Best lightweight fluid head for the A7S?

Y

yoclay

Veteran
Hello,
I am in the market for a real fluid head to be able to deal with a simple A7S and a voigtlander 40mm lens in travel circumstances.
Guess what, there are almost none.
I am not talking about Manfrotto 701's or Weifand Fancier crap. Which are not fluid, and have no real controls in terms of counterbalancing or fluid drag.
The problem is the most of the real heads out there are a little too big or cumbersome for such a small setup. And most of the small heads are lousy to say the least.

I know that an FSB4 could handle it, but a lighter Ace series head which is supposed to be equivalent has bounceback at minimum drag settings. It says 0-4kg for instance in the marketing, but in truth that means either 0 or at least 1.2kg to begin with. Forget the Manfrotto "Bridging" heads too, much worse.

The smallest Miller's have few if any counterbalancing/drag controls.

The only lightweight head I have seen so far is the Really Right Stuff FH-350. It looks great, but in truth it is no lighter than an FSB from Sachtler either in terms of weight or dimensions. It also costs a fortune by comparison. $1700 just for the head, and that's not even counting all the other accessories likely needed to buy into their system. Anyone have experience with this head?

I want small, quality and reasonably priced (less than a $1000). Am I missing something or is there nothing out there for doing quality backpack style work in the field?
 
Hello I got this for my gh4
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1087198-REG
Its not the most portable system you can use and the flat head can take time to balance, but the fact that you can shoot 4" above the ground level is awesome. The head itself is smooth . Dont expect a vinten but for the price its good.
last thing this system dosent come with a case. I picked a Hacuba 300 and it even has a room for my rode micro pole and maybe a light stand.
Best Regards
 
Why do you think an FSB4 will work if an ACE-M didnt? Don't they have the same counterbalance capacity and number of steps? And the ACE-M is only 10% lighter than an FSB4 if you think the FSB4 will work...

Only other thing I can think might be to try a head with continuously adjustable counterbalance like a Cartoni SmartPro (I don't have good experiences with Cartoni heads though)...
 
nyvz said:
Why do you think an FSB4 will work if an ACE-M didnt? Don't they have the same counterbalance capacity and number of steps? And the ACE-M is only 10% lighter than an FSB4 if you think the FSB4 will work...

Only other thing I can think might be to try a head with continuously adjustable counterbalance like a Cartoni SmartPro (I don't have good experiences with Cartoni heads though)...
Click to expand...

I don't have to think about it. I know it. Because I have already seen how it balanced with an FSB4 and not with the Ace. Therefore something is different between the two heads. Also, the Ace is in fact 700gr ligher by the way (so one third less).
The thing is I dont want to carry around an FSB range head, they pretty much all have the same weight and are a little cumbersome.
I haven't tried the Cartoni, though it does appear a touch lighter, but honestly, I don't think we should need 2kg heads to achieve good balance with real adjustment capacity for these cameras. Something must be done!
 
Last edited:
I am also looking at the RRS. It's annoying that there are zero reviews and you can't look at their tripods in a shop as they only sell direct apparently (and with a waiting list at that). I have a Cartoni and Miller combo, but want something a bit lighter and the cartoni has been sort of a drag lately. The Cartoni I have is the Focus. They list it as being the same weight as the RRS (4.5lbs) but that's not anything close to the truth. It's heavier. I think my combo (100mm bowl miller 4 stage) is about 13lbs. I screwed around with some lighter tripods and got very poor results.
 
wallrc said:
I am also looking at the RRS. It's annoying that there are zero reviews and you can't look at their tripods in a shop as they only sell direct apparently (and with a waiting list at that). I have a Cartoni and Miller combo, but want something a bit lighter and the cartoni has been sort of a drag lately. The Cartoni I have is the Focus. They list it as being the same weight as the RRS (4.5lbs) but that's not anything close to the truth. It's heavier. I think my combo (100mm bowl miller 4 stage) is about 13lbs. I screwed around with some lighter tripods and got very poor results.
Click to expand...

