LensMaster RH-1 side gimbal head

On an earlier page I described my disappointing experience with a Chinese no-brand gimbal head superficially similar to a Wimberley gimbal head. You can see a picture of the offending gimbal above.

The genuine Wimberley gimbal is solidly built, with tight mechanical tolerances. The Chinese copy looks pretty much like the original, but using it is an entirely different experience. Just to mention the most glaring faults of design and/or manufacture:

• Loose mechanical tolerances, reminding me of USSR-made camera fixtures from the second half of the 20th century.
• Clumsy attempts to hide mechanical wobble and slop with a spoonful of dampening grease. Incidentally, a strongly dampened gimbal is not what you want for following birds in flight or other moving subjects.
• Small bubble levels, and even compasses (of all things) nested in most knobs, nooks and crannies "just because they could", except in the few places where they could actually be useful. I don't know about you, but when I am trying to follow the movements of birds in flight with a gimbal-mounted camera, my least concern is being able to check the direction to due North.

In the case of Figure 1, there is no way the bubble level on the knob of the clamp can become horizontal, unless the tripod lies horizontal on the ground. Placing a bubble level here guarantees that it will never be actually used as a bubble level while the gimbal head is in use. Then why is it here? The most reasonable place for a bubble level would be on top of the panning head. There is none on the panning head.

The price ratio between the genuine Wimberley WH-200 and the Chinese wannabe copy, both ordered on Amazon.se, is 4.6:1, with the WH-200 costing roughly 460 €. On Amazon.se, there are currently dozens of different models of gimbal heads bearing more than a passing resemblance to the WH-200 and costing very roughly between 80 and 200 €. I have no direct experience with any of them except the one I show above and discuss here, which I purchased on eBay years ago. I cannot exclude that among the many suspected duds on Amazon.se there may be one or two that are actually not that bad. I do know that I am no longer willing to play this version of the roulette game.

Recently, a discussion on one of the large online bulletin boards on wildlife photography attracted my attention. I am unable to recall exactly where, and how I found my way there. One or two posters mentioned the unusual fact that a small UK company manufactures a couple of models of gimbal heads of simple design, reasonably priced, but with remarkably precise mechanical tolerances. This company is LensMaster and, at present, seems to offer only a full gimbal and a side gimbal (see the discussion of the two types of gimbal head below). This company also advertises on eBay. I found in some bulletin board threads that mention at least one more LensMaster gimbal model, lacking a panning base and meant to be rigidly attached atop a monopod, but I cannot see this model on the LensMaster web site. Some old links on the LensMaster web site, now redirecting to the MH-2 full gimbal, do mention a "Travel" model nowhere to be found on that site.

These days I seldom order from sources outside the EU, but I was intrigued by the reviews of these gimbal heads and could not locate an EU source, except for a rather tatty second-hand specimen on eBay. I chose the side gimbal because it saves some weight (and cost, although this did not factor into my choice) with respect to the full gimbal. I also own a Wimberley MH-100 side gimbal, which is a completely different device than the LensMaster side gimbal. I like the MH-100 in some respects, but not in the fact that it applies a worryingly high oblique strain on the top of a monopod.

I received the package from LensMaster, with a size and weight comparable to a large book, within a couple of weeks. A pleasant surprise was that the import duties and sales tax charged to me on arrival in Sweden were far less than I typically pay for non-EU orders.

How a gimbal head works

The large majority of gimbal heads use a right-angle bracket as their main structural element. Some gimbal heads use a pipe with a circular cross-section for this bracket, others a CNC-machined frame, sometimes of great apparent complexity. In all cases, the main requirements of the bracket is that it must be stiff and carry the weight of a reasonably large and heavy super-telephoto lens without significant sagging. The LensMaster gimbal heads are minimalistic in this respect, because their bracket is a bent rod of aluminum alloy with a rectangular cross-section (roughly 13 x 45 mm). Nonetheless, this bracket does provide everything expected of it.

At the bottom end of this bracket is a panning base that allows rotation of the head in the xy plane (i.e. the panning plane or horizontal plane). The friction of this base is usually adjustable. Near the opposite end of the bracket is a second rotation axis, this one in the yz plane (i.e. the tilt plane or vertical plane). Modern gimbal heads broadly divide into two groups, based on what is attached to the tilt axis. So-called full gimbals have a smaller right-angle bracket (sometimes adjustable in height and/or width) attached to the tilt axis. At the bottom of this second bracket is a clamp (usually Arca-compatible) that accepts the tripod foot of the lens.

The second type of gimbal head is usually called side gimbal, and instead of a second bracket has a clamp for the lens foot directly attached at the end of the tilt axis. LensMaster currently markets one model of full gimbal (the RH-2) and one side gimbal (RH-1). A full gimbal is a little heavier than a side gimbal, and in principle allows the lens to be perfectly balanced sideways, directly above the panning base. In practice, however, several commercial full gimbals are actually not balanced sideways, in order to provide more space between the second bracket and a large telephoto lens. A full gimbal often allows the center of gravity of the lens to be adjusted in height above the panning base. The LensMaster RH-2 is not among these. I have some doubts about the practical usefulness of this type of adjustment.

