The Wimberley Head is a tripod head in and of itself. It attaches to the top of your tripod and provides both pan and tilt functionality. The Wimberley Head allows you to mount your lens in the conventional way, with the lens foot below the lens and the weight of the lens resting on its foot. The Sidekick differs from the Wimberley Head in two important ways. First, it is not a full tripod head in and of itself; rather, it attaches to and works in conjunction with a ball head. The Sidekick provides the tilt function and the ball head provides the pan function. Secondly, the Sidekick grabs the lens from the side and thus the lens foot is located to the side of the lens instead of underneath the lens.

In many cases, the Sidekick and the Wimberley Head offer the same perfectly balanced ease of use and quite comparable functionality; however, each has its strengths and weaknesses. It is important to fully understand these issues in order to decide which is best for your application.

The Wimberley Head:

Most of our customers who are primarily doing telephoto work and who are using very large lenses (e.g. 600mm f/4 or 400mm f/2.8) prefer the Wimberley Head. The Wimberley Head is a more straight-forward piece of equipment and tends to inspire more confidence when using very large lenses; however, it is not as versatile for non-telephoto photography or easy to pack as the Sidekick.

The Wimberley Head is more straight-forward to setup and use because it does not involve the use of a ball head. Thus there are fewer knobs to be concerned about and there is no worry that the ball and socket joint of the ball head will slip or creep under the weight of the lens. When using the Sidekick on a ball head you must be sure not to accidentally loosen the ball or loosen the quick release holding the Sidekick to the ball head. This is usually not a problem once you're familiar with the Sidekick, but if you are accident-prone and using very large lenses this could be a consideration.

The Wimberley Head allows you to mount your lens with its foot below the lens barrel (as you would conventionally mount it). This ensures that the center of gravity of the lens is always centered above the pan mechanism and, some would argue, makes it easier to attach the lens to the head and balance the lens. When you are attaching your lens by the side (as with the Sidekick) you must support the weight of the lens with one hand while you attach the lens or rebalance the lens. This can be a bit difficult and anxiety provoking if you have a very heavy lens. If you have difficulty hoisting the weight of your lens with one hand or if you are not confident with things mechanical, you will most likely prefer the Wimberley Head to the Sidekick.

Because the Wimberley Head supports the lens from below, it is necessary to adjust the lens up or down to align the center of gravity of the lens with the tilt axis of the lens. The disadvantage of this is that you may have to adjust the height of the platform when you switch lenses (this is not difficult). The advantage of this is that it allows you to compensate for the extra weight of a flash positioned above the lens. The side-mount design of the Sidekick eliminates the need for vertical adjustment, but guarantees that the lens will be a bit top heavy when using flash. The Wimberley Head also allows you to use a special flash bracket (The F-4 Wimberley Head Bracket) that mounts directly to the swinging arm of the head with a quick-release attachment. This bracket is very easy to use and can remain on the tripod head when you switch lenses.

The Sidekick:

The Sidekick works in conjunction with a ball head to form a gimbal-type tripod head. In order to use the Sidekick your must have a ball head that meets certain requirements. Furthermore, some of the largest lenses require special modifications or adapters to work with the Sidekick. Click here for a full explanation of the perquisites and compatibility issues concerning the Sidekick.

The Sidekick is by no means a cheaper or second rate alternative to the Wimberley Head. It is much smaller and lighter than the Wimberley Head and is much more versatile because it allows you to keep your ball head mounted to your tripod for non-telephoto work. If you are using the Wimberley Head you can't attach a camera body to the head so you must switch tripod heads whenever you want to use lenses without a rotation collar. The Sidekick is ideal for people who switch from telephoto to short focal lengths often, and it is much more suitable for air travel with the stringent weight limitations that exist.

Ideally, the Sidekick and the Wimberley Head offer the same perfectly balanced ease of use. The tilt mechanism is identical in the two. The Wimberley has a very low friction pan base. The Sidekick uses the pan base of a ball head so, if the ball head pans very smoothly, the Sidekick/ball head combination should work just as well as the Wimberley. If your ball head does not have a very smooth pan base or if it is smooth but has a lot of drag, you may prefer the feel of the Wimberley head.

In general, we recommend the Sidekick for lenses the size of a 500mm f/4 or smaller. However, coupled with a good ball head, the Sidekick will work beautifully with the largest lenses. Many of our customers use 600 f/4 and 400/2.8 lenses on the Sidekick with excellent results. Note: Because the Sidekick mounts to a ball head, it is critical that the ball head is capable of supporting the weight of your lens. Click here for a detailed information about popular ball heads.

Many people feel that it is more difficult to mount and adjust large lenses on the Sidekick because of the Sidekick’s side-mount attachment (this topic is covered in detail in the “Wimberley Head” section above). This is generally only a concern with the largest lenses. Some people never become comfortable mounting their big lens in this sideways fashion; others have no problem with it. Although it may seem counterintuitive, side-mounting your lens does not put any extra stress on your lens or ball head, provided that your lens meets the Sidekick compatibility requirements.

The fact that the Sidekick uses a side-mount attachment prevents you from using traditional 180 degree flash brackets for your big lenses because the flash unit will end up on the side of the lens instead of above it. Fortunately, we make a line of modular flash brackets that includes a specific flash combination for the Sidekick (The F-6 Sidekick Bracket).

There is no loss of stiffness or stability with the Sidekick as compared to the Wimberley Head. The Sidekick coupled with a good ball head is actually stiffer than the Wimberley Head, although this makes no practical difference since both heads are generally much stiffer than the tripods that support them.