Wildlife/Birdies? A Gimbal Head for Everyman/woman!

You ever thought of investing in a gimbal head? No fashion fans it's not the latest trendy London hairstyle but rather a super flexible tripod head for use with all your big boy birdy and animal and airplane style lenses.

Sure you can go Wimberley or Kirk and feel proud that you own the best and happy that you can now sneer at your safari shootin' pals at the next waterhole, that's you're choice. Or you can save your hard earned cash (or the wife's hard earned cash in the case of Petkal and Marky!) to spend on chocolate and high-heel shoes, as well as acquire a cool gimbal all of your own (that's your own gimbal CDi, not your own Gimp!)

I found a close clone of the Kirk King Cobra so thought I'd give it a go. I was half expecting junk, but driven on by previous budget buy specials like the famous Gap Man Bag, aka the street shooter special ...

here

Hamuman

What would be the bigest kit you would use on this 1Dmk2 + 300F2.8?

I'm intending using the 300mm 2.8 IS L with a 40D and TCon's. It is strong enough for sure. The advert says up to 600mm.

Thanks for the heads up on that, just about to order a 300 f/2.8, and that looks just the ticket for a good mounting soution.

The cat seems to approve of it.

RTRIDER wrote in post #5306183
Thanks for the heads up on that, just about to order a 300 f/2.8, and that looks just the ticket for a good mounting soution.

Be interested in your views if you get one.

gymell wrote in post #5306286
The cat seems to approve of it.

She's just a little poser

If you would humor me and take some comparison images using ballhead and using gimbal head.
Am curious about vibration transmission.

Nah ... I think you have measurbators disease and refuse to be part of it. Besides, I do not live in an earthquake zone and my neighbours are not currently having energetic sex

But I can tell ya you will see nothing different anyway. Decent tripods and heads are like decent lenses - not that different. Some just like to spend more money.

looks like a very good value alternative to the Kirk head. i will still argue that it will not be as good as the real Wimberley due to the side mount but the side mount works great for me with the sidekick anyway so it is not a big deal.

Yowza, and what a price!
These did not exist a year ago! I definitely would have tried that full Wimberly knock off at less than half the price.
Thanks for the write up.

blonde wrote in post #5309067
looks like a very good value alternative to the Kirk head. i will still argue that it will not be as good as the real Wimberley due to the side mount but the side mount works great for me with the sidekick anyway so it is not a big deal.

Check link, approx $200.00 for a full Wimberly (V1.0) knock off!
(including a very long release clamp)

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #5309077
Yowza, and what a price!

Wuz you that give me the idea in Africa so I hunted around for similar and found it

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #5309082
Check link, approx $200.00 for a full Wimberly (V1.0) knock off!
(including a very long release clamp)

that's not bad at all!!!! (i don't see myself replacing the Wimberley with that but it's nice to see that there are cheaper alternatives).

Blondie that is exactly it ... this is for folks who don't wanna spend big bucks but want the same functionality. I doubt side by side shooting the same gear and the same subject we'd see a difference. There's also a clone tripod mount on the 70-200 IS there Much cheaper and does the job fine.

One problem with these gimbal devices is that they don't take well to "smaller" birding lenses like the 300/4L with 1.4x nor the 400/5.6L if they're attached to a 1D or a 5D+grip body, balance-wise - you actually need to slide the foot plates of these lenses beyond the safety pin point to achieve balance on the gimbal and that's scary.