My Sunwayfoto GH Pro arrived today from my cousins in China.
It was well-packaged and received in excellent condition. No Coach leather purse/case, but cardboard box with foam will do just fine. No instructions included but it did have a hex wrench included and a torx wrench---which I can't see where that is needed. And a nice small microfiber cloth. The head is smaller in profile than the AS Cube and lighter as well. It is perfect on the RRS TVC-24 tripod legs, whereas the AS Cube was just ever so slightly too heavy for those legs. The AS Cube is perfect on the RRS TVC-33 tripod legs. Big plus on profile and relatively light weight of the GH Pro. Knurled knobs are good and easy to adjust but not with the same silky smoothness of the AS Cube. Don Libby and I will be scouting out Lake Tahoe next week, so I'll have the GH Pro on hand to test in the field.
My initial impressions are favorable though not to the extent of being totally impressed. From the short time that I've tinkered with the GH Pro, my impression is that it is a "good" head but not in the same class as the AS Cube
which costs about four times as much. Is the US$399 investment for the GH Pro worth it? Yes, I think so. It's a good tripod head, though probably not quite at the level of much more expensive heads---and that should be expected. Someone mentioned Sunwayfoto as being 90% up to RRS. I don't know about that. How about 85%
I think it just goes to how show
how good the products from AS and RRS are though, rather than how deficient products are from other manufacturers.
I don't think there is a similar product at this size, profile, or weight. I would love to see what the folks over at RRS could do if they offered a similarly featured geared tripod head. Until then, I'm happy with the rather nominal investment in the Sunwayfoto GH-Pro. To be honest, I probably really really don't need this tripod head. I may consider selling the GH Pro later and simply staying with the Cube.
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