Has anyone purchased the mini gimbal head from India as seen on ebay for use with Canon lenses up to the 500 f4.
If so would appreciate your comments.
I'm a retired avionics engineer and we used to X-ray all aluminium castings for flaws, cavities, and other internal and otherwise invisible problems. It's an expensive process - doing it for every item by individual serial number, and we did it for good reason. If you're happy to trust your heavy, expensive and delicate lenses to something of possibly dubious manufacture and sourcing, so be it. Think about the potential failure modes, and whether you would be able to catch your lens before it hit the ground - and check out the other thread here where a tripod head joint has failed.
I've nothing against cantilevered gimbal designs per se, but there's little redundancy in the design should a crack propagate.
Has anyone purchased the mini gimbal head from India as seen on ebay for use with Canon lenses up to the 500 f4.
If so would appreciate your comments.
I invite you to find any convincing reports of one of these heads failing.Take a "close" look at the welded joins, if this is the quality so far no thank you when you can get better from lensmaster, depends on how much you value your equipment
As usual, there are plenty of "experts" with an opinion and no actual knowledge of the subject matter.My impressions:
1/ Very sturdy. Anyone who is on about lack of quality is full of it. It doesnt take rocket science to machine some metal together, and this is quite well made. The TV85 + extension tubes + 20D sits very solidly on this and provides sharp images at ridiculously low shutter speeds (given the effective focal length).
2/ Very heavy. Significantly heavier than the Wimberley.
3/ Not as smooth as the Wimberley - true. Not a significant enough difference to really affect my image-taking process, however.
4/ Not as nice a fit'n'finish. Do I care one bit about that? Nope. After a few months in the field, nothing retains its fit and finish anyway.
5/ The Indian design also allows some vertical adjustment of the setup. It could be handy in some circumstances. Nice touch.
Overall - a very handy piece of gear. For the money, a very good price (although I have to confess - if I had to pick 1, I'd go with the Wimberley just for the weight savings, which is a big deal for me given how much I travel). But as far as heads go, this is a very robust piece of kit that does what it is supposed to do.
I invite you to find any convincing reports of one of these heads failing.
Brand names and high price mean little. I remember recent reports, also here on BF, of tripods from a big name manufacturer that failed and caused high end equipment to learn about gravity?
I use one of those indian made gimbals for several years now without problems. Do I trust it? No. Would I trust a Winberley? No.
I check my gear on a regular base. Screws, nuts, and bolts are most likely to come undone over time, have seen that happen on all kind of make and brand stuff. Not a problem if checked regularly.
I could crinch every time when I see someone with a heavy scope or a camera / long lens combo mounted on a tripod over the shoulder walking down the landscape. They don't even see what the business end of their rig may bump into, or if a problem developes in the form of a lose mounting plate.
There is a liability much larger than the one in a casted (not welded) gimbal head made in India.
Ulli