A side gimbal is lighter than a full gimbal, and in addition it can use a slightly smaller main bracket to accommodate the same large lens. On the other hand, most side gimbals do not allow a perfect centering of the lens above the panning axis. Lenses with an unusually small or large distance between lens foot and optical axis may end up moderately unbalanced sideways. My Nikkor Z 180-600 VR, however, is almost perfectly centered above the axis of the panning base of the RH-1, so I have one fewer problem to cope with.

The above figure shows my Nikon Z8 and 180-600 mm (with lens shade in reversed position) mounted on the LensMaster RH-1. In turn, the RH-1 is attached onto a Markins TB-20 tripod platform and an old Gitzo tripod. I shot this picture with a wideangle, because it was the only way to get everything I wanted in the field of view. This produced an exaggerated perspective rendering of the picture. In particular, the two knobs of the RH-1 are of equal size in reality.

For field work with a tripod, I would probably choose to add a leveling head between gimbal and tripod, or use a tripod with a built-in leveling base. Most leveling heads are equipped with a bubble level, and this is the only type of leveling aid that makes sense on a gimbal head. Once you know that the base of the gimbal head is perfectly horizontal, you don't need to know anything else (and you can use the leveling facilities built into your digital camera in those rare cases when you do need to know more).

I wrapped one turn of double-sided Velcro tape around the bracket of the RH-1, for temporarily attaching there a wired remote shutter control for the camera (as opposed to leave it dangling free by its cable).

Like in virtually all gimbal heads, you can choose whether to use this head with the bracket at the right or at the left of the camera. In my case, I prefer to have free access to the lens and its controls with my left arm, which is the way the lens designers intended, and consequently place the bracket on the right side.

The lens exterior in the above figure is covered with a thick lens coat, mostly to protect its barrel from accidental scratches and bumps in the field.

The RH-1 is equipped with two large (58 mm diameter), rubber-coated "Wimberley-style" knobs that are easy to operate even with gloves, and gentle on one's hands. These knobs are more than twice the diameter of superficially similar knobs used on many Chinese no-brand gimbal heads.

The knobs of the RH-1 do not completely lock the gimbal movements. They only adjust the friction, so you always need to be careful when attaching, detaching and handling the camera and lens, and moving the tripod with a camera and lens attached to the gimbal head. In particular, you need to hold the lens and prevent it from "falling" forward when you detach the camera body from the lens, e.g. to add or remove a focal length multiplier. Afterwards, you need to balance the lens once more within its gimbal clamp. In this context, the rubber-coated knob on the panning axis may help to prevent a "hard" collision between an unbalanced lens and the bracket of the RH-1, but this does not mean you should regularly rely on the knob to stop the uncontrolled movement of the lens. There is a real risk that the lens barrel, the knob and/or its axle may eventually break if subjected to this treatment.

Neither the RH-1 nor the RH-2 allow the lens position to be adjusted along a vertical axis or sideways. On the RH-1, a sideways possibility of adjustment could potentially be more useful than a height adjustment. Conceivably, this could be allowed by providing a couple of additional holes on the bracket, close to the hole now housing the panning axis. This might cost more than what it is worth in practice, however, since these holes presumably need to be precision-machined and not just drilled on a drill press.

You may have noticed, in the introduction section of this page, what I think of the ubiquitous bubble levels and compasses found attached to Arca-compatible clamps and fixtures made in China. The clamp used in the LensMaster gimbals has two such bubble levels, but they may actually be used to check that the lens axis is horizontal.

To be fair, for many years I have assembled my own camera supports and fixtures from comparable clamps and rails made in China and purchased on eBay and Amazon, and I am aware that it is really difficult to avoid these "value-added", often useless things when purchasing Arca-compatible fixtures for one's projects.

There are a few Arca-compatible clamps on the market that are well made and lack unnecessary bells and whistles, but to purchase them, one often needs to pay unusually high premium prices in order to - effectively - get less. The most pragmatic solution is to just stop noticing these things and become selectively blind to them.

Side gimbal head and camera bracket

A specific characteristic of a side gimbal head is that it allows direct attachment of a camera equipped with an L-shaped bracket to the gimbal clamp (Figure 4 above). In this case, however, the bracket of the gimbal head must be placed at the left of the camera.

With most types of camera bracket, when a relatively large lens is attached to the camera, like in the above figure, the camera and lens are unavoidably front-heavy, but the support provided by a gimbal head is in any case steadier than just hand-holding. Using a lens equipped with a tripod collar and shoe avoids this problem.

