Nightforce tripod issues.. anyone have one?

[BigJim375]

Well, I recently purchased a Nightforce tripod and was quite happy with it... until I tried to find some attachment plates. I looked for the size everywhere and could not find any info on their site so i figured it would be a standard ARCA Swiss plate. I bought some plates and they were too small. The ARCA Swiss measured 1.5" and the smallest the Nightforce plate would go down to is 1.6". So i called Nightforce and they told me they don't know what plate they use and would be happy to give me a machinists number local to them to mill me a plate?!? Seriously? Nobody at Nightforce had a clue as to what type of plate they use for the tripod. I tried a Feisol gun mount and same problem, too small. Nightforce told me to call one of their vendors for parts for the tripod and i told them that i already looked on the sites of their vendors and no one had parts, just complete tripod set-ups. I was told they should have plates. I called Eurooptic and they told me what I suspected, they only carry the complete tripod... no parts. They offered to take it back for a 20% fee?!? I never would of bought the damn thing if in knew the tripod head didn't take a standard plate size. I would of checked before buying but the head size isn't listed anywhere so i assumed it would be standard. Enough bithcing on my end. Don't buy the Nightforce tripod.

 

[ocabj]

You have a couple of options. You could replace the clamp with an Arca Swiss clamp. RRS has many different clamps that will fit various ball stem thread pitches. This is how I converted my Manfrotto 488RC2 to Arca-Swiss several years ago.

You could also just thread an Arca-Swiss clamp directly to the native attachment plate for that tripod and keep that on all the time. It might look funny stacked, but it works. This is what I do with a fluid ball head that I have so I can quickly mount any of my cameras to the fluid head without having to swap the single plate that it came with.

 

[EXTREMEPREJUDICE]

As mentioned, just replace the clamp, of course that adds to the cost of the tripod but will solve the plate problem. If you go RRS keep in mind you'll then have to use RRS or Wimberly plates to be certain they'll work. Other manufacturers make plates that are Arca Swiss style but are not always compatible (for example, Gitzo, Manfrotto, etc)..................ask me how I know. I've replaced all the clamps on my wife's Gitzo tripods with the RRS clamps and had to do a little drill and tap work to the ball heads but no biggie.

 

[ocabj]

As far as not all lever release Arca-Swiss style clamps being compatible with various manufacturer's plates, you can either stick to one manufacturer's clamp *and* plates (e.g. RRS), you can get a lever clamp that is adjustable (e.g. Acratech), or you can just use a screw knob clamp.

 

[BigJim375]

I appreciate the answers and I get all that. The reason I bought this set up is for the low cost relatively speaking. This tripods primary use was going to be backcountry hunting, spitting and bino use. If I knew I was going to need to get other mounts then I would of bought another system altogether and pieced it together myself. I guess I'm more upset with nightforce's response and the fact that they have no clue as to what size head "their" tripod is. Or the fact they have no support for it. I'm ranting. And informing.

 

[BigJim375]

As far as being compatible with other manufacturers plates, the only option I have is to use other plates as nightforce doesn't have their own plates and doesn't know whose plate to use.

 

[lash]

That surely seems to be whacked. How can that even be, to design and sell a tripod with zero knowledge of how to connect it to gear? Somewhere there is a major disconnect between engineering and marketing.

 

[BigJim375]

uh...yeah. I thought so.