Basic Buying Guide for gimbals:

A gimbal head balances your camera and lens at their natural centre of gravity. If you try to use a large telephoto lens and camera on a ballhead you have to fight the natural tendency of the equipment to want to tip over due to gravity. The ballhead will balance the lens only when the centre of gravity is directly vertical over the ballhead, as soon as it moves it will want to fall. Ballhead designers implement friction and all sorts of fancy elliptical gizmos to fight gravity. This is like using a screwdriver to hammer a nail. Wrong tool, wrong job.

A gimbal head balances your lens naturally. You can probably picture the way a large telescope is mounted. There is a reason for this, it works. The Jobu Design gimbal heads use the same principal to make your lenses and cameras weightless. Tension control is not necessary because your camera and lens CANNOT flop over. You can move a 600mm F4 lens with one finger. Put yourself in the drivers seat and take a Jobu Design Gimbal Head for a spin, you will be like a machine gunner at the control!

Jobu offer 2 sizes of gimbals. The Jr.2 series and the BWG series. Both are available in either a top-mount or side-mount configuration -- Neither top or sidemount is BETTER than the other or STRONGER than the other, it is merely your CHOICE which you think would work better for you.

Both top and side mount work really well, there are advantages/disadvantages to using an Horizontal Mount (HM-1, or HM-J2). Advantages are: easier loading of lenses (esp. HEAVY lenses), adjustability of vertical balance, centering of lenses for panning. Disadvantages: cost, weight and potential for increased vibrations.

Size guide:  Jobu gimbals heads fall into this range depending on your lenses:

• Small telephoto: 70-200 F2.8/4, 300mm F4, 100-400mm. Choose: Jobu Jr.2

• Medium telephoto: 300mm F2.8, 50-500mm, 500mm F4 Choose: BWG-LW or JR2+HMJ2

• Large telephoto: 400mm F2.8, 600mm F4 Choose: BWG-HD

• Digiscope - Swarovski -- Nikon, etc. -- 2-4lb scope --Choose Jobu Jr2+HMJ2

• Telescope application with Digiscope mount? 1000-5000mm... coming soon....

Please note that Jobu design gimbals do not come with a lensplate unless otherwise specified in a kit. Most users buy a Surefoot Regular lensplate for all lenses except 500mm F4, 400mm F2.8 or 600mm F4, in those cases choose the Surefoot Grande (these lenses have an additional beefy 3/8" mounting screw).

Model: Black Widow Gimbal - Heavy Duty

Description :

If your lens arsenal contains a monster-sized, back-breaking heavy lens then you need a support that is up to the task of holding it properly and safely without adding a lot more weight to your backpack. Jobu Design's Heavy Duty BWG mounts your 400mm F2.8, 500mm F4, 600mm F4 or 300-800mm lens quickly and securely. By re-orienting the mounting clamp to a horizontal position (rather than vertical sidemount) you allow a much easier way of installing the lens, and you remove all the shear stress from the lens-collar on your telephoto lens.

• If your lens arsenal contains a monster-sized, back-breaking heavy lens then you need a support that is up to the task of holding it properly and safely without adding a lot more weight to your backpack. Jobu Design's Heavy Duty BWG mounts your 400mm F2.8, 500mm F4, 600mm F4 or 300-800mm lens quickly and securely. By re-orienting the mounting clamp to a horizontal position (rather than vertical sidemount) you allow a much easier way of installing the lens, and you remove all the shear stress from the lens-collar on your telephoto lens.

• Ergonomically designed, indestructible, thermoplastic clamping knobs. These feature a wide grip and smooth contours that are easy on the hands. The high-profile 6-lobe design allows for ease of use and strong clamping, even with gloves on (Hey, we're Canadian, we KNOW about cold weather shooting)

• NOW LIGHTER! 3lb 5oz Total Weight. Keeps your backpack light for travelling.

• All weather design. From the hard powder-coated support arm, to the stainless steel shafts, to the black anodized clamp, the finish will endure the worst a photographer can throw at it.

• Light weight yet High Strength. Strength and weight are optimized so that the BWG can carry a monster 600 F4 lens, yet be light enough to carry to shooting locations without undue stress on your shoulders.

• Maintenance free design. The BWG requires no maintenance for the life of the product. Nylon bushings will never wear out, and heavy-duty waterproof grease is used to create the silky-smooth operation.

• The Black Widow Gimbal is Easy to mount to your tripod. You will be up and running in a few minutes of opening the box.

• New IMPROVED QR Clamp! The newest version of our CNC-machined clamp allows improved one-handed loading of the Black Widow with automatically opening jaws. *

• NEW HORIZONTAL LOCKOUT KNOB! The horizontal tilt motion can now be locked out for complete safety. Whether for transporting over your shoulder, or for changing cameras without removing your lens, the NEW lockout knob will stop the head from moving.
  * Extra Long clamp now available at slightly higher cost.

Model: Jobu Jr. 2 Complete Package

Description :

The Jobu Design BWG-J2 Jobu Jr. is a compact-size gimbal head that puts the user in full control of his shooting experience. This newest head utilizes the best overall design layout, best materials, and best user-friendly experience over any other comparable tripod head.

The cast aluminum arm is tough, rigid and, best of all, extremely light! The whole complete gimbal head weighs only 1.3lbs !!! That is less than 1/2 the weight of the next lightest head, the BWG-LW. All parts are polished and anodized to give the smoothest operation and toughest clamping force -- with minimal effort. The knobs are very soft overmolded rubberized plastic, very easy to turn and easy on your hands.

This sidemount design is purposefully compact to allow it to fit into a small backpack with the rest of your equipment. The intended uses of this gimbal head are for small-medium telephoto lenses such as: 100-400mm f/4,
70-200mm F2.8, 50-500mm, etc. Yes it will hold a 300 F2.8. Yes it will hold a 500mm F4, although if a 500mm is your primary lens we really do suggest you move up to the BWG-LW as the size and stiffness of the bigger gimbal are a big improvement.

A top-mount design adapter (an L-shaped bracket to convert the sidemount to a perfectly centred top-mount is available now for users who want to utilize the benefits of such a layout.)See the HM-J2 under Gimbals.

Package Include :

1) New L-bracket for the Jobu Jr. 2 converts the side-mount lens clamp design to a top-mount (similar to Jobu BWG-HD unit).

2) Jobu Jr 2 Compact Gimbal Head

3) Jobu Surefoot Lensplate

Advantages with the included new horizontal mount (L Bracket) for Jobu Jr 2 gimbal head are:

• All lenses becomes perfectly centered over the panning axis.

• Top-mount quick-release clamp allows one-handed loading of lenses

• Vertical adjustability allows better balance when a tall flash bracket is used.

1) One-piece cast and heat-treated construction. Incredible stiffness and rigidity.

2) Full ball bearing support in tilt-axis for ZERO static/dynamic friction. 100% smooth movement.

3) Newly redesigned and stiffened horizontal mount swing-arm for better control.

4) Soft-touch rubberized knobs for better use with bare or gloved hands, especially when wet (similar to our Jr.2 knobs).

5) Newly designed low-profile lockout switch (locks tilt movement for travel).

6) Minimal weight penalty over current BWG-HD, current build weight is 3.5lbs

Recomended lenses: from 70-200mm F2.8, to 800mm primes lens.