Attaching the bottom of a camera bracket to the clamp of a full gimbal head is possible, but requires an intermediate adapter that rotates the Arca clamp by 90° (Figure 5, above). On the other hand, this type of adapter, if sufficiently long, allows a better balance of the camera with a relatively heavy lens.

Maintenance and cleaning

A major difference between the LensMaster and other gimbal brands is that the LensMaster are meant to be easily disassembled to clean out any dust or grit that finds its way into the mechanisms, while typical industrially produced gimbals are difficult or (by design) impossible to disassemble. LensMaster recommends this disassembly, cleaning and and re-lubricating at least once a year, or after using the head in dusty, muddy or sandy environments. I would add to this list of "dirty" work environments also anywhere salt spray can be suspected to be a problem, including windy but not visibly dirty environments like jetties and seawalls. Salt is corrosive to unprotected aluminum surfaces.

Before carrying out any cleaning and maintenance on a LensMaster gimbal, make sure you have available the original instructions that came with the gimbal, or print out the illustrated instructions for the RH-2 from the LensMaster web site. There appears to be no separate instructions for the MH-1 available online, but it seems to me that the correct sequence of washers and bearings is the same in the two models. Make sure you reassemble the parts in the correct order after cleaning and lightly lubricating them.

Some users of LensMaster gimbal heads have commented that they obtain slightly smoother movements of the gimbal after polishing the surfaces of the washers. As far as I remember, sometimes these comments do not make it clear whether they are referring to the two steel washers that surround a nylon washer, or the two washers that surround the needle bearing (or all four washers). This may be good to know for photographers who intend to use LensMaster gimbals with super-telephoto lenses of 800 mm focal lengths or higher, which are difficult to manually point with precision to a specific subject even with a LensMaster gimbal in totally new and lubricated condition. In these cases, it does help to fully untighten the two knobs to reduce friction to a minimum, but the desired precision in moving the lens may be on the order of magnitude of 1 mm, which is close to the amount of mechanical flexing of these gimbals, leveling heads and tripods, and to the physiological limitations of the photographer.

Accessories

The RH-1 comes with one short and one long generic Arca-compatible plates that should fit most lenses not equipped with a built-in Arca-compatible shoe. There are better plates on the market, specifically designed for use on long lenses, but they tend to be specific to one or a few lens models. The main advantage of lens-specific plates is that the ones correctly designed do eliminate any possibility of a plate twisting sideways against the lens foot, as well as any undesirable elasticity added by rubber pads.

For several lens models, a third-party replacement lens foot is also available, which adds Arca-compatibility without increasing the size and weight of the lens. Usually, this is a better option than a bolted-on lens plate. Replacement lens collars are sometimes available for lenses equipped with a non-Arca lens foot integral with the collar. However, some of these replacement collars add Arca compatibility together with the fatal flaw of lacking eyelets for attaching a lens strap (normally present on the original collar). Some replacement lens collars made in China are also far too lightly built to provide a sufficiently stiff attachment for a super-telephoto lens.

Perhaps the kit of two plates that is now supplied with all LensMaster gimbals could be made optional to allow a slight reduction in price and shipment cost, since some users (including myself) may already own plenty of similar generic plates, and/or may prefer to purchase a plate or replacement lens foot that specifically fits the long lens they already own. The provided generic plates may perhaps help photographers who are new to super-telephoto photography and don't know yet what they need, but likely not those who already use this type of equipment and are instead looking specifically for a better gimbal head.

Balancing the lens

The lens with attached camera should always be manually balanced by repeatedly sliding it a small distance at a time within the gimbal clamp, until a satisfactory balance is "felt" with one's hands without completely releasing one's grip on the lens (usually with the lens horizontal and the friction of the tilt axis almost totally relaxed). As mentioned above, the lens should be balanced again whenever its center of gravity changes (e.g. after inserting or removing a teleconverter, a long lens shade, an LCD monitor, or a red-dot sight or optical telescopic sight of significant weight).

Conclusions

The LensMaster RH-1 is a minimalistic but fully functional side gimbal head that performs as well as much more expensive high-quality gimbal heads (e.g. those made by Wimberley), while remaining price-wise competitive with several, mechanically far poorer, gimbal heads made in China and mass-advertised on mail-order web sites like eBay and Amazon.

The LensMaster gimbals can (and, periodically, should) be fully disassembled for cleaning and lightly lubricating their metal-to-metal moving parts. This stands in contrast with most other commercial gimbal heads, which are intentionally difficult or impossible to disassemble.

Like virtually all gimbal heads, these gimbals lack built-in leveling capabilities, and should be used in the field on a tripod equipped with a leveling head.

Also like virtually all gimbal heads, a long lens mounted on LensMaster gimbals should be manually balanced on the gimbal before use, re-balanced whenever the lens center of gravity changes by adding or removing equipment, and in the field, whenever mounted on a tripod, the latter should always be equipped with a leveling head underneath the gimbal.