Gitzo Head

To get tack sharp photos you need a to make sure your camera doesn't move when the shutter is open, and when doing a landscape with a few second shutter speed a tripod is a necessity, and when you're using thousands of pounds of gear you need faith in that tripod.

I've been using a Redsnapper RSH-12 head for a while now and have to admit I haven't been too impressed; the RS-284 legs are fantastic for the price and sturdy as a rock so maybe my expectations were too high, but the head just didn't do it for me. Heavy, too much movement and a cheap feel to it just made me nervous any time I put my D3 and a big lens on.

I've been an advocate of Gitzo for a while now and have figured if you can afford it and use a tripod enough, Gitzo is the way forward, so I took the plunge and bought a Gitzo head to replace my current Redsnapper.

Enter the GH2780QR:

This is over £300s worth of head at RRP and to be frank if you bought one through out shop would set you back around the £275 mark, so more than some people even spent on their SLR!

Initial impressions? Absolutely fantastic! Working in the shop I've had chance to play around with a lot of tripod heads and everything light has had too much movement for me to feel confident in using and has very poor friction control, the heavy heads are just too heavy to justify carrying. This Gitzo is light (around the 500g mark), absolutely rock solid when tight, and depending on how much you loosen the knob the friction control is fantastic. The pan is very nicely damped and locks solid again. The little clip like thing next to the screw on the top of the head is actually a mechanism to make sure the screw can't be undone and release the plate by accident, simple but effective.

My only real gripe with this head is the quick release plate, they've used their own plate rather than the open standard Arca-Swiss plates which my other heads use.

Put on my Redsnapper legs I'm more than happy with the set up, it's sturdy and while not a lightweight head has the stability I require at a weight I'm happy to work with. Now to buy a set of Gitzo legs!