Wimberley Head – your tripod head for long lenses

If you own a long lens like a 2.8/400, 4/500 or 4/600, it’s very important to get a very good tripod with a sturdy and flexible tripod head. Today I want to focus on the tripod head and specifically on the Wimberley Head II and why I think this is the best tripod head if you own such a large lens.
The Wimberley Head is perfect for a long lens and when I bought my Canon EF 4/500L IS last year, I also ordered a Wimberley Head II to support that huge lens (as a tripod I use a Gitzo 3540LS).

Here is a picture of the Wimberley Head II with my 4/500.

The great thing about the Wimberley Head is that you can balance the lens perfectly on it and once this is done, you can move the lens in any position and it will stay in that position without the need to lock the head with the two knobs on it. This enables you to quickly follow birds and other moving subjects like cars or football players. This makes it perfect for action shots.
With a ballhead, you always have to lock the head. Otherwise, the lens will tilt over to one side and in the worst case something can get damaged.

With the Wimberley Head moving the lens is almost as flexible as hand holding it. This makes it very popular among bird photographers who use it to photograph birds in flight with long lenses.

The Wimberley Head is very sturdy and built especially for large telephoto lenses.
I recommend it for the lenses like 2.8/400, 4/500, 4/600 or Canon’s new 5.6/800.

If you spent thousands of Dollars or Euros on a large telephoto lens, you should invest in the best tripod head. In my opinion, this is the Wimberley Head II.

For more information, see the official website of the manufacturer.

You can also buy the Wimberley Head at the Birds as Arts Store or at the Naturescapes.Net store

I am not associated with any of the companies mentioned here. I recommend the Wimberley Head II because I really think it is the best head for a large telephoto lens.

One last note: The Wimberley is only for large telephoto lenses. It’s not made for mounting the camera with a small lens on it. Or for macro photography (unless you try to photograph shy insects with your large lens).
In one of the upcoming posts I will explain which head I think is best for macro and landscape photography. Stay tuned!