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What brand is this vintage tripod?

Photography Asked by standgale on January 3, 2021

I have a tripod that is probably at least 30 years old and I would like to know the brand at least. It has a logo on it I have not been able to find nor interpret. Does it say GON? GOON? GOND? Something else entirely?
Below is a picture of the tripod and the logo on the dial thingy. It has no other markings I can find. It belonged to my Dad.

Edit to add: probably doesn’t help, but it was either purchased in NZ post 1975 ish or the UK (England/Wales) prior to that.

tipod
Logo on the dial thingy
leg of tripod
tripod top disassembled

4 Answers

Is it not a very old Velbon? The leg sections and the clamps are reminiscent of early velbon tripods, and they were sold under various names and logos over the years. I have to admit that a search of older velbon tripod images did not however throw any light on the issue.

Answered by adwb on January 3, 2021

Could it be a Gitzo tripod after all? I know that user laurencemadill already looked into that option, but the logo you posted in the question looks like a (creative) rendition of the logo of Arséne Gitzhoven (the founder of Gitzo), which is a G with an A in it (can't include the photo due to copyright).

You could even interpret that the logo actually spells out Gitzo as follows:

  • The G is obvious
  • The I is the white rectangle
  • The T is rotated CCW by 90o. It is a combination of the white rectangle and the smaller black rectangle to the right of the white rectangle.
  • The Z is rotated CCW by 90o and looks like an N in your photo
  • The O is the black dot in the upper left inside the G.

Another thing that might point in that direction is the handle of the tripod-head arm. This seems to be a shutter release and looks similar to older Gitzo's shutter releases.
Then again, I'm not an expert so perhaps all older shutter releases looked like that.

Source: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Gitzo

Answered by Saaru Lindestøkke on January 3, 2021

This is purely speculation, but perhaps the brand is "GOIN", Goin, or the like? Searching for "goin tripod uk", I came across several out-of-date Amazon.co.uk and eBay product links (unfortunately, without product images, hoping to find brand logos):

Other advertised brands for "Q-666C Tripod" are Afaith, Zomei, Supon, QZSD (Quingzhangshedai), and others.

Based on the fairly recent existence of branded tripods being sold on Amazon.co.uk, I'm going to assume that Goin/GOIN was a photography accessories brand in the UK, that like many brands, was acquired at some point by a Chinese company in the last 20 years.

Answered by scottbb on January 3, 2021

I found this tripod at my dad's house and was curious about its history when I found this topic. Mine is a little different from yours, but quite similar. It's made in Japan and the brand, as I can tell, is "Planet". I'm not a photographer so I don't have any knowledge about tripods, but as I can tell, this is a rugged one. Very stable and durable. Well, it is older than me (I was born in 1983). If you watch closely on mine there is something missing at the handle, and it is present on yours.

My dad bought here in Brazil in the late 70' - 80's, I believe.

image 1 image 2 image 3 image 4 image 5 image 6 image 7 image 8

Answered by Ricardo Oliveira on January 3, 2021

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