Bear Dale
09-01-2018, 12:37pm
Manfrotto 393 Heavy Duty Telephoto Lens Support Modifications aka Gimbal Head
I bought one of these recently, looked at the inexpensive Asian Wimberley knock offs on eBay and read that they have a lot of problems.
I didn't want to pay for a genuine Wimberley gimbal as I've never used a gimbal before and just wanted to dip my toes first.
During research I found the Manfrotto 393 and liked the double yoke build. If I fabricated a gimbal head ( I was thinking of doing this) the double yoke design would
have been the design I made.
Anyway, in my reading the only major feedback cons that people mentioned was that you couldn't lock the pan nor the top swing mount.
I made some brass knobs up on my metal lathe, machined out a section of the large nut on my milling machine, drilled and tapped some holes (and an extra hole for putting the pan locking knob in for
safe keeping when not being used) and now I can lock these two sections down.
Very very pleased with this gimbal head attached to my Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Its so smooth in operation and simple to balance. The only con I would have with it if I was a hiking with it as its not a light weight, but that's not something I do.
Anyway, here's some photos of the mods -
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4748/24718504937_7d712de2a6_h.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4618/25715744738_4a25d80e2b_h.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4768/39585909991_e661380902_h.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4744/24718505987_ca02dec86d_h.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4665/25715742508_43f1ea0ce7_h.jpg
I bought one of these recently, looked at the inexpensive Asian Wimberley knock offs on eBay and read that they have a lot of problems.
I didn't want to pay for a genuine Wimberley gimbal as I've never used a gimbal before and just wanted to dip my toes first.
During research I found the Manfrotto 393 and liked the double yoke build. If I fabricated a gimbal head ( I was thinking of doing this) the double yoke design would
have been the design I made.
Anyway, in my reading the only major feedback cons that people mentioned was that you couldn't lock the pan nor the top swing mount.
I made some brass knobs up on my metal lathe, machined out a section of the large nut on my milling machine, drilled and tapped some holes (and an extra hole for putting the pan locking knob in for
safe keeping when not being used) and now I can lock these two sections down.
Very very pleased with this gimbal head attached to my Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Its so smooth in operation and simple to balance. The only con I would have with it if I was a hiking with it as its not a light weight, but that's not something I do.
Anyway, here's some photos of the mods -
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4748/24718504937_7d712de2a6_h.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4618/25715744738_4a25d80e2b_h.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4768/39585909991_e661380902_h.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4744/24718505987_ca02dec86d_h.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4665/25715742508_43f1ea0ce7_h.jpg