At Photokina last week I noticed a new Gitzo 2-way head, which would appear to be a substantial improvement on the old 2180, 1720 and 2720 heads.
It carries the reference GHF2W and is a mere 590 g or 1.3 lbs and with a payload of 4 kg should be adequate for the larger birding scopes.
There is fluid damping and a unique counterbalance, which can be turned on or off and enables one to set the tilt equilibrium at a point other than the horizontal. Perhaps this would be of use with tail-heavy or objective-heavy scopes.
The top plate is Arca-Swiss compatible but unfortunately the one supplied has a rubber top surface, a 1/4" screw and no anti-rotation pin. There are no suitable alternatives shown in the Gitzo catalogue. IIRC the safety retention is a vertical pin under the plate, so one could probably use Novaflex or other Arca plates.
There was a price tag of €319,99 on the example I saw, which seems acceptable.
John
It carries the reference GHF2W and is a mere 590 g or 1.3 lbs and with a payload of 4 kg should be adequate for the larger birding scopes.
There is fluid damping and a unique counterbalance, which can be turned on or off and enables one to set the tilt equilibrium at a point other than the horizontal. Perhaps this would be of use with tail-heavy or objective-heavy scopes.
The top plate is Arca-Swiss compatible but unfortunately the one supplied has a rubber top surface, a 1/4" screw and no anti-rotation pin. There are no suitable alternatives shown in the Gitzo catalogue. IIRC the safety retention is a vertical pin under the plate, so one could probably use Novaflex or other Arca plates.
There was a price tag of €319,99 on the example I saw, which seems acceptable.
John