Which Gimbal head to buy for 400 F4 DO II

Hi,

I own a 7D II and 5DIV body and mostly use 400 f4 DO II + TCs for birds. Most of the times I do it hand held, but I am giving it a serious thought to use tripod and see the difference.
Recently I bought a Sirui 2204X Carbon Fibre tripod with K30X ball head.
I innitially thought of getting a wimberley sidekick, but reading various threads - I could not find anyone using sidekick with Sirui 30X. and Now I am bit confused if I should go for full gimball support.

Please suggest me a direction to go for.

Best Regards
Subham

The beauty of the 400 f4 DO is that its so easily hand held. IMO if I were going to drag my tripod and gimbal along, I’d be shooting the 600!

Hi Subham,
While I usually hand hold my 400 DO, when I do use a tripod, I use it with a Mongoose 3.6 action head. I bought it here through the BAA store. Works great.
Allen

I do not know the tripod but I have used and loved my Mongoose M3.6 for all of my telephotos from 70-200 up to 800mm with a TC for 12 years.

You can purchase here.

with love, artie

With a lens such as yours I would buy a Wimberley Sidekick gimbal adapter. It can be attached in seconds to a ballhead and provides a side mount for a lens foot. Often I prefer having one tripod with the ballhead and Sidekick as I can change from landscape to wildlife shooting very quickly. When not in use the Sidekick fits into the side pocket of the tripod carry bag.

Bruce Elkman said:

With a lens such as yours I would buy a Wimberley Sidekick gimbal adapter. It can be attached in seconds to a ballhead and provides a side mount for a lens foot. Often I prefer having one tripod with the ballhead and Sidekick as I can change from landscape to wildlife shooting very quickly. When not in use the Sidekick fits into the side pocket of the tripod carry bag.

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While I will gladly sell you a Wimberley Sidekick, and the folks are Wimberley have been great friends, that is the wrong answer. Having tried one years ago and having watched folks using them on various IPTs, I can say that they are a pain in the *** as they are constantly slipping in the ballhead. A Mongoose weighs half of a Sidekick/ballhead combo, is five times more efficient, and -- even with the recent Mongoose price increase, it is still cheaper than a Sidekick and a decent ballhead. If you are the type who actually takes scenic images with a short lens while you are afield with a long long lens -- and trust me on this, I have never seen anyone with a Sidekick do that, simply grab a cheap Induro ballhead and keep it in your vest.

with love, artie