Fluid head for long lenses

I’m tempted to get a fluid head and was wondering if there are others who use a fluid head. If so what make? Do you use ARCA adapter plate as some of the fluid heads  are not Arca Swiss like manfrotto. I know that the Benro heads are Arca Swiss style. Any advice and info appreciated 
Rene 

I use a Manfrotto 402 fluid head and like it way better than a Wimberley for BIF work. I usually use the Manfrotto QR, but it isn’t hard to attach an Arca style QR clamp to the Manfrotto QR plate. That way you have a simple way of sticking with the Arca style plate on your lens or camera. It’s pretty easy to balance and has the resistance to be very smooth while still being adjustable to your tension preferences. There is nothing sticking up above the lens, so it is cleaner than the Wimberley. I use a 75 mm video bowl on the tripod for leveling and this also makes it easy to use for video work, but you can get a head that mounts directly to the tripod plate if desired. I highly recommend a fluid head. If you haven’t tried one yet, you will very likely be surprised more people don’t use one. BTW, it works very well for landscapes, as well.

Joe

Depends on what you are going to be using it for. If you are doing video, i agree with Joe, that the Manfrotto 402 head works very well and I have used it successfully shooting video for the BBC. If you are going to be shooting mainly stills with a long focal length lens, then my choice is the Gitzo GHFG1 Gimbal Fluid Head. In my opinion this is the best tripod head for stills wildlife photography (so far ). I have both plus Wimberley i & ii and RRS fluid gimbal and have tried the others.

Phil Shaw wrote:Depends on what you are going to be using it for.  If you are doing video, i agree with Joe, that the Manfrotto 402 head works very well and I have used it successfully shooting video for the BBC.  If you are going to be shooting mainly stills with a long focal length lens, then my choice is the Gitzo GHFG1 Gimbal Fluid Head.  In my opinion this is the best tripod head for stills wildlife photography (so far ).  I have both plus Wimberley i & ii and RRS fluid gimbal and have tried the others.

Is Gitzo much better than Wimberley 2 or just a little bit?
 What are differences in your opinion ?
I use Wimberley 2 and I'm quite happy with it even though it got kinda loose in panning and will require sending
back soon for maintenance. I'm considering Gitzo but I'm not sure it'd be worth it.
I mainly use it for stills and I'd appreciate if you could comment.

Thanks

I have the Wimberley I, the Wimberley II, the RRS Gimbal and now the Gitzo.  It's evolution.  Back in the "naughties" Wimberley was the king but I always wanted a bit of resistance so that I didn't over-pan (overtake) the target.  The RRS Gimbal provided some resistance but the application was stepped and never quite right.  After trying the Gitzo at a trade show, I was sold and have been nothing but extremely pleased with it's performance subsequently.  At the moment this is the best head that I've ever used for wildlife action - things may change in the future.

Here’s a link I posted a while back about the Gitzo:

https://www.photographyblog.com/news/gi ... imbal_head

Joe

Phil Shaw wrote:I have the Wimberley I, the Wimberley II, the RRS Gimbal and now the Gitzo.  It's evolution.  Back in the "naughties" Wimberley was the king but I always wanted a bit of resistance so that I didn't over-pan (overtake) the target.  The RRS Gimbal provided some resistance but the application was stepped and never quite right.  After trying the Gitzo at a trade show, I was sold and have been nothing but extremely pleased with it's performance subsequently.  At the moment this is the best head that I've ever used for wildlife action - things may change in the future.

That's interesting because I found one review https://shuttermuse.com/gitzo-fluid-gimbal-head-review/
where reviewer said panning wasn't really satisfactory and there's a difference in smoothness between panning and tilting.
I wonder if he got faulty copy.

Andrew_5488 wrote:

Phil Shaw wrote:I have the Wimberley I, the Wimberley II, the RRS Gimbal and now the Gitzo.  It's evolution.  Back in the "naughties" Wimberley was the king but I always wanted a bit of resistance so that I didn't over-pan (overtake) the target.  The RRS Gimbal provided some resistance but the application was stepped and never quite right.  After trying the Gitzo at a trade show, I was sold and have been nothing but extremely pleased with it's performance subsequently.  At the moment this is the best head that I've ever used for wildlife action - things may change in the future.

That's interesting because I found one review https://shuttermuse.com/gitzo-fluid-gimbal-head-review/
where reviewer said panning wasn't really satisfactory and there's a difference in smoothness between panning and tilting.
I wonder if he got faulty copy.

