Induro PHD3 Multi Axis Panhead

2015-12-10T21:24:32

I was looking for a tripod head that could handle more weight for use with my larger lenses for when I take moon shots. At very long focal lengths, focusing on your camera's LCD screen can look like a massive earthquake without heavy duty gear. My existing setup was an Induro tripod kit, which included the BHM2 ball head, which has a robust rating at just over 30 pounds. It's excellent head. But, it could not handle close to ten pounds of severely off-axis weight without vibrating slightly, which made Live View focusing nearly impossible. The PHD3 barely budges at all when I load it up with a large off-axis load. It does not settle when you tighten up the knobs, either. Horizontal panning is very smooth, and well damped. Too bad they don't offer an optional arm. The rotating QR bracket makes it easy to switch from a lens mounted QR plate to a camera mounted QR plate. I never realized the nature of this orientation problem until i purchased this head because I could always twist my ball around, however I needed it. CONS. No friction adjustment, which ball head users rely on. The only pan/tilts with any sort of friction adjustments are higher end, fluid video heads. It's no big loss. I like the one knob control, which controls tilt on two different axis. When you loosen a fully tightened knob, the first axis to loosen is the upper axis, what I think of as the hand wave axis, which adjusts -45 to +45 degrees. After nearly two full rotations, then the knob will reach a well damped point that warns you that the tilt axis will begin loosen with further rotation. While the head lacks friction adjustments, the tightening action of the knob requires more than a full rotation, which allows you to gradually release the head by precisely releasing the tension holding it place. Unfortunately, with just one knob you cannot do this to both axis at the same time. But, if you want big handles in your way, then go buy a big fluid head, and you still won't come close to the weight handling capacity of this head. I have so many plates that I've forgotten, but I think this head came with the PU-70 QR plate. The plate is the standard 1.5 inches, 38mm, wide. I can use the PU-60 plate, which is identical, but just slightly shorter. In fact, most any of the PU-## plates should easily fit as they only differ in length, not the width of the dovetail.

Rudolph R.