Geared Tripod Heads can Save Your Sanity in Video and Photography

you have not known joy in video and photography until you've used geared camera heads how many times have you set up a shot and you're looking through the camera everything's just right and you tighten the things in the position and then the camera settles and it's like no matter how tight you tighten the head the camera settles this way or this way it just it doesn't lock right perfectly in a position where you like no matter how tight and you so this video is about camera heads and the camera heads that most people use which is the standard ones where you you you turn it like this you lock it you turn it like this you lock it you turn this and you lock it these are standard ones but they always settle it drives you crazy cuz you can't get the you know a person's head get caught off or something so this video is about getting rid of these ones and getting what's called a geared head it's very similar to these except these things are geared there's little gears inside there and when you turn it see see this right here this is the degrees it only turns if you turn a so there's like a worm gear in there and it turns either direction and you have to turn this and then it stays it does not drift anything at all these are called gear heads this is what's going to save your sanity in photography you can see here we have all kinds of gear heads that we're going to go through and the these ones here are the ones that I bought just to try out we're going to go through all kinds of stuff if you're traveling and if you're hiking people tend to like to use ballheads and I have as you can see I have hundreds of them ballheads are fine and they have some big ones too and they range in price from $10 to several hundred including this one here by manr this is the XPR ball head this cost $160 which is as much as these geared heads here the problem with ball heads just like the normal heads is like here's a normal head this is the worst one this one is notorious it's a man frott you think it'd be good no matter how hard you crank it it will still drift a bit and ball heads are really no different the thing about these is they're small they're lightweight and they don't cost a lot this one by small rig it's really cute it's only 6.8 o here's one by Andor this one is or pergear same thing look it's the exact same thing but they have different names on them uh but anyway you you just turn it put it in a position and then you lock ET but it will still drift a little bit and please don't leave your ball head uh in the bottom in the comments below I know everybody's going to say well I've got the XC 25d in ball head and it works great you know sure great there's thousands of ball heads out there but trust me if you have a fullframe camera with a 70 to 200 on there and you lock it into place it's going to go just a little bit the moment you let go it's going to go so okay ballheads are great if if that's all you have Avenue traveling but un when you get a gear Head trust me your life will change these are the traditional ones that I've been using I do not want any of these anymore so let's talk about geared heads obviously the manf FR version has manf FR plates these other ones have their own unique plates some of which you can use an ARCA Swiss plate some of them you have to use the one that it comes with I'm not even going to do the manf ball head this thing is it it's still drifts so let's start with this um me benro one here this one here benro has got a nice cool anodized blue color to it and what it has is let me put it on here so this is how it works twist it off and you have a 3/8 inch thread and all these all of these thread onto the 38 thing so you just thread it on there it's really easy to get on you see this star shape that's the clutch you turn that and if you turn it then this oh it's this one here then you can turn this thing and then when you get it in position you let go and then it doesn't turn anymore after that and then this thing is the geared part which you then turn to gear to fine-tune that I'm going to use this as my camera because it's big and it's heavy and it will tilt forward and I'm not going to use lightweight small cameras cuz it Doesn't lightweight small cameras don't affect heads as much so a lot of people are using full frame nowadays so and they like to use big manly looking lenses so I'm going to use this one here as as a weight now here you've got your three different geared positions for the bottom one which is the pan you turn the clutch and you turn it in the position you want you let go and it locks and then I can fine-tune that this one here is the Horizon tilt and you turn it let go and then you fine-tune that and then this one is the up and down forward tilt okay now the thing that I don't don't like about this is these clutches here these these star- shaped things they're really they're they're metal and they hurt my little delicate fingers I I don't like having something that it just really hurts to turn these things it works I mean it's there's nothing wrong with it other than this clutch these spikes they dig into your fingers so I don't like this one all right now we go to a smaller one kind of like this one this is the Sunway photo GH Pro 2s it's $219 1.4 lb and it's a smaller size one it's nice and small the one thing about this is the plate on here which I don't like is you need a screwdriver or an allen key to attach this to the bottom of your camera I like the ones that have a little handle that flips out that you turn this has something really cool check this out watch this there's a little handle that flips out on each knob the main panning thing you have have to do by hand you just do that by hand you put it in the position where you want it and then you lock it now you can close these and just turn the knobs if you don't want to turn the knobs you want to have a little more fun you flip these things out look at this how cool is that you turn it this way and this way now it has only two geared heads but this is fun look how smooth that is you can tell there's nice smooth motion it's a small head it doesn't weigh much all right so you turn the main pan by hand and then you lock it and then you turn these things to the angle that you want no jiggling no settling no drift that is so cool I like this one a lot it's $219 and it doesn't weigh much it's 1.4 lb all right next up we have the knear three-way geared head this is $110 so it's not very expensive 1.8 lb so it's a little heavier and it's pretty big thing I don't like about this which is well it doesn't really matter cuz you don't have to use it but the uh the actual plate is kind of weird it's round and it has a square things you can put in any direction I assume you can use a different type of plate but this plate turns and then lock it if you can get your fingers under there which is not easy really hard to get to it's not necessary because you can turn the whole the whole thing down here the clutches do not hurt as much as the benro now weird thing about this is it has two different H see this is what I hate about this thing is this is not these clutches are not intuitive you see this knob right here you got to push that in or out and we turn this it won't turn at all the clutch won't even work unless you move this thing ah now it'll work now you turn the clutch and you turn this into place and then when you get it in place and you you have to click this thing back it's springloaded or back but it's a two-step process to move this clutch before you can work