I'm happy to give some follow up. Some readers of the forum may still wonder what to expect from a gimbal. In brief, it made shooting easier!

I decided that the gimbal was a worthwhile investment. For my basement test at about 20 meters, with the 400mm F/5.6 on the 5DIV, I could get just about one-half of shots sharp at 1/25 second. That is about 4 stops total stabilization, one stop better than I could get with the ball head.

The main reason seems to me the ergonomics. With the ball head I always had more tension in the hands. It still seemed psychologically necessary to “hold” the camera to prevent flopping around. That was with the best tension setting I could find, where the camera would not (usually) flop downward.

With the gimbal my hands were better relaxed the whole time working to set up the shot. That included the time of shutter release. The relaxation led to a little less tremor.

I have had one chance to use the gimbal for real. From midsummer through the fall there is usually a great blue heron hanging out at our nearby Quarton Lake. The favorite roosting place is naturally inaccessible by foot. Approach on the same bank as the heron gives only obstructed views until one would be too close for the heron’s comfort. That leads to shots across the lake, farther away than one would like. Still this seemed a good technical challenge for stabilizing a telephoto lens.

I found the heron in his usual place last evening . I tried several different shutter speeds. I also was interested in comparing the my crop sensor SL2 camera to the full frame 5DIV on this mostly cloudy evening.

Direct comparison of the gimbal to the ball head at the lake seemed less interesting, since I was convinced from the indoors tests that the gimbal performs better for me. Then rain showed up before I could try the ball head anyway!

It was noticeably easier to get keepers with the gimbal than in prior years when I shot hand-held with an image-stabilized lens. For the following results I did not count the occasional shots that were not sharp because the autofocus locked on the foliage just behind the bird’s head.

With the 5DIV and Canon 400mm f/5.6 plus the 1.4x teleconverter III.

Shutter speed 1/50........Proportion sharp 5/10.......ISO 800
Shutter speed 1/100 .....Proportion sharp 7/12.......ISO 1600
Shutter speed 1/200 .....Proportion sharp 12/15 ....ISO 3200
Shutter speed 1/320......Proportion sharp 12/15.....ISO 5000



With the SL2 and Canon 400mm f/5.6

Shutter speed 1/45.......Proportion sharp 2/6........ISO 320
Shutter speed 1/125......Proportion sharp 13/17.....ISO 800




In terms of the image quality there were bigger differences from shot-to shot with one camera than the overall difference between cameras. The quality of the color seemed to me a touch better with the 5DIV.

To be more specific about gear, I did not go for the apex with Wimberly and ArcaSwiss. For about two years I have used the Oben BC139 ball head, which Bryan had reviewed. It has performed well.

This encouraged me to get the Oben GH-30 Gimbal. It has been very pleasant to use so far. It seems to have good fit and finish. There is some damping of the rotation for both panning and tilting, and these movements are very smooth. The vertical adjustment was slightly ratchety, but that is smoothing out with graphite lubricant and with use.

I do not put a lot of wear on my gear, and I have not been using any lens heavier than the 70-200 f/2.8 II with teleconvertor. Heavy use and heavy lenses might make it better to choose gear from the top-of-the line manufacturers.
Oh, one last comment. In my last post I see that I did not clearly express my thoughts about very slow shutter speed. I simply was trying to say that even though the ISO might be better at 1/25 shutter speed, it is not very likely that a shot of any real bird will be sharp with such a slow shutter. Joel had already pointed out the need for much faster shutter speeds for most birds. (The heron seems to hold very still much of the time.)

Great Blue Heron full frame by dfwatsoneuro, on Flickr
Great Blue Crop by dfwatsoneuro, on Flickr