Gimbal Head

 
 
Posted: February 16, 2013
 
     
     
 
 
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I just purchased an Induro GHB2 Gimbal Head and love it! With my Manfrotto Ball Head it was difficult to maneuver my Canon 500 mm lens.

The Induro makes this operation a breeze. For those of you not familiar with the gimbal concept, a gimbal head rotates a lens around its center of gravity, thus allowing for easy and smooth manipulation while tracking moving subjects. This proves useful in wildlife photography as well as in any other case where very long and heavy telephoto lenses are used.

When doing my research before buying this head, some of the YouTube videos I viewed portrayed the head adjustments for a particular lens/camera setup to be pretty involved. I definitely did NOT find this to be the case.

My first setup involved using the head with my Canon 1D-III with my 70-200mm lens attached. This was done in my living room as opposed to in the field. While the gimbal head is not really designed for such a "small lens", it worked pretty well. I then tackled it with the 500 mm lens. Pretty easy.

I found the best steps to take in the setup are as follows:

1. tighten both the tilt and rotation knobs on the Induro,
2. attach the lens collar to the Induro via the supplied Acra-Swiss plate,
3. adjust the vertical adjustment of the Induro such that the centerline of the lens lines up with the Induro tilt knob,
4. adjust the Acra-Swiss plate horizontally until the camera/lens combination is basically balanced. Test for balance by loosening the Induro tilt knob.

In use, have the tilt and rotate Induro knobs loose and move your camera as required to get your shot. If you need to set your shot, tighten those knobs to lock the composition.
 
     
 
 
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