I am always looking for ways to lighten my load when it comes to photography gear. In the days of ever decreasing weight limits on airlines or just simply wear and tear on my own back, saving a pound or two here and there can make a meaningful difference. One piece of gear I therefore decided to take a closer look at was my gimbal head. I currently use the Wimberley WH-200, which is positively excellent. I have used it successfully for many years and still consider it to be the gold standard of gimbal heads. The only downside is that it is a bit on the heavy side, which is why I decided to evaluate a more modern potential alternative, the Leofoto PG-1.
The Leofoto PG-1 is definitely a good bit lighter coming in at just 2.2 lbs. compared the the 3.1 lbs. of the Wimberley. All of that, of course, means little if the performance isn’t there. However, in looking at a number of positive reviews on the PG-1 I felt it was definitely worth some serious consideration. What follows is my evaluation of the PG-1 for wildlife and astrophotography and how it compares to the Wimberley WH-200. My main areas of concern were quality, smoothness of operation, stability, and lockdown.
Below in Figure 1 is the Leofoto PG-1 next to the Wimberley WH-200. Both are in my preferred cradle mount configuration. In addition to being nearly a full pound lighter than the Wimberley, it is also less bulky, making it easier to pack. Looks are, of course, subjective but I have to say that I do like modern high-tech look of the Leofoto.
Quality:
The PG-1 is definitely well made. Fit and finish is very good. It feels smooth and solid in the hand with no obvious residual machining work indicative of a cheap manufacturing process. I would say quality of design and manufacture of the two heads are generally on par. While I can only speculate as to long term reliability, I would guess that the PG-1 would hold up well over time. Naturally, a big concern would be how well I could trust the PG-1 to reliably hold my heavy and expensive super-telephoto lenses. At this point I have seen nothing in any reviews indicating any issues. Heads that break and drop expensive lenses to the ground tend to make news rather quickly.
Pan/Tilt:
Both the pan and tilt actions are smooth. The panning knob is in a familiar location on the side of the base. The tilt knob is a little different from the Wimberley in that it adjusts from the top rather than from the side. The biggest difference, however, is that both knobs on the Leofoto require more turns to adjust the amount of resistance or to fully lock. The Wimberley by contrast adjusts tension quickly with less that a full turn of either knob. Which one is better is more a matter of preference. The Leofoto theoretically allows for more precision adjustment while the Wimberley is quicker to set but with perhaps a little less precision.
In terms of how smoothness compares between the two, I would say both the Leofoto and the Wimberley are quite comparable when set to low resistance. When set to higher resistance, the PG-1 seemed to be a bit smoother and slightly less jerky than the Wimberley. The difference is minimal however. It may also be due more to the age of my Wimberley as it has seen some eight plus years of use in a lot of tough conditions.
Stability:
When loaded with my Nikon 600mm f/4 TC I did notice that the Leofoto PG-1 does show some lens vibration when lightly bumped. It is not excessive by any means, but it is noticeably more compared to the same setup with the Wimberley. The WH-200 also seems to damp vibrations more quickly.
I would still have no reservations about using the Leofoto for wildlife photography. When panning or stationary shooting I always have one hand on the camera and one on the top of the lens. This pretty much keeps things well damped and not a problem even with lower shutter speeds. However, for Astrophotography work the situation is different. Very long shutter speeds on a locked gimbal leave very little room for movement. In my experience the stability and damping of the Wimberley has proven to be excellent.
Lockdown:
This is where things get a bit interesting. For wildlife photography, locking down either pan or tilt is rarely needed or desired. The whole idea is to be able to freely move the camera and lens easily. However, for astrophotography a good strong lockdown is absolutely needed.
As mentioned previously, the Leofoto requires multiple turns of either the pan or tilt knobs to fully lock. That is not optimal when trying to hold position on a deep sky object. The biggest issue, however, that I had with the PG-1 is that once lock is set for the tilt function, there was considerable creep before finally settling. This for me was a show stopper. The Wimberley by contrast quickly locks with less than a single turn and has only a small amount of creep.
Conclusion:
I very much like the Leofoto PG-1 for use as a gimbal for wildlife photography. It is smooth for both pan and tilt and saves critical weight for travel. However, for astrophotography, it is not optimal due to the combination of multiple turns needed to lock and excessive creep of the tilt axis. The Wimberley is considerably better in this regard.
Even though the Leofoto PG-1 would save some weight in my travel setup, I feel that not being able to also use it with my astrophotography setup makes It less appealing. I am sticking with the Wimberley for now as, except for the extra weight, it is simply a better overall performing gimbal for me.
As an additional note, I also seriously considered the ProMediaGear GKjr Katana Pro Gimbal Head. While I believe it is an absolutely excellent gimbal head, I do feel that it would likely suffer from the same aforementioned issues for astrophotography as the Leofoto PG-1. The designs are quite similar with both requiring multiple turns of pan and tilt to lock into place. As far as creep after lockup I have no first hand experience. Again, I suspect it would be similar to that of the Leofoto. If anyone has any first hand experience to the contrary, please let me know in the comments below or via an email. The ProMediaGear GKjr Katana has shown itself to be incrementally better than the Leofoto PG-1 in a number of areas. Perhaps this is one of them.