Spec me a Gimbal Head

Jase

Jase

Jase

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
5,126
Location
Pembrokeshire
I'm looking to get a Gimbal head this week for some wildlife photography. At the moment the biggest lens I have is the Nikon 80-400mm AF-S Nikkor f4.5-5.6G ED VR which I use with and without a Nikon TC-14E AF-S Teleconverter III but at some stage I intend to buy either a 500mm or 600mm f4.

Anyway my first thought was the Wimberley Head Mk II but it costs £520! the Benro GH2/3 is £200'ish cheaper and there are other makes like Jobu that look good.

If anyone has used a Gimbal head and would like to make a recommendation please do :)
 
I went with a GH2 and it's not bad. I can't say I tried anything else before though so can't offer much comparison.

My only criticism would be that it moves too freely and there's no easy way to adjust the resistance. Because it moves so freely, it can be difficult to track moving targets smoothly and the little jerks in speed could effect the quality of the shots. That being said, I still get good shots so who knows!

Not sure if the more expensive ones offer a method of increasing resistance like my Manfrotto hydrostatic ballhead but it might be worth trying a few out in a store if you think you might benefit from something like that.
 
Thanks for the feedback all, the resistance thing does sound a little concerning I guess. What lens do you use with it ?

al4x, why couldn't you stomach the Wimberley? was it the price or performance?
 
I've got a 200-400mm 1.4x tc so it's 560mm with the converter and on a crop sensor, it can be nice to have it on a stable platform.

It's really only a potential problem if you're doing longish exposures I guess (panning subjects or trying to track planes for a nice blurred prop).

I suspect that the Wimberley problem is the price :) Was the same for me! It's not a cheap lens but £700 odd is expensive for a metal mount.
 
A camera store about 30 miles from me have the GH2 in stock so I'll go there tomorrow and try it out.

I was looking at the 200-400 when I got the 80-400 but went for the 80-400 due to the size. It's a great lens but now wish I had bought the 500 or 600 first. I only picked up the 1.4x converter last week as I didn't really expect it to work too well with the 80-400 but it does to my surprise.
 
I'll assume that's Nikon? Mine's the Canon variety with the built in tc so the quality with the converter is still pretty awesome.

I wish I had a 600mm f4 too but I'm already more fortunate than most when it comes to lenses so I can't really complain :) I bought this lens for the flexibility it gives me and there's plenty of that!

I used my lens on my ball head for a while before and it wasn't 'that' bad. I had to keep tightening and loosening the ball head when I wanted to take my hands off the lens but other than that it still helped me keep it steady.

A Gimbal helps when you need to point the lens up high because of the way it pivots. It's still not ideal for when the subject flies straight over and you'll be better off taking the camera off the Gimbal if that happens but you get more elevation before that's needed imo.
 
Ahh yeah, I'm on the Nikon side. I agree with the flexibility and that's the other reason I went for the zoom as I was doing motorsports and never knew how close or far away I'd be.

Hopefully if the shop have them in stock and I like the GH2 I'll get it tomorrow the only other brand they have is Jobu so I'll be able to compare it to that I guess.
 
Worth a look on that jungle river website to have a read of the reviews if there's one there :) Might give you a little more insight.
 
I had the Gimbal for the two airshows I went to last year and it definitely helps then! I got quite adventurous on the second day and tried some shots at 1/60th exposure. The hit rate was rather low lol... There were a few keepers

Avro Lancaster B1 by Phal44, on Flickr
 
Well if those reviews are anything to go by then guess I'll be getting one..

Nice shots at the airshow, I've never been to one but have now put one in my diary :)

Cheers
 
The only 'gimbal' head (technically it's a jointed bracket head) I've ever used in anger was the Manfrotto 393. Obviously I have nothing to compare it with but it handled my 120-300 very well on both tripod and monopod. It's very reasonably priced at £130 if you're not set on spending a fortune. Presumably you get a somewhat smoother pan/tilt with a true gimbal, not sure if there are further advantages.
 
Think I'll be getting a 500mm f4 canon is version 1
Thats probably when I'll use my gimbal more
 
OK so I went to the camera shop and I didn't get the GH2...

The first Gimbal I tried was the GH2, I liked the look of it and it felt well made, I tried it and thought yeah that's good enough I'll get it. The sales assistant asked if I wanted to try the Jobu but I was honest and said that I hadn't really heard of them, he said they were good and would be worth a try as I was there so I tried the BWG-HD3 Heavy-Duty MK III.

It's difficult to explain but the Jobu instantly felt better, although lighter it felt more weighted. Movement was a lot smoother and it had friction control so you could adjust it to be effortless to move or require more effort etc.

If I hadn't tried the Jobu I'm sure the GH2 would have been fine but having tried the Jobu I just couldn't get the GH2. It cost £80 more than the GH2 though but that is still a lot cheaper than the Wimberley.

So now for a quick question about using the Gimbal (I'm sure it will say in the instruction book but anyway...) when it comes to VR (IS for Canon) should that be off when using the Gimbal or not?
 
In theory you shouldn't need the stabilisation unless you plan on switching to handheld regularly with the camera coming on and off the tripod.

The tripod should be stable enough to negate the need for IS/VR
 
OK cheers, that's what I was thinking. Guess it's a case of experimenting and see what happens :)
 
TBH I've forgotten to turn it off plenty of times so it's not the end of the world but still :)

Interesting what you say about the difference between the Jobu and the Benro. Lately I haven't been using my Gimbal as much as I've been concentrating on getting more comfortable with handholding my lens to make it easier to get around and be mobile etc.

It'll probably get some more use once I start hunting for Butterfliese and Dragonflies etc so I might go test another one then to see if I notice a difference now that I've had this one for a while.
 
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