the knob and it's not very intuitive I don't like it it's it's not fun or fast to use so I don't like this one let's move on this one is the knf concept GD 3w it's $189 weighs 1.7 lb and it's big like the other one this has a clutch just like the kneee same looking clutch but this one doesn't have the little locking lever in here this one is automatically spring-loaded so you just turn it and you can turn it and then let go and it locks in place this plate does have a little lever in the bottom where you can turn with your fingers so I like that all right so let's turn this into position here let go fine-tune it the Horizon tilt into position let let it go then turn it into the angle we want and then the main tilt up and down into position we want let go and then fine-tune that so here let me turn this around for you here let go tune it so now we can turn that this one works a lot better than the knee I like it more but uh the gear movement is not that smooth it's that when you look to the camera you can see it's a little it's kind of jerky a little bit and the top clutch is kind of too very close to the camera so your finger kind of gets jammed in there so that that's the one thing about this uh but it's got a cool looking anodized aluminum just like their tripods k&f does so this one is good it's okay it's better but again the gear movement is not that smooth so let's move on all right the next one is another small one this is a vertek photo GH V5 it's $169 and it's 1.2 lb this is the smallest lightest one of the bunch that I'm showing you it's not that bad it's kind of nice this is good for uh I guess if you're going to if you're going to use a geared head for hiking and traveling this is a nice small one this is the smallest lightest one looks like it'll take an Marcus with I'm not sure if it can exactly but it probably can and this one does have the finger turning lever which I really really like it moves in three directions but it's only geared in two directions pan and up down tilt so what you do is you move it into position this is how it works there's no clutches you turn or anything you turn the thing by hand into the position you want and if you like if you get it to where you want then you can lock it and then you turn the dial to fine-tune it with the gears this is really simple and elegant you have to have two different things that work it you turn it by hand into the position that you want and when you get close enough you lock that and then you fine-tune it with the gear knob now the Horizon tilt does not have a geared head so you have to unlock it here with this lever and then you turn the Horizon tilt to whatever you want and then you lock it in place and that's it there's no geared head on that but this is very very stiff it's it's very smooth it's not going to move the Locking lever is kind of close to the camera which doesn't give you a lot of room to move but it does work you know what this is like a normal head where you just turn it by hand in the position you want you lock it but the addition is that you can now fine-tune with the geared head as geared heads go this one is really small it doesn't weigh much and it's very simple and easy to use there's no like n irritating clutches you have to work with and it's so simple and easy you just literally manually turn it and then but it's got the geared so it's not going to settle I like this one it's $169 1.2 lbs the smallest lightest one now interestingly enough the two that I like so far are the smallest lightest ones and they but they only are geared in two directions now for the one that I like the most it is geared in three directions it's not small and at 1.8 pounds it's one of the heaviest ones with the ones that I've showed you but it's still pretty light for for what it is overall if you're hiking uh it might get become a little bit of weight but it's my most favorite one this is the manr mhx pro 3wg light gears difference adding that the G the gears is what makes all the difference and boy this is my most favorite one of all it is so easy to use first thing I like about it is you use a standard manfro 200pl plate so that is really good because not only are they everywhere but it's one of the fastest ways to attach a camera to a head bam it's done like literally click click you're it's there it's on and to turn it this is this is where it gets cool with this thing wow it has these really cool levers like bicycle brakes you squish it in and turn it and let go and it locks it in place and then you just turn the gear the SE for the Horizon you push it in turn it let go and it locks it and then you turn that geared knob for the more precise gearing here so push let go and then turn that is so easy push get in position let go turn oh it's so fast and so [Music] easy that is so look at how precise nice smooth geared motion no drifting no settling I love it so this is my favorite one so I want to turn around the other way you tune it click it's so fast so easy I love this WOW H okay this is the manf fro mhx pro 3wg it's $250 so it's not one of the cheaper ones and it's 1.8 lb so it's not one of the lighter ones but man you get what you pay for this is so fun and easy to use so the ones that I like the most are number one the manf for a mhx pro 3wg $250 1.8 lb it's the biggest one but the easiest most fun to use and by far the fastest to use it's got the manr plate you bam it's on there no twisting no turning it's just so easy to do number one number two I like the little vertek photo gh- V5 $169 1.2 lb this is the smallest lightest one it only has two geared motions but it's really smooth motion really easy to use no clutches I love this one it's uh this is my number two uh for hiking and traveling it's probably the the best choice and number three the Sunway photo GH Pro 2s $219 1.4 lb it has these nice levers that come out so you can turn this thing like this which is really really nice smooth this one's fun to use they're all fun to use these are my three favorite ones these two are the smallest lightest ones of the whole bunch that I've showed you if you're doing Studio work definitely get this one definitely definitely definitely I I mean nothing comes close to this one all right so here's all the stuff that I'm giving away today I'm going to give away three of the manf fro mxh pro 3w three of these two of the MH 804 3w us two of those and give away the the ball head the big giant I've only had this for like one day brand new the blue shiny looking benro the orange shiny looking k&f and the silver kner all brand new there you go these are like $200 a piece each pick which one you want Marcus fix. giveaway ent.com once you use geared heads you will never go back this is what a lifechanging experience this is look at this this is so cool it's like being in Hollywood this what they do in Hollywood they have stuff like this yeah definitely trust me this is going to change your life I'll see you in the next video w w

Channel: MarkusPix

Views: 48,133

Keywords: professional photographer, best camera heads, best geared head, best geared camera head, best video head, best tripod head for camera, best tripod head for wildlife photography, best tripod head for landscape photography, best tripod head for spotting scope, best tripod head for video, best tripod head for photography, best tripod head for macro photography, best tripod head for portrait photography, best photography gear, accurate camera head, accurate tripod head, tripod head

Id: dRS9M-2pDrE

Length: 16min 14sec (974 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 18 2024