What can the Flexshooter mini take ?

[Woodpecker]

Again, thanks for posting your observations and I am a big fan of the Flexshooter head for its utility, size, and function. I'm still trying to understand how you employ it for video or stills panning for WL with a center column. In all of the years I've been shooting, I've never had a center column tripod stable enough for those applications and they all flex or wobble. As much as I prefer my Flexshooter in place of a gimbal (size, compactness, ease of use, access to the entire camera) it is not as smooth or have the ROM of a gimbal. Nonetheless, it is still my first choice for travel mated to a bowl tripod.

Well, the simple answer is: I don't use it this way .

If I shoot landscape it is "normal" shooting of a scenario I like, i.e. single shots without a need for panning and stitching multiple images together, and video I don't do at all.
The primary application is for to replace my big tripod that I got for big 500mm / 700mm /850mm setups with something smaller, if I don't have planned, purely stationary shooting with the big e.g. from a tent with the big gun, but want to have full flexibility on hiking days with lighter lenses like the 180-600, so that If I have a situation where need something to provide support and working with the flexshooter as a gimbal replecent and when I am on my way between locations I can at the same time use it with the ballhead function when I find somethinig interesting for close-ups or even makro ... all on all the more spontaneous kind of "working".

Yes, if you fully extend this center column you get some swing, but the damping of the Carbon stuff is pretty good compared to e.g. a Manfrotto aluminium triod I used to have some years ago and If you shoot with an adequate delay and/or with a remote, it works fine for me, if the weather isn't against me. Normally a delay of 5 sec is enough to let the wobble calm down with a normal lens on the camera (i.e. 24-120, 105, 14-30 or such alike), IF the center column is required to be used. But because of the T at the end of the tripod's name it's already pretty tall, so in most situations of this type, the center column is down anyway.

One thing that definitely doesn't work well with this seput stretched to the max is working on windy days and - as I already siad - this ios denifitely nothing for hardcore landscapers with precision panning for panorama in mind.

 

[Woodpecker]

Hi! I have a gripped D850 and use it with a 1.4TC and the 500pf lens. I have posted here several times on this topic. This combination is very back heavy and needs a longer foot in order to balance on the Flexshooter mini (which I also have). With the longer foot there is no problem at all balancing the rig. When using just the lens foot on the 500pf it is not possible to balance the camera / lens combination mentioned here (which you are familiar with). The extra length is required behind the foot on the 500pf lens.

Yup, same problem here . Admittedly I didn't have the Flexshooter Mini (only the big one) when I was using my gripped D850 with the 500PF, but I can remember having had similar problems, although at the time juggling with a ball head, which would be more trricky to handle compared with your Flexshooter in terms of balance.

That said, something that certainly improved the situation on my side was getting rid of the orginal foot with an Arca plate and mount the Wimberley foot instead, where the Arce plate reaches pretty close towards the camera and where the center of gravity comes quite a bit down due to the low profile of the foot (not removable though).

 

[ajrmd]

Does the red dot attached to the hot shoe or to the cage? I have trouble getting my 800 PF F6.3 on target sometimes. Looks like you have the same lens. Looking online, I'm only seeing the device used on rifles only.

Some people find the use of red dots or other scopes helpful to assist in targeting, however with time/experience they are generally not needed. Learning how to sight, follow the subject with your eyes/body, lift the camera to your face while keeping both eyes open, and capturing the desired target in the viewfinder is an acquired skill. It's an effective approach whether one is employing a shotgun or a camera and I believe that Steve or other photographers have produced videos on the topic.