stiff in spreading the legs out or pushing them back in. The Gitzo has three spread positions available and when a lower spread is desired the user must pull out the locking tab and then spread the leg section out to the desired notch before pushing the locking tab back in to secure the leg section. The Manfrotto 55C had click stop spreading, which was accessed via a push tab at the top of the main leg section. The Manfrotto system as used for the 55C was quicker in operation and probably as secure as the Gitzo but Manfrotto tripods that have center column braces as the 075 does were a nuisance to deal with for individual leg spreading. The center telescopic braces each required individual adjustment and small changes in composition would require a time consuming repetition of the tripod set up again. My experience with the 075 tripod had made me eschew these types of tripods and paying extra money for a Gitzo with similar load bearing but much better ergonomics is worth it for the lack of aggravation in the field.

The newer Mark II versions of the Gitzo tripods are more or less the same as the old versions save for one major difference in leg spikes. The older tripods have large, rounded, conical-like spikes whereas the new tripods have thinner and sharper spikes with a thick rubber cover to protect them or your floor when used indoors. The rubber covers have a similar look as the older conical spikes. Gitzo revamped the tripods a few years back and made some changes to the old venerable designs to their current cosmetic look. The aforementioned locking tab was one such change and the other major one was the addition of side mounted hand grips on the main leg section for easier screwing and unscrewing. Prior to this change the main leg sections had the rounded twist locks like the other leg sections for a very smooth outline. The rounded locking caps of the Gitzos have been the bane of many photographers in the field especially in cold climate shoots and/or when the caps were over tightened. The addition of the handles allow for easier locking and unlocking and I much prefer having them then not. Gitzo also wisely chose to add them only for the main leg section then adding them for all the lower leg sections since the first and second leg sections are the ones most used especially if you have the taller three-section tripods instead the of the more compact four-section.

My friend Wilson’s taller three-sectioned 340 only requires the first and second leg sections for an adequate height to be had for medium format shooting and is suitable for most of my 35mm needs too. I would rarely see a need for the use of the third leg section. My four sectioned 1345 requires the use of the third leg section to obtain an adequate height but for medium format shooting I only need half of the third leg section while most 35mm shooting requires the use of all of the third leg section. The fourth section remains unused but it is always nice to have the reserve height in hand. Speaking of which the 1345 will stand up to a maximum height of 1.47 meters which means with the ball head attached the tripod reaches to the top of my head but I only stand 5’5” tall so this tripod may provide taller people with some back stooping pain. The best feature for me is the manageable size when it compacts down to its minimum 0.59 meter height which allows it to fit my Lowepro Pro Trekker backpack nicely (the Pro Trekker is rather largish though). The major performance aspect of the 1345 is the ability to go very low to the ground with a minimum height capability of 0.37 meters. The lack of center column allows for this excellent feature.

Manfrotto tripods offer excellent price to quality ratio but only up to medium loads. Heavier loads require massive designs due to the limitations of the parts used and a tripod left at home due to bulk and weight is useless. I have sold off all of my previous Manfrotto’s save for the tiny table top model and the 229 Pro Pan/tilt head due to the desire to have an extra head around for a backup and for the more exact positioning that only pan heads can offer. I am now basically a one-tripod man but the one I chose is just the right size that it can go where the smaller Manfrotto’s could yet carry the load of the larger models with little difficulty. My time with the Gitzo 1345 has only just begun but it looks to be long and rewarding one. Many have said that buying a Gitzo is buying for life since the quality workmanship and durability means only having to purchase it once. I foresee myself getting another Gitzo though, a carbon fibre version once I have better luck on my stock market picks but until then I’ll be quite satisfied with a light but sturdy aluminum 1345.

Link to Gitzo