Benro GD3WH Precision Geared Head

The Benro GD3WH (snappy name as ever with photography gear) has been one of my best purchases of recent years. I can’t remember exactly where I came across it, but I think it was a Youtube video.

The precision across 3 axes provided by a geared head over a ball head was a big attraction and it’s worked out brilliantly. No more worry of ball head drooping, while panorama stitches are so much easier (and easier still in combo with the levelling base on the iFootage Uprise tripod).

It certainly has a learning curve and having to adjust each axis separately feels slower at first, but once you get the hang of the controls and the fact you can go into a free-movement mode to make the big adjustments then the gears for fine-tuning, it feels mostly very natural and does provide pretty much all the precision you could need.

The only negatives for me are that the direction on the gears has never been 100% intuitive to me and I end up turning the wrong way at first quite often; the design means that the GD3WH is a large piece of equipment and it’s also relatively heavy. The positives have far outweighed the negatives for me though.

Sample image

Here’s a sample image taken with the Benro GD3WH Precision Geared Head: