gimbal heads

[Bill Morgan]

Im in the process of buying a new head for my 3236 bogen, to hold a

eos 3 and a 500 f/4.5. Have been looking at the wimberley (not the

side kick) and the king cobra and I understand these heads are very

good for panning and such, but are they a stable platform for

stationary targets and for longer exposures (ease of movement does not

sound promisng) can they be tighten down for a no movement patform.

 

Thanks

Bill Morgan

[randy_bienia]

I just bought a wimberly for my 500 F4. I think its to big, and sent it back for a sidekick to use in conjunction with my ARCA BIG head. The wimberly is very well built. and worth the money. But I suspect to need its massiveness you would have a 600 F4 and being using teleconverters alot. The sidekick is wonderful, and used in conjuction with a good ball head with a built in panning base which both the B1's and the B1G's have built in makes it a formiable substitue for the wimberly. Plus you can easily remove the sidekick and go back to your ball head whenever you like. Also, the side kick is less than half priced of the wimberly head with the arca swiss clamp option

[bill_shewchuk1]

My first suggestion is to take wimberley up on there loaner program and that will help with the decision!

 

I have both Senior and the sidekick and use them both mainly the senior though. I use the senior w/500 f4 afs and have to issues at all with this setup---

 

the sidekick I use mainly with the 300/2.8 or backpacking and I will bring my studioball and the sidekick to use both the 300 and the 500.

 

seriously call clay and get the loaner option---it won't hurt to try.

[bob_royse]

If you have time to get set up, then the Wimberly head is as good as any out there. It can be locked as solidly as any other tripod head.

 

But not as quickly.

 

To me the biggest disadvantage of the Wimberly head (well, really second after its weight) is that the horizontal axis can only be adjusted by the tripod collar of the lens or the varying lengths of your tripod legs. Other adjustments are free and easy with the Wimberly. With IS Canon telephotos you can often get away with keeping the tripod collar a bit loose for freedom, but that adjustment is pretty wobbly on all the Canon and Nikon telephotos I've ever owned.

 

With that said, the Wimberly is the only way to go if you're shooting flying birds, such as this one (a Snow Goose at Bosque a couple weeks ago). Wimberlys make the whole rig seem weightless.

 

For me, even though I value the virtues of the Wimberly head, I'll continue to use a ball head for most of my bird photography. I currently have the Arca B1 and hate it. It's tiny and light, but a pain to tighten quickly (and nearly impossible to do so with gloves on). If I was rich, I'd get a Foba. Seeing as that I've never used it, that's just pure speculation on my part :) The only tripod head I ever liked was my first Studioball. That head became as wobbly as hell and the new ones don't use the Arca plates. I've never tried the Kirk head, but the tension knob looks the same as the Arca, which, as I said, I hate.

 

Maybe someone who has actually bought and used all these tripod heads can offer further illumination to this subject, which has already been discussed ad nauseum here.<div></div>

[cliff_beittel]

I haven't used anything but a Whimberly with my 600 f4 since early 1997. I find the head useful in all sorts of ways, even apart from flight shooting. For example, when shooting from a blind, releasing the lever on a FOBA head sometimes produced a noticeable movement of the lens that scared birds away. With the Whimberly, there's no need to lock anything, so the lens is always ready to move quietly where it's needed. I almost always shoot with the head and lens collar loose, leveling the camera body as needed, and have never bothered to level the tripod precisely. This has worked just fine for wildlife portraits, both with and without IS lenses. For slow exposures that require mirror lock and a cable release, locking the head and collar has worked fine, though it is slower to do so than with a FOBA.

[Brian P Bower CamraScapes]

When the Wimberley head is used with Arca Swiss type quick release plates and clamps, you are able to balance any combination of long lens, body, motordrive battery pack and teleconverters for stability.

When properly balanced, your whole outfit is weightless and very easy to follow your subject. For stationary subjects, it is very easy to lock down for longer exposures. I started with a studioball ballhead and had my fingers pinched many times when my outfit flopped over. I still have the studioball but only use it for shooting from my vehicle. A major complaint with the Wimberley is that you cannot easily mount a body with a smaller lens. I modified my Wimberley, adding a second Arca Swiss clamp to the swinging arm. I can now mount a smaller lens or body with a wide angle mounted on it, as well as a flash extention pole to eliminate eyeshine. Having used both the Large ballhead and then the Wimberley, I will not use anything but the Wimberley.

[alan_yeo1]

I have no doubt the Wimberley head is superb for flight and panning shots. But with regards to the FOBA head, I would like to add that the one I saw had one major flaw and that is the tension knob is made of some form of plastic which I reckon would break after a few hard knocks. My B1 has kissed the ground several times and it is still working fine, albeit a little bruised.

[drc]

You dont have to worry about any flaws in the Fobas Alan, they are reliable as ballheads come, and are solid as rocks. Plastic and all. My oldest unit is six years old and continues to take truck loads of real life day in day out abuse (Wish i could report the same about the three B1s i used to own).

I am happy to see the comments about the Wimberleys, we dont have any dealers here in Canada thus far, but based on the endorsements here, i'm more than interested in getting one.

 

Nice shot Bob!

 

David Crossley/Crossley Photography...www.crossleyphotography.com

[christopher_butler1]

Brian, I inspected your photos of your modified Wimberly. Very interesting!

 

I do have one question, though, and that is: what happens to the neutral balance characteristics of the Wimberly when you have such a setup? Does the smaller, higher camera+lens tend to overbalance the setup and cause lens flop, or can you still compensate? And do you have to tweek it every time you switch the body from one lens to the other?

[Brian P Bower CamraScapes]

Christopher,

The neutral balance of my modified Wimberley is effected but easily compensated for. I can mount my 80-200 F2.8 on the upper clamp and forget it is there. There are times I do not have anything mounted on the second AS clamp. The unused AS clamp is there so I can easily attach the body, removed from my prime lens, with a lens that does not have a revolving tripod mount.

The setup does not need tweeking every time I move the body between lenses, when I am out in the field with only one body. Mounting a second body on the upper lens makes for quick shooting for close action subjects when the action takes place too close for your prime lens.

[Bill Morgan]

I would like to thank everyone for there input and I would like you too know that I ordered the wimberley today, and the reason is the wimberley holds the lens like it was designed to be held in the upright position (foot down) the others held from the side has got to put some stress on the foot any way thanks again

 

Bill Morgan

[lars]

Concerns on strees due to the side mounting is adressed in the threads <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000P71&topic_id=34&topic=Nature%20Photography">here</a> and <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000V8E&topic_id=34&topic=Nature%20Photography">here</a>. Be sure to check <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000Er8&topic_id=34&topic=Nature%20Photography">this</a> also!