Spec me a Gimbal Head

Jase · 7 Apr 2015 at 19:03

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

Jase · 7 Apr 2015 at 20:55

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?

Jase · 7 Apr 2015 at 22:29

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.

Jase · 7 Apr 2015 at 22:45

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.

Jase · 7 Apr 2015 at 23:33

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

Jase · 8 Apr 2015 at 20:43

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?

Jase · 9 Apr 2015 at 08:24

OK cheers, that's what I was thinking. Guess it's a case of experimenting and see what happens