Gimble heads

Has anyone tried any of these cheap gimbal heads for about £50
If so are they any good

Stan J

If it's a Manfrotto, yes (they start at £24); I paid £41 for my last one a couple of years ago and it has been great,mlike the ones before it.

Currently shooting with the Bemoth (Pentax 150-450) on it, no problems. It is very secure and offers decent ( subtle) control of panning.

I also use a wonderfully engineered,old Benbo ball and socket head, which is like a rock, but the £40 Manfrotto does the same, despite looking a bit less beefy.

Regards

Got a Beike one for about £90 from the Far East - OK, but the swivels are a bit stiff, although if you can prise the end-caps off and run some PTFE spray into them then they ease up a bit (don't use a grease or that can have the opposite effect - l did that and now can't get it all out!).

And the cheap ones are pretty heavy too.

Did you mean to provide a link Stan?

Carl

Ebay you can't miss-em

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Found this on Amazon. May be of use to you.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00LL80TZQ/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1438711246&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=gimbal+head&dpPl=1&dpID=41dTDXiJs7L&ref=plSrch

I highly recommend this, quite cheap and very well made...and a small British company.
http://www.lensmaster.co.uk/index.htm

That's the same Beike BK-45 type that I bought from the Far East 2 yrs ago - so my comments above might still apply.

+1

I have a Benro one (which I paid a good deal of money for) - cheaper than the Wimberley and it's very, very good but I guess the increased availability and affordability is due to awareness and the flexibility they offer.

+2

I must admit I was going to get the Lensmaster gimbal but SRS had the Benro carbon fibre GH2 on Ebay brand new for £250 a few weeks ago ... and I had a 20% voucher so it was a no brainer really.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vmvcui3m_a4

Thanks and I have watched the Beike part of the video (but not the follow-ons), which I think is fairly accurate.

My comment on the bit that I watched is that the guy who did it is video & bird oriented, and if you need it for those applications then it might well suit your needs as that is OK for birds (etc.) that move relatively slowly and don't change direction quickly, but maybe (from my own limited experience) less so for fast moving object that do change direction quickly because then the "stickiness" in the swivels causes more problems than it solves.

so, it may be good for some applications but not for others.