SmallRig DH10 Heavy Duty Tripod Fluid Video Head with Flat Base and Adjustable Handle, Quick Release Plate for Manfrotto Video Head Mount Plate, Load up to 22Ibs, for Video Cameras, DSLR Cameras 4165

I bought a number of SmallRig and Rokinon products, along with Blackmagic and RODE gear, on the recommendation of a professional photographer and videographer as I was putting together a professional-grade kit for my company to produce in-house videos at scale. I couldn’t be happier. The full kit cost about the same as a single day’s shoot with a high-end production outfit. With a bit of training, we’ve already produced more than a hundred videos and turned it into a social media engine for the business. The setup has been fundamentally affordable, incredibly effective, and surprisingly approachable for non-specialists. Across the board, every product has felt professional-grade but still learnable for an amateur willing to pay a little attention. Five stars all around.

This is my first real quality photo tool to pair the camera with my tripod. Not a PRO here, just a curious amateur with a bucket list of sorts. This is a nifty “bit of kit” as the Brits might say. Very good quality with a velvety smooth action weather tilting or panning. I had only one issue and that was getting the base to rotate properly. VERRY tight at first. later determined to be of MY own understanding of how the head is adjusted. This was remedied by the unlimited patience of Jesse. I was even sent a replacement at no cost for shipping. Yet, I still had the problem. His efforts revealed an improvement was needed in the information provided to the shopper. A more focused look at the panning adjustment. THAT was my Kodak moment and after that all was well. I can recommend the product wholeheartedly as well as the SmallRig company. Their customer service is excellent!

Small Rig products that I have purchased are always the very best in quality and this video head is no exception. The quality of materials, ease of use and value for the money are superb. This video head is exactly as described, with smooth, steady turning that produces no vibrations. The packaging protects the product very well.

This is more of an early impressions review, because there are some points of clarification worth making for others looking at purchasing this tripod head. To be clear, this is a FLAT BASE tripod head. I mistakenly purchased the head solo thinking it included a 75mm bowl, but it does not, despite the main product photo showing the bowl and one of the product images clearly listing the half bowl and its features. Some of the pictures and information on the product page strongly imply there is a bowl included, but when you compare this listing with smallrig's PH8 Head, the "In the Box" section clearly shows the difference in these heads where one the DH12 is shown flat, and the PH8 with the bowl and screw. That aside, the tripod head feels extremely robust, well made, and sturdy. One issue however, was on the head that was shipped to me, the step-less damping knobs were EXTREMELY tight and would not twist with light force. Both damping dials need to be worked until they loose and can be rotated with a normal amount of force. This was easy enough to do on the pan knob but I had A LOT of difficulty with the tilt knob. I believe someone with less strength would not have been able to loosen the tilt knob at all on their own. In my case, I required the use of gloves, working the tilt knob as much as possible with a very high degree of force. To get the dial to loosen into a normal operating window took me 30+ minutes to accomplish with breaks. This was made harder to do, due to the tilt dial's smaller size relative to the pan dial and placement adjacent to the the tilt lock knob, making it hard to get a proper grip. You will know when you have gotten the dials released properly as they spin around quite a long ways when loose and you will feel the "stops" at the dials approach their maximum rotation in either direction. I'm not sure if this is something that can be QC'd on other models but the amount of tension on the dials I received seemed excessive. Otherwise, the tripod head is working as intended.

Update: It broke my lens tripod foot because it would not release the plate. It still will not release. I like that it works without much difficulty. It feels solid and stable on my tripod. The tilt was smooth. The yaw is a bit tight and I must be missing something to make it more loose. That was my only difficulty and the primary reason I took away 1 star. It is not clear to me what mounting plate to get for it. I will need two more for a smaller telephoto lens and my camera. The things I like are that the build quality seems robust, movement is smooth and it feels secure. Starting and stopping a movement had no play or jerky motion. Video was intentionally slowed down to 20% speed of 120 FPS. The red vehicle was moving at least 45MPH. The equipment used is a Sony a7rIVa, a Sony 200-600G lens, this fluid head, and a carbon fiber tripod.

I built an "All-In-One YouTube Studio" on a light stand. Part of that setup includes an Elgato Prompter (lens mounted). I decided to support the camera and lens with a SmallRig support system. Here are the SmallRig parts: 1. DH10 Heavy Duty Tripod Fluid Head 2. 5" Quick Release Plate for Manfrotto 3. Universal 15mm Rail Support System 4. Adjustable Lens Bracket 5. Two 15mm x 8" carbon fiber rods SmallRig parts are an industry standard and simply stated, they are high quality, durable, and economical. You can't go wrong with SmallRig parts for your camera needs! Now, I can rest assured that the camera and lens are properly supported when I attach the Elgato Prompter to the camera lens.

Sony a7S III user here. The counterbalance has no ZERO amount setting. Meaning a light camera on this will automatically snap back up. So if you don't have a heavy camera rig I would not recommend. The build quality was very nice and the fluid head was very smooth and I did like the range of tightening you could achieve for very slow pans and tilts. However, the pan did not have markings to show you which directions to turn to tighten or loosen and so I had to guess by turning and occasionally forgot which direction would tighten it. It also doesn't have a click or number adjustment. Neither did the tilt, but that would've been nice to have.

A high quality tripod and tripod head make all the difference when shooting any important video things where you might be doing some panning. This head is super easy to setup, its very smooth panning, and the handle is super adjustable for how you want it. Its a great size as well which can handle a smaller size digital camera up to a large video cam with ease.

Great product!!! Sturdy, well designed, great price, great seller!

I have owned this now for a few months. Works excellent ! Built like a tank. It is very fluid. Well packaged. My only knock is it is a little heavy, but that may be the nature of the beast. Holds my very heavy 200mm to 800mm telephoto lens on my Canon.