Induro Gimbal Hold A 500mm?

[DMITPHOTO]

Some more interesting feedback and posts! The full gimbal using it 24/7 might be the way to go. Today I was shooting in rocky mounting national park and set everything up for a landscape I was dialing in the n grad filter and oh up walks a bunch of elk. And switching everything was a super pain because the stupid 500mm has to be so heavy. And then it happened again where a flock of medow lark and these super blue birds like right in front if me. And one thing that really is not fun was trying to track the birds. I ended up just holding down the shutter crossing my fingers I'd capture one. The full might be better because you can detach the lens the put on a different body with a lens already on it. Because with the sidekick or some mount to the ball head you have to adjust the head to the side and add in the attachment then line up the lens trying not to drop it lol.

 

[DMITPHOTO]

Also a guy shows up next to me while I'm shooting asking if there was anything good and I pointed to the elk so he says cool. Comes back next to me with a full gimbal, 800mm and 1DX... I cried a little inside with my 5d3 and 500 listening to 12 fps haha however he was like all over the place shooting birds and idk what else but of course it was all super smooth and effortless. I was going to talk to him about his set up but he was off to quickly.

 

[DMITPHOTO]

Another dumb question. If I go with the full gimbal as just my every day use it for everything tripod head, and I use it for mounting my camera the plate mounts to the bottom of the camera, so how do you turn the camera and mount it on its side??

 

[DMITPHOTO]

Answered my own questions so the wim site says you can't shoot vertically unless you have an L plate. So does the rrs L plate work on the gimbal?

 

[photophreek]

@canon816 - with all due respect and I have been shooting long enough with my 500mm and 1D IV, that the full gimball is the way to go. However, the Sidekick is not something to dismiss as inferior. On the contrary, the panning action of the ballhead makes the Sidekick very much like a gimball head and I have used the Wimberley II. The Sidekick was designed to be used with the 500mm as attested to by the Wimberley website. Mounting and balanceing the 500mm with both the Wimberley II and the Sidekick is demonstrated on their website.

I really don't want to get into a "this is the right way and that is the wrong way" discussion only to offer the OP an alternative based on practical experience. I'm photographing birds two three times a week with this setup and have no complaints and make no compromises.

 

[canon816]

@canon816 - with all due respect and I have been shooting long enough with my 500mm and 1D IV, that the full gimball is the way to go. However, the Sidekick is not something to dismiss as inferior. On the contrary, the panning action of the ballhead makes the Sidekick very much like a gimball head and I have used the Wimberley II. The Sidekick was designed to be used with the 500mm as attested to by the Wimberley website. Mounting and balanceing the 500mm with both the Wimberley II and the Sidekick is demonstrated on their website.

I really don't want to get into a "this is the right way and that is the wrong way" discussion only to offer the OP an alternative based on practical experience. I'm photographing birds two three times a week with this setup and have no complaints and make no compromises.

Thanks for the clarification. I'm glad your setup works for you. Happy shooting.

 

[canon816]

Neuro:

Interestingly Clay Wimberley recommends his side mount over his full WH200 as well. He believes that from an engineering standpoint it is a stiffer setup and thus would be more stable. I wonder if this is why RRS is recommending their sidemount over their full head as well.

Regarding the FULL GIMBALL vs SIDE MOUNT: From what I understand (and I am not an engineer) that the arm that supports the lens barrel from below somehow has a dampening quality to it in regards to how vibration travels through the setup. Whether this is vibration injected from wind or mirror I'm not sure. Perhaps it lies in the stiffness of the whole setup. Clay believes that the sidemount is stiffer... and while stiffer is often better it may not quite translate to an advantage here. Much like aluminum legs on a tripod versus carbon fiber.

I'll ask my friend who has tested this to clarify it more for me. I believe his FoCal testing was with the WH200 and the Wimberley Sidemount (Not sidekick).

I shoot with a 600mm and its not the nice light 8.5lb Version II. I really appreciate having a horizontal surface to clamp into without worrying if I have the lensrail inserted properly in the clamp before I move my hands around.

 

[canon816]

Answered my own questions so the wim site says you can't shoot vertically unless you have an L plate. So does the rrs L plate work on the gimbal?

Yes. They are both Arca Swiss Style. (My L Plate is RRS)

 

[DMITPHOTO]

Answered my own questions so the wim site says you can't shoot vertically unless you have an L plate. So does the rrs L plate work on the gimbal?

