BWG-Pro Reviews

Hi Tony
 
My findings/opinion on the Jobu BWG-Pro
 
As a wildlife photographer of with almost 30 years experience and a fan of the gimbal type tripod head (currently I use the Wimberley MkII) I feel I am well placed to comment on the new Jobu BWG-Pro.
 
This new head from Jobu is a little larger, bulkier and very slightly heavier than the Wimberly Mkll.  Finished in a pleasing shade of black & green, like the Wimberly it appear very well engineered and fit for the rigours of regular professional use with large telephoto lenses.
 
In use I found it almost identicle to the Wimberley with a few minor exceptions and like the Wimberley once your camera and lens are correctly mounted on the tripod head it becomes almost weightless and a dream to manoeuvre. I used the test head on my Gitzo G1325 carbon fibre tripod with a Canon 500mm f4 x1.4 and 1D MkIII body attached.
 
The main difference between the two heads were that the Jobu BWG-Pro has the 'tilt' knob mounted horizontally at the top of the head whereas the Wimberley is at the top of the head but to the side.  I very quickly adapted to this position and found in practice no real difference in use.  The 'pan' control knob on the BWG-Pro is mounted at the base of the head on the right hand side where as the Wimberley is on the left.  In practice this means that in use to lock this you have to take your hand off the camera to lock or adjust this whereas you don't with the Wimberley.  In practice once I have adjusted the tension on the 'pan' knob prior to shooting I do not touch this control again but keep my left hand on the 'tilt' control knob so it was not a problem for me.
 
The only other real difference I found between the two heads was that both the aforementioned controls lock with only a fraction of a turn with the Wimberley whereas the BWG-Pro has a slight spongy feel to it and requires to be turned just a little more.  With the BWG-Pro this does arguably make it easier to adjust the tension on both controls. Also the Arca Swiss type mount is slightly larger on the Wimberly but I understand this can be easily changed on the BWG-Pro using the QRR-3,  4" Quick Release Clamp.
 
The only feature that the two heads do not have in common is the the BWG-Pro has a small switch that will lock the 'tilt' action - useful when carrying the tripod on your shoulder with gear attached.
 
The bottom line is would I be happy to use this head on a regular basis - the answer is yes. 
Would I change the answer is no as the two heads are so similar. 
However if I was buying today I would definately buy the Jobu BWG-Pro as at the time of writing this the Jobu BWG-Pro retails at £485 and the Wimberley £510.
 
Regards
David
www.davidkjaer.com

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