Will this help me get better videos and photos?

Recently, Kentfaith reached out to me asking if I would like to test and review one of their products and this came at a great time, as I had just been away on a little photo trip where I used a gimbal head for the first time, and I found it really helpful for my photography and video, so I decided I would like to try out the Kentfaith 360° Panoramic Gimbal Tripod Head.

The gimbal head arrived in good time, and it is a well made, solid bit of kit. It is made from an aluminium alloy and weighs in at 1.4kg. The gimbal was very straight forward to set up, as it is just 2 main pieces. The kit includes an arca swiss compatible plate and a ¼”- ⅜” screw adaptor.

Having set it all up, my one gripe that I have with the plate, is that I feel it could do with a spring/locking pin like on some video tripod plates, as this would be more secure when mounting onto your lens. By solely hand tightening the plate to my lens with the fold out on the screw, I was unable to get it really tight, and I found that the camera/lens swivelled on the plate when fitted into the gimbal, this was really easy to remedy, by using one of the multi tools I have in my bag to tighten the screw down a little bit further, but something to remember moving forward.

The gimbal has a stated weight limit of 20kg, meaning that my 70-200 f2.8 GM ii lens plus the 2X Teleconverter would be no problem at all for it to handle. The control knobs were easy to use and did a good job holding everything still.

Now that I have got everything set up, my aim is to get up nice and early and head out to some wheat fields where I am hoping to see some hares.

Having arrived at 7am, I headed out to the hare field, I have also brought along my camo net and some poles to help camouflage me, in the hopes of getting some better encounters with the hares. On my walk over to the field, I could see that (already) my plan had a slight flaw, as the wheat had already been cut, and poop spread over the field (not ideal). I chose to continue on and found a nice spot that had survived the poop where I was able to set up my makeshift hide, I had removed the centre column of my tripod, and fitted the gimbal head so that I could get the tripod nice and low to get some eye level images and videos. All I had to do now was sit and wait for the animals to swarm in front of me, ready for their moment in the limelight….

A half an hour went by, and I had seen absolutely nothing, but as it was still early I wanted to wait it out some more, in the hopes that something would come by me. A little while later, a Buzzard perched in some trees across the field from me, and I was able to get some nice clips and photos of it, before it moved off.

Up until now, all my videos and photos have been handheld, leading me to use some high ISOs so that my shutter speed is fast enough for me to get non blurred shots when taking images, and relying on filming in 50fps with the IBIS and OSS turned on and image stabilisation when editing, to account for my instability when shooting video clips. It was great having the gimbal head with me, as I was able to get some solid footage, having locked the gimbal head off where I wanted it.

After waiting for an hour, with only and additional Magpie and Pigeon showing up, I packed up and headed to the river to see if I would have more luck with animals there and to try out the gimbal head further.

I trudged along with all my gear, the novelty of the hide wearing off fast with its weight, poles flopping around and the bag catching on the ground as I am too short (definitely need to find myself a better way of carrying it all if I am to make proper use of it) and finally made it to the river, which was overgrown with Himalayan balsam, making it impossible to get down to the river where I was hoping to go. So, as my time was fast running out this morning, and the light becoming quite harsh, I headed back home to regroup and de-stress.

That evening, I headed back out, (with my camo and poles in a much better bag) down to the rabbit field near my house to have another try on the gimbal. I have been here before and regularly walk Skylar here, so I knew it would be a sure thing for the rabbits to show. I arrived just after 5pm and set up my gear downwind from where the rabbits would be coming out.

I didn’t have to wait too long before they started to make their way out of the ferns, I was able to shoot at 25 fps due to the camera being locked off on the gimbal, which is something I haven’t been able to do before, and tried my best to do some panning and tilting. I have a way to go to get this nice and smooth, but I did find, particularly on the pan, that to start with there is a bit of a jolt to start the motion off, and with the rabbits only hopping a step or two, I found it hard to get that smooth.  

I had an amazing time out here with the rabbits and managed to get some really nice photos and video clips with the help of the gimbal head. Even though it is early days, I am really happy with how the gimbal preformed and will be using it again. I feel that the panning will be less jolty on faster moving subjects (life flying birds) and with lots of additional practice. The gimbal is listed at £259.99, but it is regularly on sale for £64.99, and for the price, it is really good value to get you started with a gimbal head.

If you are interested in adding one of these to your own kit you can pick one up here, and by using my affiliate link, you are helping to support my work at no additional cost to your order.  You can also use the code: joheard for 17% off across the website. 👍