We are exactly on the same page. It's hard to work with quality and then realize that as cameras get lighter, the heads don't follow suit. The RRS looks very good, but in truth it has the same weight and dimensions of an FSB4. I agree that RRS selling policy just sucks. It needs to be seen and demo-ed before anyone pony's up 2-3x more than for a darn good Sachtler head. (Don't forget you are going to need to purchase a leveling base, nodal slide, L-Brackets, pinchers, etc. for it too). Basically, in order to use this head you are going to have to buy into the whole ecosystem sight unseen if you are from the video world. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you believe as a company that you have enough of a market that you don't want to look outside your pre-existing user base of photographers. The salesperson who took my call, suggested that I could try it out by spending $2000+, have it shipped to me and then paying the cost also of the return if I don't like it. So it's at least $50-100 to try their product. Not to mention that there is a slight risk of a potential 15% restocking fee if you read the fine print. Come on guys. Get some distributor's for heaven sake. At least for this more expensive video product. You appear to have one in the Netherlands, why not do a few more? At least the major center's like NYC, LA and Chicago for instance. How many of these are you selling? Is your direct only policy really helping you on this one?
 
Last edited:
I was looking at getting this one: http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/Shop/Full-Size-Packages-Series-3/Fluid-Head-Pkg-Full-Sized-34L.html
So $3k. The project I am on right now will probably have an expense overage that will cover that package (it's a use it or lose it thing) but I still can't stomach paying that much for a tripod without at least handling it in person, especially since I am currently using what I think are some of the best sticks in the biz. But the tripod part of their package costs no more than the millers.

It doesn't help that they are in San Luis Obisbo, which from my point of view is the middle of f'ing nowhere, too far north from LA, too far south from SF.
 
wallrc said:
I was looking at getting this one: http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/Shop/Full-Size-Packages-Series-3/Fluid-Head-Pkg-Full-Sized-34L.html
So $3k. The project I am on right now will probably have an expense overage that will cover that package (it's a use it or lose it thing) but I still can't stomach paying that much for a tripod without at least handling it in person, especially since I am currently using what I think are some of the best sticks in the biz. But the tripod part of their package costs no more than the millers.

It doesn't help that they are in San Luis Obisbo, which from my point of view is the middle of f'ing nowhere, too far north from LA, too far south from SF.
Click to expand...

Apparently you have a 30 day trial period and can return it no questions asked. The caveat is that it must be returned in like new condition or you pay a 15% restocking fee. So, basically you can try it in the privacy of your well carpeted, completely child proofed and insulated clean room, but I wouldn't hike around with it.
 
nyvz said:
Why do you think an FSB4 will work if an ACE-M didnt?
Click to expand...

I had the original Sachtler ACE M tripod, which was pretty good for a low cost video tripod, but there was always a little bit of bounce-back when you stop panning. ( I used rubber bands to pull the panning handle to help reduce this problem )

In comparison the Sachlter FSB-4 head doe not have this bounce-back problem when coming to the end of a camera pan.

I've been told that the Sachtler ACE L tripod does not have the bounce-back issue, and that newer ACE M tripods might have this problem fixed too, but I haven't been able to confirm this myself.
 
It's funny, I've drooled over that RRS head more than almost any other piece of gear - and I've never seen it in person. If I end up buying it, Yoclay, I'll post some thoughts. Please do the same if you have any encounters with it.
 
wallrc said:
It's funny, I've drooled over that RRS head more than almost any other piece of gear - and I've never seen it in person. If I end up buying it, Yoclay, I'll post some thoughts. Please do the same if you have any encounters with it.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It's just having to buy into the rest of the ecosystem which is a bit difficult on top of it. They should make a universal version of the head with more standard plates. Bet they would sell a whole lot more.
 
yoclay said:
Agreed. It's just having to buy into the rest of the ecosystem which is a bit difficult on top of it. They should make a universal version of the head with more standard plates. Bet they would sell a whole lot more.
Click to expand...

On the plates, I dunno, I've been using Cartoni for years and their plates don't fit anything else. They did give me a free extra one at a show though.

I found somebody who actually uses the head! Not for video though...
http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/426446-swarovski-atx-95-binoculars/page-4
 
Light and good counterbalance/drag seem to be mutually exclusive. The Benro heads are getting good reviews, but they're no smaller than many of the others mentioned including the Manfrotto. Libec has some decent stuff for the money, again the heads aren't any lighter. I've been looking for something small/light and under $1000 that won't look like the head is full of rocks when panning and its been tough. I think I'm just going to put something on one of the high end Gitzo tripods that takes a 75mm bowl - so the weight savings comes from the legs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top