Review of Manfrotto MH055M8-Q5, a hybrid head for both video and stills

While visiting PMA@CES 2012 expo in Las Vegas in mid-January, I noticed that several of the photography products manufacturers and distributors were not in the PMA section of CES but were several miles away in the Las Vegas Convention Center (the main area of CES). The PMA sector was in The Venetian casino complex, Hall D. The significantly larger expo those same days was CES, where Canon, Nikon, and Sony were.

Here in the CES halls (visited by over 150,000 people that week), I went to visit the Manfrotto Distribution booth to say hello to Kriss Brunngraber and to discuss tripods and tripod heads with Jodi Palm. I had gone with the intention of reviewing a ball head (which is the kind I like the most) but in the front of the exhibit they had a new model, a hybrid head for digital video and adaptable for still photography (both with a “35mm” digital DSLR camera that can so video, such as some Nikon and most Canon cameras). So now the Manfrotto MH055M8-Q5 hybrid video-still photography head has arrived and we will take it to Parque Nacional Tikal, out in the jungles of northern Guatemala after I am back from lecturing in Dubai.

The Manfrotto MH055M8-Q5 head comes in a sturdy box

The box is labeled Manfrotto MH055M8-Q5 055 MG PHOTO MOVIE HEAD Q5. I call it the easier terms that Jodi used, a hybrid head for both HDSLR video and digital still photography.

The Manfrotto instruction book has instructions in all major international languages.

Manfrotto MH055M8-Q5 head has a 10 year warranty!

Any company who puts a 10 year warranty on their product is rare these days. I would rather have this 10-year product than cheap stuff with low-bid components which fall apart in a year or so.

First posted January 27, 2012