Manfrotto MVH500AH Flat Base Pro Fluid Head (Black)

I have started shooting more video with my 5D and wanted something other than my ball head for video. I already have a Manfrotto 055X carbon fiber tripod and wanted something that would go onto that quickly. What a breeze! Just unscrew the ballhead, screw this one on and away you go. Probably 30 seconds to make the change. What I wanted was something very lightweight and compact. This head fit the bill perfectly. The fluid movements are really wonderful. Perfectly dampened and with springs to help return it to level. Smooth as silk! The sliding baseplate is plenty long enough to balance the camera with a long lens attached. I have the Canon 70-200 and there are no issues balancing. It is not necessary to use the lens mounting option at all. Just slide the camera back with the plate on the camera and balance is quickly achieved. The finishes are very nice and everything seems to lock down properly. It would certainly support a heavier camera. Overall I am very very happy with the purchase. The pan/tilt handle can be locked in most any position and used on the left or right side. This is really a GREAT choice for smooth pans and tilts and you really cannot beat the price for this very high quality head. Buy it and you will not be disappointed!

This is a great tripod head! works amazing with my canon 7D and my Sony Ex-1. i believe this would work on any pro video camera, if you want to use it on a cinema camera with mattebox and accesories i would recommend a bigger Manfrotto. The plate system its a little weird if you are used to the old ones that are inserted on the front or back of the hole in the head and its removed the same way when pressing the release button on the side. this one works putting one side of the plate first at the top of the hole in the head. then pressing the button on the side (which is not a button anymore, but a screw with some kind of lever. Yes you have to unscrew it a little bit and then press down) and pushing down the plate, and the same procedure to get it out... call me an idiot but this is the first tripod head i use with this system and took me like an hour to figure this out... LOL.

I had both heads but ended up using this one more for my monopod(works great on tripod as well). Its smaller but still retains that butter glide pan and tilt movement. Supposedly this is a true fluid head (whatever that means, who cares). The pan dial on this head is just a knob on the back that you twist where as on the 502 head its a large dial at the base of the head that you twist. On the502 you can really loosen that thing up to get quick twist/pan movements, but on this head the "loosest setting" for the pan/twist movement is not as loose as the 502. Now in my opinion I dont mind that at all. It still retains a nice tension so your not getting jagged movements, (at the loosest setting). Also I attach an RC4 plate on the top of this bad boy, those plates are really quick and sturdy.

This is my fourth fluid head and easily the smoothest. Although it doesn't have any drag adjustments, the default resistance works pretty good. I also really like the quick release attachment mechanism. The thumbscrew which manages the assembly is easy to get to, and with a little practice, swapping out gear will take only a few seconds. One of the best features of the MVH500AH is the ability to slide the base plate along the dovetail track, balancing the camera front to back. From what I can see, my Canon 60D's focal plane can travel about 2 1/2" forward and 3 1/2" behind the tilt axis, adding up to about 6" of adjustment altogether. After balancing, you can safely release the handle without the camera taking a nose dive and your tilt movements will be all the better. It appears the ideal camera weight is between 3 and 5 lbs. Much heavier and balancing becomes more tedious, and the camera's weight will override the built-in counterbalancing spring, requiring you to lock the tilt knob when unattended. Zooming out a DSLR lens or attaching a microphone can also affect balance, causing a nose dive. Yes, it's that fluid! If this head has a shortcoming, it's the length of the base plate and the dovetail track it slides in. No matter what I mounted to the 60D, balancing put the focal plane in the back 3" of adjustment. This often left the lens' zoom and focus rings over the track, making them difficult or impossible to adjust from underneath with my left hand. You can adjust them overhand, but that feels awkward to me. The work-around, which I intended when ordering this head, is to mount a dual camera platform to the base plate, putting both cameras to either side of the fluid head, leaving their focus rings where you can reach them. The MVH500AH handles this dual camera setup rather well. Otherwise I would suggest getting another head, perhaps the 700RC2 or 128LP. The latter should easily balance a single DSLR if the lens isn't too big, and the former could be balanced by stacking another quick release plate (Giottos M621) atop the Manfrotto offering. As to the head in question, Manfrotto could improve it a lot by trimming at least an inch off the front, making it friendlier to DSLRs.

