Gimbal Tripod/Monopod heads

[Jaedon]

I recently came across a guy using one of these while shooting birds in a local park. He was using an 800 fixed zoom (probably a $10 000 lens or better) and he had it mounted on teh neatest looking monopod head I have ever seen. It allowed fluid movement while keeping the camera steady at the same time.

I have done a bit of research and found that these heads are growing in popularity, but are still extravagantly priced.

Has anyone used one of these mounts and if so would you think it would be worth the averag $500 USD price tag if your main focus of shooting is Nature, Wildlife/Sports? Even at the hobbyist level?

I am curious to hear anyones experience with this type of equipment.

Images below are not mine but from the manufacturers websites with links to give them their credit.

Wimberly:

http://www.tripodhead.com/products/sidekick-main.cfm

JoBu Design:

http://www.jobu-design.com/gimbals.html

[another view]

If you're shooting big, heavy, expensive lenses like that then a head that can handle the lens is a necessity. They've been around for a few years or so, but I've never used one myself. That's not my type of shooting but you might try asking in the sports and nature forums here if any of those guys are using stuff like this (not that I know of).

At least with Nikon, their biggest lens is a 600 f4 (other than an 800 manual focus or the mirror lenses) and they have teleconverters to use with it to extend the focal length. Single focal length lenses are known as "prime" lenses.