As I mentioned in other posts Summer and especially the month of August is time for vacation for most people but it also proves to be a period of launching new products and ideas.
Chris Hejnar has also been quite busy to introduce a Modular Gimbal Head for smaller and lighter cameras as the Fuji XT1 with Fujinon XF100-400mm illustrated above.
Somehow, the Hejnar Gimbal is still in pre-production stage, testing and smoothing out any issues.
The Gimbal Head
Hejnar Gimbal is actually an Add-On head taking care of the vertical balancing and tilting of a longer telephoto lens. This is done via a double vertical arm with on end clamp for horizontal adjustment and a swinging cradle. The cradle is also equipped with an on end clamp which allows it to be adjusted up-down.
The Modular Head can either be mounted on a monopod equipped with an Arca style QR clamp or on a tripod via a Ball Head which will take care of the horizontal panning.
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| Hejnar Photo Modular Add-On Gimbal Head assembled |
The Hejnar Gimbal may be easily divided in three smaller components for transport or storage.
The largest part is the double support arm with the vertical tilting arm attached on it, which also has a sizable lever responsible for the adjustment of the friction, as well as locking of the vertical tilting.
The second part is the cradle with its on end clamp, for proper balancing a lens around its rotational axes. Both fore-aft and up-down.
The third part is a Hejnar Multi Purpose rail to support the whole structure and permit horizontal adjustment of the Vertical assembly so the lens rotates above the panning axis.
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| Hejnar Photo Modular Add-On Gimbal Head components |
Mounted on a Ball Head
The illustration below gives an idea of how the Gimbal may be attached on an existing Ball Head serving as a horizontal panning device.
The panning friction is adjusted by the ball head panning lock knob independently.
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| Hejnar Photo Modular Add-On Gimbal Head mounted on Ball Head for horizontal panning. |
The Cradle Clamp
The modular structure of the Gimbal is extended on the cradle design too, as it allows the user to choose the orientation of the large size Hejnar QR clamp.
As shown below the QR clamp can be set perpendicular to the cradle arm, which is more appropriate for telephoto lenses with an Arca style plate on their collar foot or even a replacement Arca style collar foot, which allows proper balancing of the lens on the cradle.
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| Hejnar Photo Modular Gimbal Head cradle with QR clamp set perpendicular for Tele lens support |
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| Hejnar Photo Modular Add-On Gimbal Head supporting long telephoto lens by its foot |
On the other hand it can also be set parallel to the cradle arm, in order to accept a camera mounted by its Arca style QR plate.
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| Hejnar Photo Modular Gimbal Head cradle with QR clamp set in parallel for camera support |
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| Hejnar Photo Modular Add-On Gimbal Head supporting camera by its plate |
Although, this is standard feature in many of Hejnar products e.g. Nodal slides with separate QR clamp, it is seldom found in Gimbal Heads.
I hope you found the information useful, thank you for viewing.
All Photos by courtesy of Hejnar Photo © 2017 Chris Hejnar
Price & Availability:
For the time being the Modular Add-On Gimbal Head is at pre-production stage sold at US$ 250.00 (+shipping where applicable) and is available as sample from the Hejnar Photo eBay store.
Update Jan 2018:
The Modular Add-On Gimbal Head is now available for US$ 225.00 from the Hejnar PHOTO online store.
If you are interested in the product, do check the Recommended Sellers page for a valid Hejnar Photo discount coupon before ordering. The coupon may only be used in the checkout at the Hejnar online store.
Referenced Articles:
Create a Versatile Modular Cradle Clamp for a Gimbal Head
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