Gimbal Heads. Adjustment knobs to the Right or the Left? (1 Viewer)

T

ternaround

Active member

• May 2, 2012

• #1

Hi All,
I have seen various photos of Gimbal heads of various makes, some with the adjustment controls to the right and some to the left. My own train of thought is to have these to the left as the right hand is operating the camera or is it that the head, once set, does not need much adjustment and can be put to the right so that the left hand can be used to add further stability to the lens. Anybody any thoughts on this?

Thanks John.

 

GYRob

Well-known member

• May 2, 2012

• #2

Iv only ever seen one guy using his left hand to operate the camera most people tend to have the right hand on the camera .
Once set a gimbal needs no ajustment unless a tc or ex tube is added even then it is a matter of just a few seconds to ajust the setup .
As long as how you have it feels right it does not matter which way you set one up Left or Right .
Rob.

 

BodyResults

Well-known member

• May 3, 2012

• #3

On the gimbal heads with controls on the right I wonder if they just have the lens facing the opposite way as when you see them on the left.

I could never use it efficiently with them on the right. I am often tighting and loosening vertical and horizontal tensions.

Doug

 

T

ternaround

Active member

• May 3, 2012

• #4

I posted this question on another forum and received two replies, one favouring to the left and the other favouring to the right as this allowed easy access to the adjustments on the lens, the lens being the Canon 500mm f4.

Thanks for the replies, it seems it's down to personal preferance after all.
All the best John.

 

E

ericbowles

Well-known member

• May 8, 2012

• #5

Are you using the head for a scope or photography? For photography, proper long lens technique would have one hand on the lens barrel and the other hand on the shutter release. That leaves you with no hands to fiddle with adjusting tension. Assuming you are right handed, the left hand goes on the barrel and the right hand on the shutter release.

Normally you would adjust tension once and leave it alone. I use a lens plate or replacement foot with an integrated plate and position the lens foot so the gear is evenly balanced. With some gear a longer plate is required to balance the weight and keep the plate fully in the clamp. With this setup, I have the controls on the right.

 

mr_birdman

No longer a Canon Snob.

• Nov 7, 2012

• #6

I have my Wimberley Gimbal head controls on the right. Reason being if I need to adjust anything on the left side of the lens, I can get to it qiuckly. Once I balance the load perfectly I don't usually tighten either of the two knobs, and in any case it can be done fast.

 

Hor Kee

Penang birder

• Nov 7, 2012

• #7

I'm another user that puts the controls on the right, for the reasons that have already been stated above.

 

J

johnf3f

johnf3f

• Nov 9, 2012

• #8

Started with my Wimberley 2 controls on the left as it was instinctively correct for me but with some setups the lens controls were difficult to access, later I changed it to controls on the right which works better. The problem is that I was born left dominant and was taught to be right handed (very common when I was growing up) so some things need a little trial and error before I get it as I want it.
Try it both ways and see which you prefer.