Review: Benro GD36PT Hybrid Geared Head

The precise framing demanded by architectural subjects is easily achieved with a geared head

All serious landscape photographers agree on the importance of a good tripod and a good tripod head. You need a set of legs which will support your heaviest camera and lens combination in difficult conditions, and a head which will not only provide solid support, but which will also allow you to make fine adjustments to your composition. It’s actually surprising how much difference a good head makes when it comes to achieving good framing, as sometimes the smallest adjustments can make a huge difference to your composition.

For a long time, I’ve been an advocate of geared heads, as they offer both stability and the ability to make very small adjustments in all 3 axes independently. This level of control gives you greater precision than you can achieve with other types of head - or at the very least, it allows you to achieve that precision more easily. And precise framing is clearly fundamental to good landscape photography.

Over the years, I’ve shot with Manfrotto geared heads, an Arca Swiss D4 and more recently, the Benro 3-way geared head. I started using the latter when after a decade of heavy use, my D4 seized up. A service would certainly sort it out, but the Benro was a very affordable and good quality alternative, which has served me well for the last 18 months or so.

The new Benro head has a quality look and feel to it

Whilst I generally prefer geared heads over ball heads for the majority of my work, they do have a couple of disadvantages. This first is that they are heavier and a little bulkier - which can be an issue when travelling overseas, as I like to transport my tripod head in my camera bag. The second is that while they are excellent for making small adjustments to compositions, when making larger adjustments when initially setting up, the process can be a bit slow and frustrating.

A few years ago, Arca Swiss came up with a solution to this with their P0+ hybrid, which essentially mounted a geared head on top of their P0 ball head. You could therefore make the initial coarse adjustments using the ball head and then fine tune your composition with the geared adjustments. Brilliant! The only downside as with all of Arca’s products is the price. Yes, it’s a beautifully engineered piece of kit, but it will set you back a bit more than £900. Since its release, a few cheaper competing products have appeared on the market, but none have really appealed in terms of quality.

Benro recently entered the hybrid ball-geared head market with the GD36PT. At £330, it’s not what you’d call a cheap option, but at a third of the price of the Arca P0+ hybrid, it represents serious value for money - on the condition of course, that it offers comparable quality. So the simple question is - does it?

With this head, it's easy to get set up quickly in rapidly changing light

First impressions when unboxing my new head were very positive. This new design has a quality look and feel to it. While I’ve always felt that Benro products were of good quality, this does feel a step up from previous models. Like the Arca, it’s geared in just the 2 axes: pitch and roll, with yaw (panning) being ungeared. In my opinion, this isn’t an issue, as this is the easiest plane to adjust accurately without gears. My Arca D4 has manual panning and this never caused any problems for me.

Initial testing showed that the geared movements are smooth, with no slip or ‘backlash’ and the ball element of the head is easy to use and in fact has possibly the smoothest movement of any head I've encountered. It also features friction adjustment, which allows you to set the minimum tension - something I believe is essential for being able to use a ball head properly. Compared to the Arca Swiss P0+, it’s slightly squatter and less tall, which is a good thing; I’ve always felt that the Arca looked a bit tall and top-heavy, although I’ve never heard any issues reported in use. The Benro is slightly heavier than the Arca, although still lightweight for a head of this type.

The new geared head kept everything sharp despite blustery conditions and a long exposure

Field testing didn’t reveal any flaws, either. It’s stable - even in windy conditions - easy to adjust and with very smooth movements. In fact, the ball head is so smooth and controllable that there have been times I’ve not needed to use the gears at all. Ergonomics are simply excellent, with all the controls perfectly placed. The adjustment knobs are knurled for easy grip and are of a noticeably different size to the clamp’s locking knob - thus discouraging users from confusing them and accidentally detaching the camera instead of adjusting the gears. Although this would be hard to do anyway with the Benro security mechanism on the lock. There are some thoughtful touches, such as the fact that the panning knob can be pulled out and repositioned to keep it out of the way. It’s features like this that really give the impression that the designers have properly considered the photographic process and how the head might be actually be used by photographers.

Remarkably, I’ve not encountered any niggles when using the GD36PT. Not even the slightest annoyance. Of course, this doesn’t mean I have no concerns. There is one place where the gears are exposed and I wonder if some grit getting in there might cause issues in the longer term? To guard against this, I’m in the habit of putting a stuff sack over the head when it’s in the boot of my car. I’m a landscape photographer after all, and my boot isn’t always pristine! But this is probably good practice with any head.

So would I recommend this head? Yes, based on my initial use, absolutely. Of course, the only real test is consistent use over time, so I’ll update this review in due course.