Any professional photographer works with a stand. The reasons for this are many. But be it time-lapse photography, slow shutter photography, panoramic photography or landscapes, all need the assistance of a good tripod or stand. The market is flooded with stands aplenty which work on different principles and mechanisms. What separates one stand from the other is the operating head. Here we present a ball-head mechanism that is bound to win your heart and give you peace of mind. Let us welcome the Gitzo GH2780FQR, which has been precision engineered and individually casted.
Features:
The following features make the Gitzo a truly amazing toy to own:
- It has a spring-assisted double lock mechanism at the head which ensures great locking power and smoothness while panning or tilting.
- The ball head along with the casing has been treated with one of the lowers friction coefficient materials in the industry – polytetrafluoroethene (PTFE).
- The lock rigidity and ball smoothness can be varied according to the mounted camera and user preferences via a ridged, side dial which is extremely sensitive. This means that within half a rotation, the camera moves from free flowing to immovable and vice versa.
- Like any good stand-head, it provides the spirit level for level adjustments. But the plus here is the availability of three different spirit levels!
- A quarter inch bolt secured the camera to the plate. This plate has been coated with a strong gripping, non-slip material that holds the camera in place once it has been latched on.
- The plate is also held securely to the stand-head by a two pin mechanism and it can be separated only by pressing a button below the spirit level indicator.
- The other side of the stand-head features a quick release button however which can be either tightened or loosened to keep the camera locked in a position of our choice.
Specifications:
The Gitzo GH2780FQR has been manufactured from the highest grade magnesium. Cast with great precision and engineered with accuracy, it comes with a nice camo-green finish which the wildlife enthusiasts would love. An improvement over the Series 1 model, this Series 2 model weighs only about 518 grams. It permits a panoramic rotation of 360 degrees and a lateral tilt of above 95 degrees. Both of thee act independently of the other. This ensures that you have perfect control in panoramic shots of both orientations – landscape and portrait. Triple spirit levels ensure that you have no difficulty in getting your camera level to any surface.
High points:
The independent panorama lock is something very special about this head. With ability to support even the bulky 300 mm lens, the Gitzo comes as the ideal match for the Gitzo Safari, carbon fiber tripods. Its ultralight weight is another huge bonus.
Low points:
This camera tripod head was not built for work that consists of shooting with a framing that needs to be accurate and precise to the millimeter. If that happens to be the line of your work you would do better to equip yourself with a tripod head that is geared three-way.
Price:
This latest Gitzo stand head is priced at $339.99.