Yes. They are both Arca Swiss Style. (My L Plate is RRS)

However on the full gimbal vertically mounted u can't look through the view finder the way the camera would sit :-/. I only shoot vertically for panos which I don't shoot to often so I guess I shouldnt worry

 

[canon816]

Answered my own questions so the wim site says you can't shoot vertically unless you have an L plate. So does the rrs L plate work on the gimbal?

Yes. They are both Arca Swiss Style. (My L Plate is RRS)

However on the full gimbal vertically mounted u can't look through the view finder the way the camera would sit :-/. I only shoot vertically for panos which I don't shoot to often so I guess I shouldnt worry

Yes you can. You buy an adapter called the "wimberley module 8" You clamp this into the gimball mount. Then you clamp your L-Plate into this. Basically it is an adapter that turns the mounting surface on the gimball 90 degrees allowing you to mount your L-Plate instead of a Lens Foot Plate.

The orientation of the camera to the gimball are the same whether you shoot with your lens clamped in or your L- Plate.

I shoot Panos all the time (vertically) with this setup. The Module 8 also allows you to slide the setup back a little orienting the front of the element over the center of the tripod base. This helps to prevent Parallax when as you shoot from one edge of the pano to the other. (RRS makes a longer "Module 8" type thing that works even better at eliminating parallax, its just a little more $$ and called the Nodal Slide http://reallyrightstuff.com/ProductDesc.aspx?code=MPR-CL-II&type=0&eq=MPR-CL-II-002&desc= )

 

[DMITPHOTO]

Answered my own questions so the wim site says you can't shoot vertically unless you have an L plate. So does the rrs L plate work on the gimbal?

Yes. They are both Arca Swiss Style. (My L Plate is RRS)

However on the full gimbal vertically mounted u can't look through the view finder the way the camera would sit :-/. I only shoot vertically for panos which I don't shoot to often so I guess I shouldnt worry

Yes you can. You buy an adapter called the "wimberley module 8" You clamp this into the gimball mount. Then you clamp your L-Plate into this. Basically it is an adapter that turns the mounting surface on the gimball 90 degrees allowing you to mount your L-Plate instead of a Lens Foot Plate.

The orientation of the camera to the gimball are the same whether you shoot with your lens clamped in or your L- Plate.

I shoot Panos all the time (vertically) with this setup. The Module 8 also allows you to slide the setup back a little orienting the front of the element over the center of the tripod base. This helps to prevent Parallax when as you shoot from one edge of the pano to the other. (RRS makes a longer "Module 8" type thing that works even better at eliminating parallax, its just a little more $$ and called the Nodal Slide http://reallyrightstuff.com/ProductDesc.aspx?code=MPR-CL-II&type=0&eq=MPR-CL-II-002&desc= )

Stupid question, exactly how does the model 8 attach the either the wim camera bracket, or an L bracket?? In the picture it doesn't show anything? However, ok so, I use the L plate on my camera, I then attatch the say rrs nodal slide, which can attach to the gimbal head via arca swiss. Then, the L plate can mount onto the nodal? haha

 

[canon816]

Stupid question, exactly how does the model 8 attach the either the wim camera bracket, or an L bracket?? In the picture it doesn't show anything? However, ok so, I use the L plate on my camera, I then attatch the say rrs nodal slide, which can attach to the gimbal head via arca swiss. Then, the L plate can mount onto the nodal? haha

Not stupid at all. I'm gonna have supper... then I'll take a pic of my setup so you can see how it clamps on and post it here...

 

[DMITPHOTO]

Stupid question, exactly how does the model 8 attach the either the wim camera bracket, or an L bracket?? In the picture it doesn't show anything? However, ok so, I use the L plate on my camera, I then attatch the say rrs nodal slide, which can attach to the gimbal head via arca swiss. Then, the L plate can mount onto the nodal? haha

Not stupid at all. I'm gonna have supper... then I'll take a pic of my setup so you can see how it clamps on and post it here...

Sounds great thanks

 

[canon816]

Hope this clarifies it for you:

1) Wimberley WH200
2) Wimberley Module 8
3) Wimberley Module 8 clamped into WH200
4-7) Views of Camera Body Clamped into Module 8. (Garlic Bread from dinner in the BG of the last one. 8) )

 

[canon816]

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[DMITPHOTO]

Wow!!! That is pretty niffty!!! Haha defiantly going to get this set up! Because it isn't hard to change from lens to camera body. Plus, you get the vertical! The pictures helped a lot lol!

 

[canon816]

Wow!!! That is pretty niffty!!! Haha defiantly going to get this set up! Because it isn't hard to change from lens to camera body. Plus, you get the vertical! The pictures helped a lot lol!

Glad I could help.