King Cobra - Panning Head - Motocross
Bodwick
Registered Users Posts: 396 Major grins
King Cobra - Panning for sports photography - Motocross
I went out today for a couple of hours to try out the King Cobra http://www.kirkphoto.com/cobra.html ’Action Head’
I used my 1.8 200L on a 1Ds mounted on a Manfrotto 055CB. The total weight with the Cobra came to about 10kg or 20.5lbs. It sits over the shoulder comfortably when moving from location to location.
I’ve owned the 200 1.8 for 3 or 4 years and usually sit cross legged resting the lens in my left hand. Due to a bad back (too many kick-starts and some rugby injury) I’ve found the weight a problem recently. If you shoot all day with this lens it can feel like you’ve spent the day in a gym. Standing and shooting is another story…..So I decided some time ago to purchase a head suitable for sports/motorcycles.
The Wimberly head http://www.tripodhead.com/ mentioned in another post was an option but after the usual net-research I went for the King Cobra. I ordered a base plate for the lens and one for the camera. I also bought a padded strap (of debatable value for money, the jury is still out on this one. The camera base plate also takes any normal tripod head plate)
I wanted to try some very slow shutter speeds down from my usual handheld speed of 1/250 that I tend to settle for. My bad back kicked in today and stopped me concentrating on what I was doing making me give up after an hour and a half, so I settled for my usual settings to see what the difference would be. So it was asa100 @ 1/250 looking at F8ish - F14ish using AI servo single shot. Both eyes open ( I try to always keep both eyes open for loads of reasons)…….
My first impression was that once in position you could shoot all day without any trouble at all. The weight issue means nothing when the cameras is mounted and the ease and accuracy of the panning made following the bikes a joy rather than the usual hard work this type of shooting can become. I can see some great potential for some very slow shutter shots….Examples to follow as soon as my back stops playing up…
Is the Cobra better than the Wimberly?:dunno You could argue this all day. I’d say that I think these two products are very similar. For a bigger lens I’d maybe think the side mounting of the Cobra could be a problem and this might/would go against it compared to the Wimberly. Even the 200 is a weight to side mount. Keep a tight grip and watch what your doing for a good fit of the plate is rule number 1. A 600mm would be a difficult job to mount. But then I’m sure that’s the case whatever you mount it on!…..dropping a lens due to bad mounting practice would be stupid but is a real possibility.
So this was a good purchase that I’ll post slow shutter results from in due course. Quite a weight but that’s life with this sort of product. I briefly considered a video head but the price was way too high. I can see myself using this quite a lot despite the extra weight with the cost being again acceptable for a buitifully finished well made product.
As for mountint to a tripod. The Manfrotto was needed as my Gitzo CF just wasn’t up to supporting this package. I’ve owned the 55C for quite a few years and it’s built to outlast me. Maybe a new super-solid CF tripod would be a good buy but the cost would be prohibitive.
Next time I’ll also take a fold out chair for the ultimate in lazy shooting accessories :snore . I can see myself sitting in a chair gently panning some (hopefully) very nice slow shutter action shots this summer. Time will tell……
Another change to my shooting that I’ll mention was to shoot only in RAW format. This increased the 2gb card capacity to about 170 shots from about 110 with RAW+jpeg. Since moving to RawShooter I’ve decided to dump the jpeg backup and shoot only RAW. So two 2gb cards get me well over three hundred shots. My in-built lazy jpeg for posting and RAW for printing has now come to an end…..
Not the best shots I’ve ever taken but it was nice to take a break and get out for a couple of hours. The rope was a pain to shoot over and I’ll be taking a yellow jacket next time to get a bit more access at this venue. (oh, I’ll also be taking a load of painkillers) Typical, now I’m home my bad back feels fine!!!!
The King Cobra. http://www.kirkphoto.com/ In the UK I bought this from Warehouse Express http://www.warehouseexpress.com/
This is another product that gets the Bodwick thumbs up :thumb seal of approval.
Oh, the Manfrotto 055C also gets a thumbs-up…..
Hope this is of use to anyone looking at this type of head.....
Bod....
