When Danny Dullforce of Benro UK sent me a few Benro items to review, the TH62 Tilt Head seemed to be the wild card. However, once I started using it, I was hooked.
Spoiler alert; I like this head a lot and for many landscape photographers it could well be the Holy Grail of tripod heads. Hey, I’m not even really sure what a tilt head is designed for but think it’s optimised for long lenses, use on monopods and for video shooting. However, it could equally well have been designed for the landscape photographer, as I found out.
Whilst my preference for landscape photography would be the new Benro GD36PT hybrid geared head, it does have one drawback, namely the weight. For mountain top missions when I may be climbing in the dark to be in place to shoot at sunrise, then weight is an important criteria.
The GD36Pt weighs in at 740 grams (a bit less if you remove the knurled metal base) but the TH62 only weighs 370 grams. It can also be lightened by removing the panning handle and the magnetised allen key. The TH62 stripped back weighs only 352 grams, a saving of 388 grams over the geared head.
Shorn of its panning handle, the TH62 is super small and compact, another bonus point if I’m carrying it on my back into the mountains.
So, the TH62 is super light and super compact but those features whilst a bonus aren’t going to be any use if the head doesn’t fulfil other necessary criteria. I like that it is superbly designed, very simple with very little to go wrong. It feels rock solid and can support up to 14 kilograms which is far more than most photographers will ever need. However, I like the overkill element and the TH62 feels absolutely solid in the strongest winds.
The simple design really appeals and the design means there is nothing that is vulnerable to damage. Geared heads can attract grit which can cause havoc no matter how well shielded the gears are. No such problem with the TH62 whose simplicity means not only is it bombproof in the dirty old great outdoors but also making post photography cleaning of it a simple task. Just rinse it and dry it and it’s good for your next trip.
It’s one of those bits of kit that just does what it says on the tin, it tilts but it does it in a well controlled and subtle way. The single, large control knob is easy to use, quick to use and the tilt is well controlled thanks to “8 tension plates. The by now pretty much Benro standard Pull & Twist locking system provides a belt and braces approach to securely attaching your camera to the head. This is a fantastic dual system which makes it virtually impossible to accidentally release your camera from the head.
The only slight downside to the tilt head concept is that it isn’t adjustable in as many planes as a geared head. However when used with my favourite tripod, the Benro Tortoise 34 CLV, the built in levelling base fleshes out the ability to adjust the head in all three axes. The TH62 itself has easily adjustable up and down via a large control knob easily adjusted even when wearing big winter gloves. The levelling base allows for up/down adjustment to get the whole head level and also can be twisted round to allow for panoramic shots.
The CLV base has just the right degree of friction to make the adjustments in either of these two planes very easily, smooth yet not too tight when the release lever is turned. It might not quite have the precision of a geared head but it’s still pretty awesome and not far off. My only real complaint of this set up is that the lever of the Tortoise levelling base is rather small and a bit fiddly if wearing gloves in inclement weather. It takes a bit of getting used to but once muscle memory picks things up then the whole operation becomes pretty slick and quick.
NB I think the levelling bases of the Benro Mammoth series look amazing with a much larger control knob that should be really easy to use even when wearing winter gloves or mittens. It’s something I’d like to try out in the future but if it works as well as I think it should then the TH62 mounted on a Mammoth tripod should make for a pretty lightweight yet awesomely stable landscape photography set up.
I’ve loved using the TH62 and Tortoise tripod which makes for a nice light set up that I’m happy to climb mountains with. Compact and light, super burly and strong enough for any camera gear anyone is likely to use, the tilt head is reasonably priced at £140 (RRP). Marketed as part of the “SupaDupa” series, this name really tells you all you need to know about the TH62.
Landscape photographers generally go for ball heads, sometimes geared heads but, as in this case, it’s sometimes best to think outside the box and check other possibilities. If lightweight and compact size, ease and precision of handling and all at a great price point tick all the boxes for your genre of photography then look no further. I’m sure the TH62 is great at what it is designed for and whilst that isn’t landscape photography, I’ve found that it is a star in the mountains and on the beaches of the Isle of Skye.
https://uk.benroeu.com/benro-th62-tilt-head/
