2026-11-12 Vanguard VT95-X Pan/Tilt head

    Part of photographic collecting can be putting things together. In this case I know someone (personally, if you catch my drift) who has at last four tripods that are next to useless. They all have proprietary Quick Release Plates that are missing. This means there isn’t a way to attach a camera to them.
    I have seen work arounds like simply drilling a hole through the entire QR plate cradle and then attaching the camera with a long ¼” bolt. Others—me included—have tried to fashion QR plates from wood. This can work, but equally often you find a problem. For example thin thicknesses of particle board can simply pop apart dropping your camera from the heights of an erected tripod. At least you should use hardwood plywood. At best a laminated QR plate using through-fasteners would work better.
    Of course nowadays if you can find the right 3-D printer guru it might be possible to simply order the exact QR replacement. Equally there are probably choices on the Internet of suppliers for any size plate. The problem is compounded by the QR plates aren’t attached by just the size of the plate, but by the slope on various sides.
    We have digressed far enough to actually face the subject of this article.
    

    Meet the Vanguard VT95-X Pan/Tilt head. Found in a thrift store at a price of $4.99 it was purchased for just $1.05 (using $4 of “Loyalty Points” it took five years to acquire). It is almost solid pot metal and weighs 531 g (1.3 lb.). Tilted as you see it it is almost 30 cm (11.5 inches) from front tip of the QR plate to the tip of the handle.
    

    Most tripod heads are attached to tripods with either ⅜” or ¼” standard threads. This is the ¼” mount to couple the head to the tripod’s central column.

    You can tell which way around the 6 x 7.5 cm (2½”x 3”) plastic QR plate should be by that chrome pin you see here in front of the actual tripod screw. Those “locating pins” are common on video cameras and are usually in front of the tripod screw. Note this pin can be unscrewed if you don’t need it for your camera. 
    It should be pointed out this is commonly considered a video pan/tilt head because it has viscous dampening to both pan and tilt motion. Most of the time video work requires the ability to adjust the camera while it is operating, so having the controls not locked down while allowing smooth pans and tilts is a good feature.
    Also note the large lever in the foreground (pointing left). This is the Quick Release Plate lock. This QR plate notches into place. Other QR plates sometimes use angled faces that angled locks clamp into. This QR plate has square sides on the block so it also has a square face clamping lever.
    

    Here the locking lever is open. Nothing has changed to the plate as it is resting inside the cradle. But now you can pull the plate towards the lock and the plate will be free to lift up out of the cradles “box”.

    This is the QR plate upside down. There is a notch cut in the two sides so it matches the cradle. The QR plate can drop straight down into place and then be slid slightly forward by the locking lever to become coupled to the head.

    One of the two projections that couple to the QR plate is visible on the far side of the socket. Note all sides are square including the locking lever’s face.
    

    

    With the QR plate socket tilted vertical you can see the principle of stacked boxes with square sides carries on to the joint between the QR socket and the head’s body. You can begin to understand the absolutely solid design of this company. Many tripod manufacturer’s share this ability to make simple mechanisms that are bulletproof over literally lifetimes of heavy use.

    

    In this opposite view of the head you can see the two tabs that fit into the QR plate notches. You can also almost count the number of pieces that make up the head.

    

    There is something missing from the QR plate. There must have been a very thin rubber or plastic pad on that ribbed plastic face. I know because the tripod screw simply falls out when the plate is removed. There is room on the tripod screw’s shoulder for a thin pad that would trap the screw in place. You can tell how thin the pad must have been by looking at the lip around the edges of the plate.
    This pad material is the next thing I will have to collect!
    And as a final note I tried the Vanguard head on three of the four tripods I mentioned earlier—the ones lacking QR plates. One had the wrong joining screw size, one was locked head to column so I couldn’t get it apart, and the last worked fine but made the tripod/head too long to fit back into its carrying bag. The fourth tripod wasn’t even tried as it is complete in an original box, so was left alone.