:freaky
I went out today for a couple of hours to try out the King Cobra http://www.kirkphoto.com/cobra.html ’Action Head’
I used my 1.8 200L on a 1Ds mounted on a Manfrotto 055CB. The total weight with the Cobra came to about 10kg or 20.5lbs. It sits over the shoulder comfortably when moving from location to location.
I’ve owned the 200 1.8 for 3 or 4 years and usually sit cross legged resting the lens in my left hand. Due to a bad back (too many kick-starts and some rugby injury) I’ve found the weight a problem recently. If you shoot all day with this lens it can feel like you’ve spent the day in a gym. Standing and shooting is another story…..So I decided some time ago to purchase a head suitable for sports/motorcycles.
The Wimberly head http://www.tripodhead.com/ mentioned in another post was an option but after the usual net-research I went for the King Cobra. I ordered a base plate for the lens and one for the camera. I also bought a padded strap (of debatable value for money, the jury is still out on this one. The camera base plate also takes any normal tripod head plate)
I wanted to try some very slow shutter speeds down from my usual handheld speed of 1/250 that I tend to settle for. My bad back kicked in today and stopped me concentrating on what I was doing making me give up after an hour and a half, so I settled for my usual settings to see what the difference would be. So it was asa100 @ 1/250 looking at F8ish - F14ish using AI servo single shot. Both eyes open ( I try to always keep both eyes open for loads of reasons)…….
My first impression was that once in position you could shoot all day without any trouble at all. The weight issue means nothing when the cameras is mounted and the ease and accuracy of the panning made following the bikes a joy rather than the usual hard work this type of shooting can become. I can see some great potential for some very slow shutter shots….Examples to follow as soon as my back stops playing up…
Is the Cobra better than the Wimberly?:dunno You could argue this all day. I’d say that I think these two products are very similar. For a bigger lens I’d maybe think the side mounting of the Cobra could be a problem and this might/would go against it compared to the Wimberly. Even the 200 is a weight to side mount. Keep a tight grip and watch what your doing for a good fit of the plate is rule number 1. A 600mm would be a difficult job to mount. But then I’m sure that’s the case whatever you mount it on!…..dropping a lens due to bad mounting practice would be stupid but is a real possibility.
So this was a good purchase that I’ll post slow shutter results from in due course. Quite a weight but that’s life with this sort of product. I briefly considered a video head but the price was way too high. I can see myself using this quite a lot despite the extra weight with the cost being again acceptable for a buitifully finished well made product.
As for mountint to a tripod. The Manfrotto was needed as my Gitzo CF just wasn’t up to supporting this package. I’ve owned the 55C for quite a few years and it’s built to outlast me. Maybe a new super-solid CF tripod would be a good buy but the cost would be prohibitive.
Next time I’ll also take a fold out chair for the ultimate in lazy shooting accessories :snore . I can see myself sitting in a chair gently panning some (hopefully) very nice slow shutter action shots this summer. Time will tell……
Another change to my shooting that I’ll mention was to shoot only in RAW format. This increased the 2gb card capacity to about 170 shots from about 110 with RAW+jpeg. Since moving to RawShooter I’ve decided to dump the jpeg backup and shoot only RAW. So two 2gb cards get me well over three hundred shots. My in-built lazy jpeg for posting and RAW for printing has now come to an end…..
Not the best shots I’ve ever taken but it was nice to take a break and get out for a couple of hours. The rope was a pain to shoot over and I’ll be taking a yellow jacket next time to get a bit more access at this venue. (oh, I’ll also be taking a load of painkillers) Typical, now I’m home my bad back feels fine!!!!
The King Cobra. http://www.kirkphoto.com/ In the UK I bought this from Warehouse Express http://www.warehouseexpress.com/
This is another product that gets the Bodwick thumbs up :thumb seal of approval.
Oh, the Manfrotto 055C also gets a thumbs-up…..
Hope this is of use to anyone looking at this type of head.....
Bod....
:freaky
"The important thing is to just take the picture with the lens you have when the picture happens."
Jerry Lodriguss - Sports Photographer
Reporters sans frontières
Jerry Lodriguss - Sports Photographer
Reporters sans frontières
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