Gemtune DH-55 indexing rotator and DY-60n Leveling Base

weepete

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Gearing up for a photography trip next week I decided to put together a panoramic tripod head with a nodal slide. Me being me I decided to see if I could do it on a budget and get something more tailored to what I want than the pre-built systems currently on the market.

Reading a few of the alternative panoramic how to's, the Sunwayfoto gear was pretty well reccomended. However they were still a bit on the pricey side for me after all the bits and bobs were put together. So I found the Gemtune DH-55 indexing rotator and the DY-60n leveling base. Given there's very few reviews on them on the t'internet, and most of the ones I did find were more focused on how they work I thought I'd post my initial thoughts on them here.

Disclaimer: I've not got out and used them in the field yet, more on that later after I've tested them for a week after my trip. This is just my first impressions.

So my first impressions are they look great and feel pretty good in the hand. Both parts have a solid metal construction with the main body being made of annodised aluminium. Even the handles are anodised ally, so no concerns with them snapping mid use. Looks and finish are good with clear markings and no manufacuring defects on my copy. So far so good. Operationally everything feels tight but smooth, so their tolerancing and QC seems good. A good amount of rotation in the base looks like a comprehensive range of movement in the leveling base.

When I screwed the base on to the rotator it's apparent they are not the same diameter, the base is approx 10mm larger than the rotator meaning there's about a 5mm lip around the join. Would have been nice if they were the same, but it's not a huge deal. When I first screwed them on to my tripod centre column (with the supplied thread adaptor) the screwthread on the tripod fouled the bottom of the ball. Luckily I had a Manfrotto adapter already for my gimbal head that had enough thickness to act as a spacer as well. The two screws in the body (one creates the indexing clicks and the other locks the rotator) are attached with a wire loop, I suppose so you don't loose them so easily, however the crimps are too far down on my copy meaning the screws fall out of end loops created to hold them in resonably easily. For some reason I can't work out the clicks are louder rotating the head anti clockwise, but there is enough positive engagement that I could do it by feel alone.

All in all it seems like a nice little setup for someone on a budget and I'm pretty happy with it.
 
So after three years of use and abuse including using it well beyond the capacity it's rated at I managed to snap the screw connecting the cup to the levelling base tonight while out shooting the moon. Admitedly I did have my 150-600mm on my 5DmkIV at the time so probably well over capacity. It's dissapointing considering how useful I find this base, but at £50 for the original purchace I can't really complain too much after 3 years of use out of it.

I really love these cylindrical bases for a compact panoramic head option but since getting the 5D I'm not shooting a whole lot of panoramas. So I'll be considering if I should get another, though the Gemtune ones don't seem to be available anymore.
 

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