Or was the tension setup properly?

Interesting how my thread is being taken over in a friendly way but I’m totally not interested in a gimbal head....so perhaps you can discuss the Gitzo in a separate thread. Thanks
Rene

Check out Hudson Henry's youtube channel - he's big on fluid heads:
https://www.youtube.com/c/HudsonHenryPh ... yYT/videos

rene wrote:Interesting how my thread is being taken over in a friendly way but I’m totally not interested in a gimbal head....so perhaps you can discuss the Gitzo in a separate thread. Thanks
Rene

Well, at least it was a fluid gimbal head!!!  

Joe

My main fluid head is an an E-image GH-06 that only comes with a 75mm bowl. It was recommended by Gerald Undone and others as being a good "budget-friendly" fluid choice of decent quality. I use it on an in expensive Chinese Innorel RT90C "series-5" equivalent set of CF sticks from Amazon (impressive, solid, tripod for the money) - especially when you replace the rubber feet with a set of 3.5" spikes. The combo (head and tripod) is a good match for each other and much superior to the Manfrottos I own/have owned which are not true fluid heads but are designed around friction clutches. My setup can easily hold the weight of my Sony a1 + 200-600 rigged up with follow-focuser, 7" monitor, batteries, and mic, BUT it is not very stable in strong wind and can vibrate. If you need stable shooting/panning at 1200-1800mm equivalent focal lengths in wind etc. you're looking at professional 100mm bowl heads and heavy tripods costing many thousand of dollars. 

As for the mounting plate type, so far I've decided to stick with Arca-swiss just because that's what I'm used to, so I use this manfrotto->Arca-swiss adapter from Henjar Photo.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Arca-Swiss-conversion-4-Manfrotto-503-501-3433-3460-works-with-rrs-kirk-markins/330861513594?hash=item4d08e20b7a:g:2FYAAMXQaBtQ~JLq

Good luck!

Gary Irwin wrote:.........The combo (head and tripod) is a good match for each other and much superior to the Manfrottos I own/have owned which are not true fluid heads but are designed around friction clutches.........

Good luck!

Some Manfrottos are true fluid heads:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/944774-REG/manfrotto_mvh500ah_pro_fluid_head.html/overview

https://www.manfrotto.com/us-en/504x-fluid-video-head-with-flat-base-mvh504xah/

Joe

Gary Irwin wrote:My main fluid head is an an E-image GH-06 that only comes with a 75mm bowl. It was recommended by Gerald Undone and others as being a good "budget-friendly" fluid choice of decent quality. I use it on an in expensive Chinese Innorel RT90C "series-5" equivalent set of CF sticks from Amazon (impressive, solid, tripod for the money) - especially when you replace the rubber feet with a set of 3.5" spikes. The combo (head and tripod) is a good match for each other and much superior to the Manfrottos I own/have owned which are not true fluid heads but are designed around friction clutches. My setup can easily hold the weight of my Sony a1 + 200-600 rigged up with follow-focuser, 7" monitor, batteries, and mic, BUT it is not very stable in strong wind and can vibrate. If you need stable shooting/panning at 1200-1800mm equivalent focal lengths in wind etc. you're looking at professional 100mm bowl heads and heavy tripods costing many thousand of dollars. 

As for the mounting plate type, so far I've decided to stick with Arca-swiss just because that's what I'm used to, so I use this manfrotto->Arca-swiss adapter from Henjar Photo.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Arca-Swiss-conversion-4-Manfrotto-503-501-3433-3460-works-with-rrs-kirk-markins/330861513594?hash=item4d08e20b7a:g:2FYAAMXQaBtQ~JLq

Good luck!

Thanks Gary! Useful info. Funny you mention Innorel! Just received the 80C to test and review. I only got it out if the box but it looks excellent , solid, well built. I will put a review on my website. I check out the E-image fluid heads. Many thanks 
Rene 

"Some Manfrottos are true fluid heads:"

They may call them "fluid heads", but they're not. At least the 500AH is not as I've taken them apart. They have interlocking discs with grease which give the "fluid" feel. I would suspect the 504 is similar.

This page shows some of the Manfrotto heads with fluid cartridges. They state “Real Fluid Cartridges”, whatever that means to them. It also shows some with “Fixed Cartridges” and “Variable Fluid Cartridges”.

https://www.marcotec-shop.de/pub/media/ ... 202015.pdf

Joe