I’ve been looking into fluid heads for a long time, wanting to buy one for video work but not seeing much that I’m happy with. Ideally, I wanted a lightweight one that had an integrated flat base (to work with my existing tripods) and could accept my Really Right Stuff plates, which all my cameras have. Oh, I didn’t want to spend tons of money, either. I recently decided to buy the Sachtler Cine DSLR, and while it’s not perfect, I’m happy with my purchase.
I’m not an expert on fluid heads, but I have to say that I like the Cine DSLR so far! It’s lightweight as far as larger fluid heads go (2kg). it’s easy to use, and it’s definitely been designed for DSLR-sized cameras.
The main thing I dislike is that Sachtler’s website said it had an integrated flat base, which I assumed meant that I could use it with my Gitzo tripod, but that’s not the case. With many of Sachtler’s heads, they have bundles where they basically give away the legs (and I would’ve spent the extra money to get one of their bowl-head tripods), but unfortunately they didn’t have that deal with the Sachtler 4588 CF legs, which would fit the Cine DSLR nicely. Fortunately the Manfrotto 325N bowl to flat base adaptor fits the Cine DSLR perfectly (you need to use one of the other screws that comes with the 325N), but it adds a lot of bulk to the fluid head.
The other challenge I had was how to setup the base plate so that it would work with RRS plates, as I have them on all my cameras and larger lenses. What makes this extra hard is that the camera and lens plates are at 90° angles. The Really Right Stuff PCL-1 turned out to be the perfect answer.
The Really Right Stuff PCL-1 mounted to a Sachtler Cine DSLR baseplate
The benefit of the PCL-1 is that it can rotate, so I can mount it to the Sachtler baseplate, rotate the PCL-1 how I need it to be oriented, and then slide my RRS plate into it.
I was worried about mounting it to the base plate, as the RRS screws don’t fit the baseplate, but it turns out that the included two baseplate screws fit reasonably (I had to use the adaptor that came with the PCL-1 to make one fit the center of the PCL-1). I put one into the far end of the PCL-1 and one into the center. I do wish those screws were a bit longer to mount more securely, and I might buy a replacement down the road.
I looked at a bunch of other solutions, including having two baseplates with the RRS clamps just mounted right to the plate and using cheaper/smaller RRS mounts, but after lots of digging and price-comparing, this seems to be the best option for my needs, as it’s simple, lightweight, and relatively low-cost.
RRS PCL-1 screwed onto a Sachtler Cine DSLR baseplate
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