Hello all, info on Dietmar Nill ballhead please

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MMRadman

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Mladen Radman
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Hello all,

Found this site while googling for ballheads. Nice site, hope somebody can share his/her experience with Dietmar Nill ballhead, very much interested diversifying into big glass and thought good tripod/head combo is a prerequisite. Had a chance to look at Wimberly gimbal at NEC/Focus on Photography expo, very impressive, but keen to find out more about Herr Nill's BH before plunging into mega purchase.

Thanks
 
Hi and welcome :wave:

Sorry no help with the ballhead, I'm sure somebody will be along soon though. If not try posting something in the talk equipment section.
 
Hello again, thanks for greetings, i must be crazy aiming at £500 head (& tripod to match), not to mention glass. Thank Wile E Coyote - will look into equipment talk.
 
Hello and welcome. :wave:

I have the Dietmar Nill gimbal head. All of these top end gimbals are around the same price when all's said and done, but the Nill head comes with 4 or 5 different length Arca style plates, which as a separate purchase wouldn't be cheap, so I'd argue the price of the Nill isn't bad taking that into consideration.

It's beautifully made of cast aluminium and is comparatively light and compact compared to others on the market, so it's not too bad to cart around.

It also has the advantage of being able to mount two cameras on the head should you wish to. I've never felt the need to do that, but I do find that the secondary conventional tripod bush is really useful for mounting a flashgun well forward over the subject for macro photography as in this photo....

Macro_setup.jpg


I have no trouble using this head with my 500mm F4L or any of my other lenses, in fact it's a pleasure to use, and I don't regret the purchase in the least.

Hope that helps. Any questions please just ask. :)
 
Hello CT,

Your shared insight is enormously appreciated. I have been looking into this for some time as Nill gimbal appealed to me, but information is limited, only ref until I stumbled on this blog were Michael Weber's website (www.imagepower.de/index.htm) & www.warehouseexpress.com shopping portal.

I have noticed for instance that Wimberly requires optional bracket to mount flash, of course mounting plates are optional extra. In my estimate Wimberly would cost £600+ to achieve same functionality & accessories level as Nill. Factoring for a good tripod, say Gitzo GT3530 or GT3530LSV we are talking round £1000 for full package, significant amount for part time shooter - but I guess essential for long lens. In monetary term Nill wins.

I would greatly appreciate some further pictures of Nill gimbal in action - if possible.

I am Nikon user myself, recently part exchanged good but slow (optically and mechanically) 80-400 AFD VR for D300. In lens terms my current longest is 70-200 AF-S VR. I covet for
a) 300 AF-S f2.8 VR - with TC-14E & TC-20E
b) 200-400 AF-S f4 VR - with TC-14E
c) 500 AF-S f4 Vr - with TC-14E

Actually handled all three at latest Focus on Imaging at NEC, but most impressed with 300 and 500mm - so thought if fall into madness continues one of them could be mine one of these days, in that case they would deserve some first class support.

My few pictures are at - including samples done with 300 & 500 shot hand held:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17002757@N08/

Didn't come round putting my nature pictures anywhere yet, mostly done on slide film actually.
 
This is about the only other pic of the Nill I have I think. This is with the 500mm f4 mounted and 1.4XTC.

Niill2.jpg
 
Just an update to this...

As I said earlier the NILL is a superbly engineered head, and so it should be for the price. It is however let down by a poorly engineered arca type mount (the bit which actually holds the arca plate.) Basically, the clamp part of the head when wound out is prone to the springs becoming unseated from very shallow grooves in the moving part, where they can either flip out or become damaged and distorted when you tighten up again. Very annoying, and not good enough for this much money - spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar!

Fortunately, No2 Son has engineered me a solution with long pins attached to the moving part and shorter springs within the main body so it's no longer a problem, but it is an excellent head let down by this very annoying bit of sloppy finishing.
 
LOL. I just had a PM about heads so I thought I better update this. :D
 
I thought your computer may have had an attack of some sort with its dates.
 
I'm suffering from a slight attack of JD, but the computer's fine.:D
 
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