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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
09-14-2015, 04:18 PM
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Even if the clamp is not parallel to the swing arm and is in fact at right angle to the swing arm, it is not such a big problem (mostly). If you are using long and fat lenses with rotating collars, it would be a simple matter of rotating the camera slightly to level it. You probably would be doing this anyway since it's unlikely the surface you deploy your tripod will always be level.
Here's my cheap Beike gimbal head, which look quite similar to the Opteka one. I've added a conical coil spring and another washer to isolate the needle bearing and the spring from interfering with each other. Before the modification to the Beike gimbal head, swinging the camera back and forth tend to loosen the rotating clamp handle enough to cause the whole swing arm assembly to droop and wobble. Heavier the camera/ lens set up, quicker the effect of the drooping swing arm can be felt. The conical coil spring acts to counter the drooping swing arm. It also reduces the need to "tighten the knob to death" to lock the swing arm from moving - about an eighth turn of the handle to go from adequately locked swing arm to freely swinging arm.
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
09-13-2015, 10:37 PM
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I am looking at your picture of the Movo gimbal - sure enough, the "J" swing arm and the frame is not square to the granite base but does that matter? As far as I can see, the pivot itself is parallel to the ground which means the camera will maintain the same longitudinal line as you swing the arm around. If the pivot was perpendicular "J" swing arm, then you would have cause for concern but clearly it is not.
I don't see a picture of the camera clamp attached to the swing arm but is the clamp sitting perpendicular to the swing arm or is it sitting parallel to the ground? My guess would be the latter. Slanting the swing arm will let the user mount bigger and fatter lenses on the Movo versus a comparable sized gimbal with a swing arm that is perpendicular to the ground.
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