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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveClifton" data-source="post: 1595007" data-attributes="member: 48420">I just took delivery of one of these heads a few days ago.Here are my first impressions:I first saw this head at the Bird Fair in August and thought it looked quite good, in fact I almost bought one there and then, but instead I decided to wait. Just as well I did as the price has dropped from £69 (BF price) to around £59 at Morris Photo in the UK, with free delivery included.When it arrived just before the weekend, I attached it to a small Feisol CF tripod (about the size of a Velbon 535CF) and had a play, but my initial experience with it almost made me decide to send it back (but see below for more about this).My main reasons for buying this head were two-fold:•    A substantial weight saving over my current favourite combo of Manfrotto 128 LP, to which I have attached a Manfrotto 357 sliding plate adapter-to allow better balance when digiscoping. This combo is well over a kg.•    To convert all my cameras/scopes to an Arca Swiss-compatible plate system, since I recently bought a DSLR camera and long(ish) lens. Both the camera and my two current scopes (Swaro 80mm and Nikon ED50) use Manfrotto 200PL plates at the moment (used by many birders on the RC2 style QR heads)Some weight-conscious readers might (rightly) ask why I went for the 357 sliding plate adapter, which adds quite a bit of extra weight to an already hefty head, even though the 128 is rather ironically marketed as a ‘lightweight’ fluid head. This, and the fact that the 357 is not Arca-compatible finally made me decide to change it. Instead I bought a separate Giottos QR sliding plate and adapter (MH-658-virtually identical to the one built into the Giottos head) to mount onto my 128LP head in place of the 357, so that all my heads/QR plates are now interchangeable. My intention was to have both heads mounted on separate Manfrotto centre columns, so that I could change them over to suit my different birding needs (the Giottos for occasions when I’m doing more walking around, when the weight of the larger head can become a burden).For my camera I intend to eventually buy a professional grade ball head from either Markins or Really right Stuff, with the same/similar QR system, when funds allow, but for now I have a more affordable Giottos MH1300 series II ball head, which I can convert to use the same QR adapter & plates.Tilt action:In use the Giottos fluid head is quite smooth and fairly stable, though it is no 128 (but to be fair, I didn’t expect it to be a match for that head in terms of strength and smoothness, but it is still more than adequate). It is possible to adjust the up/down tension in order to prevent it from flopping forwards or backwards by tightening or loosening the knob on the side of the head. With practice I found it quite easy to get the tension just right, and it seemed to stay put at that setting once the correct tension was found. Interestingly, the head is quite strongly counter-sprung, so if it does flop forwards, the spring prevents any shock/possible damage to your scope or camera. The weighting of this spring is clearly stronger at the front than the back (a little too strong IMHO), so if the scope is pushed down at the front, and the side bolt is quite loose, it will right itself back to the horizontal, and then continue to flop all the way backwards on its own. This was with a Swaro ATS80HD attached, which is more or less perfectly balanced at the tripod foot, unlike the ATS65 model which is back-heavy. This could be even more of an issue with such back-heavy scopes. Personally I’m not yet completely convinced about this feature, and found it a little un-nerving that when sharing with another person, it is possible that it could move off the subject on its own in the short time it takes to swap over, leaving the scope pointing skywards.  Thankfully, with a little practice I found that tensioning the side bolt to the correct degree tended to prevent this from happening altogether, and it’s probably something I need to become accustomed to rather than a serious fault with the design (it will probably turn out to be a godsend in time).When birding I often walk about with the tripod legs fully extended, scope mounted, resting over my right shoulder. I was able to lock the head sufficiently to stop it from flopping when doing this, but there is a slight tendency to under-tighten it so that it can slip a little. Perhaps I could tighten it more to prevent this, but to be honest I was a little fearful of over-tightening it.Panning Action:Earlier I made reference to the fact that I almost decided to send this head back after my first ‘play’ with it. Here’s why...After tightening it onto the mounting stud of my lightweight Feisol tripod, I then loosened the pan-locking knob and attempted to pan with it as I looked through my Nikon ED50, which was mounted on top. There is no way to control the degree of resistance in the panning action. It is either tight or loose, unlike the 128 head, but I found that when ‘loose’ it was still way too tight for my liking. So much so that a considerable degree of inertia had to be overcome, even to get the head turning at all, and in fact the whole tripod moved before I could get the head to pan. I was not going to be happy with this! So I removed it from the tripod and replaced it with my old one, fully intending to return the Giottos after the weekend. Perhaps this was just a one-off faulty unit?The following day I decided to give it a try one more time, but this time on my bigger Manfrotto 055 CF tripod-the one I bought the head to use with. It was then that I discovered an unusual ‘quirk’ of the design, that finally made it useable for me. After tightening it onto the centre column and again trying to pan with it, I found that this time it was easier to move, and smoother in operation