New Benro GD3WH Long Term Review and compared to Manfrotto 410

Beauty and the Beast
A Review Of Benro’s GD3WH & Some Thoughts On Geared Heads

When I heard rumours of a new geared head, I contacted Scott Bagley at Benro UK. Although a die hard ballhead user, I knew this could be the Holy Grail for many landscape photographers. The killer qualities would be weight, or rather a lack of, Arca Swiss compatibility and Benro’s reputation for quality design and production.

Little did I know how good the GD3WH would be. GD3WH, by the way, stands for Gear Drive 3 Way head.

Much to my surprise, it soon became addictive and the positives massively outweighed any negatives. Having used the Benro TMA28C and B1 Ballhead for quite a few months, they had become so natural to use; they just worked, did the job asked, were simple, light and compact. 8 weeks ago I would never have envisioned replacing the ballhead but it simply has sat on my desk neglected all that time.

The unconverted will ask, “so what’s the big deal with a geared head?”

The answer, in a word, is “precision.” A geared head allows you to fine tune the composition and frame your shot perfectly. They are much favoured by top end photographers shooting macro, architecture and landscape. The primary function of a geared head is to let the photographer make large or small incremental changes to composition in an easy yet precise manner.

Fortunately I had a client booked for a couple of one to one workshops including an overnight camp for sunset/rise high in the Cuillin. Not only would this allow us some serious testing time but the client has a bad case of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) From previous visits, I knew he had a variety of Manfrotto heads so I asked if he could bring the one he thought most closely specced to the Benro GD3WH.

Charles loves his gear, has loads of it and never sells a thing. In fact, he has all 3 of the Manfrotto heads listed above. With camping gear and a long walk in from the Sligachan, the 405 was instantly dismissed as “too heavy.” Apparently the XPro although the lightest of all was “too flimsy” so by default the 410 Junior Geared Head was to be matched against the Benro. This was ideal since some initial research by me suggested it was a very popular model with landscape photographers being a reasonable compromise of size/weight/price compared to it’s big brother.

First impressions of the GD3WH were extremely favourable. It arrived exceedingly well packed in a bubble wrap filled box containing the trademark Benro blue box and the head itself was encased in a hefty foam cut out that looked well capable of shaking off anything that the most heavy handed courier could deal out.

Instructions, an allen key and a blue Arca swiss plate were all present alongside the head itself which appeared to be a triumph of engineering, design and aesthetics. 10 out of 10 for eye candy appeal. Now I’m not normally drawn to mechanical things but the combination of it’s utility and the precision engineering compelled me to try it out immediately on the pier outside our house. So here’s a few product shots of the GD3WH looking out towards the Island of Raasay and it’s ferry photobombing the shots!

Dawn at Sconser where we live. Not a bad place for gear testing
Sony A7, Zeiss Batis 25mm, Benro GD3WH. ISO 100, F11, 1/60.

24 km and 650m of ascent was the length of our walk to and from Sgurr na Stri so plenty of time to keep an eye open for photo opportunities and to discuss the merits of the Benro and Manfrotto heads. With heavy packs, we were only too pleased to stop and chat and get some moody photos on the way. Once we had gained the summit of Sgurr na Stri, the clouds started to dissipate and we hoped for a glorious sunset but this was not to be.

thank you for taking the time to share your experience with this new offering.
I have several Benro legs but didn't realize they had begun offering a geared head.

Wow, great reviews! Thanks for posting!