Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This one is a tough one to rate. Simply because it needs to be fixed to be a decent gimbal head. Okay, let's start out by, this is not a Wimberly Gimbal head and it's not $500 plus. That's why we're all buying a $46 gimbal vs a $500 plus gimbal. The complaints and negative reviews about it being stiff and sluggish are true. In fact, the head I got a gimbal that was clearly a returned gimbal. IF and that is a BIG IF , you're only going to use this in a warm weather environment. Then it moves, ok with a heavy lens on it. Yes it's sluggish, but with a large heavy lens, it's OK. I tested this with a Nikon D750 and Sigma 150-600. If you got to a smaller lens it will take a little effort to move it. Again, this a $46 gimbal and not a Wimberly. I bought this for an up coming trip to Yellowstone in January. Were temps could be down to -20 degrees. So I put this in my freezer for 15 minutes to see what would happen. As predicted the head was nearly seized because of the thick grease they use. Now a buddy and I have tried other Gimbals at the $100 price point, but they are really all the same expect price. The others all suffered from slop where the camera bracket attaches and rotates at the gimbal portion. This gimbal does not, as it's slightly redesigned. To fix this you need to completely dissemble it, remove the grease that's there and then replace it with a lighter grease. Why do they use such thick grease? First, let me tell you this stuff is very thick and sticky. The reason appears to make the tolerances tighter and avoid the grease from being pushed out. This stuff is amazingly sticky and thick. While this fixes issues some of the past gimbals have had, it creates another problem which is sluggish performance. Now disassembly of the camera swing arm is simple. There is no lock light on the screws that I saw, unless it was removed by the person who returned it. You know who you are, for those who returned this.. HAHA. Cleaning out the grease it the most time consuming part. Removing the bottom/ panning part is the more difficult part and other reviewers have had a problem with this. The grease holds it in by suction and there is a pin that needs to be backed out with the use of a rubber mallet. At some point I'll upload a youtube video if people need help getting it apart. I replaced the grease with a synthetic grease (which might be too thin, I'll have to see). Now if I spin the gimbal with my camera and lens attached it will make 2 complete rotations. Before it would not even go a 1/3 turn. Now if I let go of my camera will will freely move to a level position. Before it would slowly move down. The included arca swiss plate is too short for much use with larger lenses.