Leofoto BV-10 vs. BV-5 (1 Viewer)

[ArthurL]

Hi everyone,

I haven't had the chance to introduce myself nor contribute to this forum yet, but I've been actively reading some of the threads for some time now.

Relatively new to birding, I am a French national based out of The Netherlands and I take my optics out on every possible occasion! The Netherlands is a bird haven and I can only recommend a visit to some of the best birding spots out here.

Back to the topic, I am currently considering purchasing an Opticron MM4 77 GA ED/45 Fieldscope and I am looking for a fitting fluid head. After some research, I was actually interested in either the Leofoto BV-10 or its little brother, the BV-5.





As the scope weights about +/-1500g and seeing as it is rather compact, what are your thoughts on pairing it up with the BV-5?

Does anybody have any experience with this tripod head, by any chance?

Thanks for your help.
Arthur

 

[tzed]

I'd be curious as well. I just bought a leofoto vh-30 and it arrived today. Adjusting the drag on the bearings is a little course. I can get it to lock up with a fair bit of force but I doubt the rating as specified is worth much. This is using a MM4 60 with the SDLv3

 

[ArthurL]

Thanks for your input, tzed.

The VH-30 has got very interesting features. But am I seeing this correctly, one has to adjust two nobs in order to control the tilt of the head?

 

[tzed]

One of the knobs is for tension adjustment, the other locks. However the tension adjusting knob should have finer adjustments I believe. It is hard to dial in how much drag I want

 

[David55]

Hi everyone,

I haven't had the chance to introduce myself nor contribute to this forum yet, but I've been actively reading some of the threads for some time now.

Relatively new to birding, I am a French national based out of The Netherlands and I take my optics out on every possible occasion! The Netherlands is a bird haven and I can only recommend a visit to some of the best birding spots out here.

Back to the topic, I am currently considering purchasing an Opticron MM4 77 GA ED/45 Fieldscope and I am looking for a fitting fluid head. After some research, I was actually interested in either the Leofoto BV-10 or its little brother, the BV-5.

View attachment 1410098

View attachment 1410099

As the scope weights about +/-1500g and seeing as it is rather compact, what are your thoughts on pairing it up with the BV-5?

Does anybody have any experience with this tripod head, by any chance?

Thanks for your help.
Arthur

Hi Arthur,
Can you please tell me if you went for one of these heads. I have been looking at them and I am not sure which one would be best to go with my scope (Zeiss Harpia 95)
I think the BV-10 would be best but as the BV-5 is much lighter I'm not so sure.
Many thanks
David

 

[Nivado]

Hi Arthur,
Can you please tell me if you went for one of these heads. I have been looking at them and I am not sure which one would be best to go with my scope (Zeiss Harpia 95)
I think the BV-10 would be best but as the BV-5 is much lighter I'm not so sure.
Many thanks
David

Maybe a little late to tune in but for a heavy scope as a Harpia 95 I'd choose (between those 2) without a doubt for the BV-10. You should definitely also consider the Sirui VH-10 as well. I personally like the Sirui more since the units I tried were running smoother than any of my 3 BV 10's I used to have. The first one being to 'jerky' both in pan and tilt movements in such a way that I became upset with it because it made it impossible to make fine adjustments at distant birds (for example to center a gull proparly at 250m). The other 2 are better but not yet perfectly smooth. De Sirui's I tried, all were so fluid in motion that they were a joy to use. I have an ATX 95 on my last Leofoto BV 10 left at the moment but I do am considering a swap to a Sirui VH-10 X in future.