Question for any Manfrotto 685B monopod.

[Barks]

Hi,

I bought one of these earlier but didn't have time to look at it until now. I think there's a problem with it but I would like a bit of confirmation before taking it back.

It extends perfectly and when it collapses the top 2 sections glide back down perfectly but when those 2 sections fully down the bottom section is still fully extended and is virtually impossible to collapse down back to it's original size. It took a hell of a lot of effort and nearly my full weight to get it to start to collapse back down to it's original size, and I'm a 20ish stone rugby player.

So far I've extended and retracted it 3 times just to see if it was just a bit stiff and needed loosening up but it's no better now than it was when it first came out the box, and I'm now at the point of not wanting to risk "forcing" it any more for fear of busting something and not being able to return it tomorrow.

If you also have one of these can you let me know if yours is or was the same and it's intentionally very, very stiff or if yours glides like oily silk and mine is broken.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

 

[admirable]

I'm taking a guess here but is this not a twist the leg to lock monopod?

 

[jpw]

It should all collapse smoothly with little effort when you squeeze the grip. Mine went up and down with the same effort.

 

[Barks]

I'm taking a guess here but is this not a twist the leg to lock monopod?

Not that I know of, it's a squeeze the trigger type monopod. Instructions just say to squeeze both triggers to collapse the monopod.

 

[Barks]

It should all collapse smoothly with little effort when you squeeze the grip. Mine went up and down with the same effort.

Ok John that's what I was thinking. I can't come up with any logical reason for it to be nigh on impossible to fully collapse.

On the up side I guess I can confirm the locking mechanism on mine supports more than the stated maximum of 8 kilos