too; in fact very similar to the unit I had tried in August. Traces of grease had also become visible at the base, perhaps a sign that the lubricant was poorly distributed during manufacture, but with use it had spread to lubricate the pan mechanism more fully? Playing around with it further, I discovered that the tighter I screwed the head into the centre column stud, then the tighter the panning action became at its loosest setting (with the locking bolt un-done). This seems to be because increasing the tightening torque of the head onto the centre column stud causes the internal components of the head to be forced more tightly together. I could be wrong, but this was my personal impression. With a little practice I found that backing off the torque (unscrewing it) in small steps meant that I could find just the right level of panning resistance for my liking. I then tightened the 3 grub screws under the collar of the centre column to prevent the head from un-screwing itself in use.It was for this reason that I found it almost unusable on my other tripod (which does not have any grub screws to secure the head in place). It seemed likely that on this type of tripod the head would be forever becoming loose on its mounting bolt (or alternatively you would have to have it extra tight so that it didn’t unscrew itself from the tripod, and consequently it would be very stiff in use). Therefore I would only recommend this Giottos head for mounting on centre columns with grub screws under their collars, such as those sold by Manfrotto and Swarovski.QR plate compatability-not all Arca-type plates work!Another minor shortcoming of this head’s design is that it might not, in reality, be fully compatible with all other Arca-style QR plates. The Giottos plates are designed so that the safety catch (red button) built into the QR mount prevents the head from inadvertently sliding out of the ‘jaws’ of the adapter, should the user forget to tighten it adequately. A very neat design, but here lies the problem.I only have one other similar plate to the one supplied; one of the Indian Gimbal lens plates that are a virtual replica of the Wimberley lens plates. The reason it doesn’t work is because this plate is flat-bottomed (the Giottos ones are of an ‘open-bridge’ style underneath) and so the raised safety catch on the bed of the QR adapter prevents it from accepting other flat-bottomed plates. One way of overcoming this might be to remove the safety catch button (looks like a simple job with an allan key), but I would be reluctant to do so as this safety catch is a very desirable feature IMO, especially considering the cost of modern optics!)On the plus side it looks like the Giottos plates will be compatible with other makes of Arca-style QR adapters, though I haven’t had the opportunity to try one yet. This is good news for users like me, who will mostly use their scopes on this fluid head, but might occasionally also use them on a gimbal or ball head with a different make of Arca-style QR adapter. Interestingly, the lens plate supplied with my Velbon FHD-51Q also works well with this head and is even compatible with the built in safety catch because of its similar profile underneath.Pan bar compatibility/shortening: I found the pan bar to be about the right length (unlike Paul Hackett who thought it might be a little short) although when set at certain angles it caught on my bins in use. I found that the pan bar tube is the same diameter as that from the Manfrotto 128, so if you have a spare, which I do, you could shorten it with a hacksaw if you prefer an alternative shorter handle to use with this head.Captive knobs not captive!  The knobs that lock the pan & tilt movements are of the ‘captive’ type i.e. they have a spring mechanism that pops them back in place if pulled outwards. However, they can still unscrew completely and be lost. I assume replacements are available fairly easily from Giottos? Anti-twist plates?The supplied QR plate has 2 small red hard plastic ‘tabs’ at one end that pop up (or fold down when not needed). If you push the foot of the scope or camera back against them, then tighten the mounting screw, it does seem to work and prevent the scope from rotating. In addition there is a built in (removable) metal video pin that seats into the recess in the scope’s foot. This provides additional protection from ‘scope-spin’.The plate supplied with the extra adapter I ordered (MH-658) is almost identical to the one that came with the head, except that it has both sizes of camera screw included (1/4” and 3/8“). The original only has the former. Oddly, no matter how hard I tightened the camera screw on this second plate, I could not get my big scope to stop wobbling on it. There was at least 2-3 degrees of ‘play’ in the mounted scope on this plate. This might be something to do with the mounting surface which comprises of two strips of hard rubber which are quite ‘slippery’, and offered no resistance to ‘scope-spin’. The plates pictured in Paul Hackett’s review have cork strips, so these might be better in this respect. I didn’t have this issue with the first plate so it’s a bit of a mystery why there was a problem with this second one.Conclusions:If you are after a small and light video head that is capable of supporting a scope up to 80mm, then this might just be the one. It has a few little quirks that some might dislike, but overall I like this little head and would give it the thumbs up so far after my first few uses in the field.  As Paul says, its biggest plus is its weight (or lack of it!). The price too is very reasonable, especially when compared to some of the similar sized heads on the market from Velbon, Gitzo and Manfrotto.I intend to give it an extended trial, then update this review after a longer period to see if it can stand up to daily use and abuse.If you have any questions, just ask...Steve</blockquote>

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