Pentaxian Registered: August, 2010 Location: zurich Posts: 409 | | Review Date: May 18, 2015 | Recommended | Price: $300.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | nicely built, Dampened, 300 USD, "Light" | | Cons: | Damped, Its fully arca swiss compatible but the plates need to slide in from the side and ideally have a groove in the bottom to make use of the safety lock. the sliding in leads to the need to remove the safety screws normally used for the other clamp | |
I bought the Nest NT530H MKII and so far I'm pretty happy with it.
It's not a wimberley or a Katana but it's value for price seems to be OK.
Edit nice overview of the different Gimbal Heads:
http://www.carolinawildphoto.com/gimbal_list.htm
Pros:
- nicely built
- Dampened
- 300USD
- "Light"
- Edit:More secure due to the modified Arca Swiss Clamp
- In my case: Works perfect with lenses, Body, Grip, Flash up to 2-3 Kg for more i would chose a Gimbal with a normal Arca Swiss Clamp. It might not be as secure but much easier to take off and put back on to the head. But i use it with the FA*250-600, see comment about monopod.
Cons:
- Its fully arca swiss compatible but the plates need to slide in from the side and ideally have a groove in the bottom to make use of the safety lock. the "sliding in" leads to the need to remove the safety screws normally used for the other clamps where you "slide-in" from the top
- Dampened, the resistance can be too high, at least for my gusto... see below
- Edit:The modified Arca Swiss Clamp is not so ideal with big Glass... due to the weight of the lens it self. It can be very hard to slide the Plate mounted on the collar of the lens in place. My particular case: the 250-600 mm lens @ around 7kg with body, etc. if you do this once and stay at a location for a longer period of time its not that of a big deal. But i had it the other day on a monopod and had to take the lens off quite frequently as i had to climb up and down, it was extremely annoying. I was not using the supplied plate and my plate got locked by the security pin in some ugly spots and it was quite a hassle to get it off the gimbal as you have to be carefully to stay straight and not to tilt the lens otherwise it started to cant and got stuck.... thats why i would not recommend this particular head when you plan to take a heavy lens with you on terrain where you will need to take the lens off your rig more often and i would not use the head with very long plates.
I have loosened (just a tiny bit) the center screw for the horizontal movement and got a nicer more fluent movement.
edit: i dismantled the horizontal movement part, 4 screws. There is a ball bearing, i used a lighter grease and flipped the bearing works much smoother now!
I have used it now for several days out in the field. I own it since a month, and added a leveling base for comfort.
With the base attached and secured with the screws it still fits in the provided bag. You need to remove the support (secured with a Velcro).
Tripod: I use it with a Manfrotto MT055 for my lighter set ups. And a brand new expensive but incredibly stable Gitzo GT5532S rated for 40kg
Monopod: Benro A38F
the resistance is nice also for taking video.
I have used FA*400 & DA*300 with the different TC's (1.4, 1.7, 2.0) and with the Q-7
will update after some more experience...
24th August 2015: I'm still very happy with it (used: DA* 300, FA* 400 + TCs, FA* 80-200, FA* 250-600)!
by the miner modification I received a much smoother horizontal movement and its now just perfect for me. The vertical movement shows still some resistance which i actually like.
add: be careful there is a non MKII version that does not fit Arca Swiss
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