Anything made well is a joy to use. The movement is very smooth but effortless. It is quick and easy to lock down to the point where in one outing I was doing it without thinking about it. It is a video head so it is a bit big for my DSLR but I have found that I really don't mind that in the least. I can recommend this to anyone that wants a quality, well built head.

I mostly shoot still photography, but I love this tripod head. I switched from using a ball head to this fluid head after watching a review of this head. I likely will never use a ball head again. This head allows you to balance your camera so that it stays put when you let go of your camera. You can level the head and it will stay level as you pan and tilt. In effect, it approximates a gimbal tripod head with much less weight and a lower cost. Of course, when shooting video, a fluid head is nearly indispensable, and now that I have this head, I've been taking far more video, but I the advantages of this head extend in to still photography as well. I doubt very seriously I'll ever use a ball head again.

This review is for the Manfrotto MVH500AH Lightweight fluid head. I have had this fluid head for about a month and have used it quite a bit. I use it strictly for photography and not video. Prior to having this fluid head I had a Manfrotto ball head. It worked fine except I never liked the quick release plate that came with it. I became intrigued with this fluid head when I saw it used and recommended by photographer, teacher and YouTuber Hudson Henry. After watching a few of his videos I decided to make a purchase. The panning and tilting motion are smooth and fluid. I actually shot my first panorama with this. There are only two knobs to use, one for panning and one for tilting. Very easy to use and handle. There is a leveling bubble when you tilt the head up so you can level the head. I use it for landscape photography, wildlife photography and astro photography. The fluid head acts as a gimbal head, very easy to use for bird photography. One of the photos I included shows a mirrorless camera and a 200-500 lens mounted on it. The fluid head carries them with ease. I doubt that I would ever go back to using a ball head. This does everything I need it to do. I absolutely love it and highly recommend it.

I put this really awesome video head on a crappy old tripod and now I don't feel like I have a crappy tripod! The action is super smooth. I take it off and use it on a monopod sometime and it is still wonderful. I am getting tons of cool tracking shots with this head. The base plate is awesome because it snaps on and I can swap the camera quickly to my Glidecam. Highly Recommended

A superb product. Beautifully finished and very smooth.

A big chunk of beautifully made steel, rubber and oil. Smoooooooooth!

Love it! I have a 23-yea-old Manfrotto tripod, the head wasn't holding the weight of my gear anymore. Now I have a new tripod with the addition of this head.

Esta rótula es una maravilla. El movimiento es fluido y preciso, lo que la hace ideal para vídeo y fotografía. Es robusta, bien construida y soporta perfectamente equipos pesados sin problemas. El sistema de bloqueo y ajuste es cómodo y seguro, y el diseño en negro y rojo le da un toque elegante. Manfrotto nunca falla en calidad, y esta rótula no es la excepción.

La qualité est clairement au rendez-vous avec cette rotule Manfrotto qui apporte une fluidité dans les mouvements de caméra et ne provoque pas de chocs parasites. Evidemment, elle a son poids et est assez impressionnante un foi montée sur un trépied. Je conseille à ce propos d'être très attentif aux indications de charge de votre trépied qui doit tolérer le poids de votre caméra, des accessoires éventuels (micros, lampes, etc)... et de la rotule. Dans le manuel, le constructeur parle d'un ressort de retour pour faciliter le repositionnement de l'appareil en position neutre. Très honnêtement, malgré l'équilibrage de ma Sony de 2,4kg, je ne perçois pas cette aide. Personnellement, cela ne manque pas du tout et au contraire, je suis plutôt heureux de ne pas avoir ma caméra qui "tente" de se repositionner à l'horizontal !! En conclusion, un achat de qualité qui répond parfaitement aux besoins d'un vidéaste amateur !