Bogen 503 vs 516 vs 519 heads
 

What's the real, practical, you-can-tell-when-you-use-it difference among these three heads?

I've never used the 519 but do use the 503 and 516. For my money you can fell the difference blindfolded.
To give them a fair test I used a PD150 and a JVC5000 on both heads and put both heads (one at a time of course) on a set of Bogen 515 legs with a 100mm ball.

The 503 has always worked well with my 150s but not so much with the 5000. I actually had a bit of trouble with the 150 on the 516 as the camera is very light for the head and I know I didn't have the tensions set correctly but I could feel the difference in all moves. As for the 5000 on the 516 head well the difference is night and day. The 503 head was at its top limits with the 5000 which weights in at about 16-17 lbs with the batteries I now use (used to be around 20-21) and the 516 head handles like a luxury car on a smooth piece of road when doing pans or tilt. Once properly adjusted you don't need to lock down the tilt (but I usually do anyway ;-0) the handle is long and allows for small movement. Heres the one thing I DON'T like. The quick release plates for the 503 and 516 are not the same and I see no way to make the plate from the 503 work in the 516 head so if I need to switch cams and want to use the 516 I must change QR plates. Oh well, small price to pay.
I really love the 516 for the big camera and in combination with the 515 legs it works out very well for the bigger heavier cameras.

HTHs
Don B

Darnit, that plate thing is an issue. I have 503 plates on my jib and my DVRigPro. I had thought the 503, 516, and 519 had compatable plate systems. Thanks for clearing that up. Also, I need to use both a Panasonic GS400 (very light) as well as a heavier camera and a jib.

Yeah it was an issue for me also but since I'm not really changeing over it works out OK. I do believe the 519 and 516 use the same plate.
I wish Bogen would have made one constant though.

Don

Turns out I DON'T have the same plates on my Cobra Crane II and DVRigPro. The Cobra has a 501/503 plate and the DVRig has a 516/519 plate! Argh! Now I will have to change one over once I figure out which head to buy. Don, is it possible to adjust the 516 to work better with a light camera? I really need a head that can do light cameras as well as heavy cameras, preferably without having to change springs.

Mike,
you absolutely can use the 516 with the kighter cameras, you just need to adjust the tension springs correctly. I didn't really put a lot of effort into doing that as I knew I would hardly ever have the 150s on the 516 head. I played around with it for about 2 minutes and didn't get quite right but had I spent about another 30 seconds on it it would have been. The head is very easy to adjust both pan and tilt tensions. I have it set so with the JVC5000 with an AB Dionic90 battery AND shotgun mic and wireless receiver on the back I do not have to tighten the tilt lock and the camera will stay right where I put it. If you do tighten the tilt lock and need to tilt make sure you unlock the lock all the way or you will get a nasty noise and possibly damage the head after some time.
Anyway its a great tripod head and is well worth the money especially if using a heavier camera.
HTHs
Don

What reasons are there to use a 516 beyond its increased weight handling? Are there design differences that make it better, or if you don't need the increased weight capacity is a 503 the better choice?

Well, because the 516 is made for the bigger heavier cameras it is by far beefier than the 503 which is also to say quite a bit heavier. When I had it on my 3246 legs the rig weighed what seemed to be 100lbs. Even on the 515 legs its still pretty heavy with the majority of the weight being the head itself. I feel as if the pan and tilt is a bit smoother but I would kind of expect it to be because the inner workings would be beefier (new word of the day ;-O) since the head is made for the heavier cams.
So if you are using 150/170 size cameras the 503 is fine. For full size cameras I recommend the 516, if you're using both cames and only have 1 set of legs, it would depend on which camera you would be using the majority of the time AND what you're doing with it. If you're locked down and not P&T then the 503 would work fine with the full sized camera, etc etc etc. Lots of different ways to look at it so my advice is buy what you NEED to have to get teh job done right. BTW, did I mention I love my 516? ;-)
Don

Is there any practical difference between a 75mm bowl and a 100mm bowl?

25mm. Sorry, had to do it :-)

I really have never figured out what the difference might be except possilbly the weight handling issue. Perhaps the 75mm ball legs don't handle as much as the legs that use a 100mm ball. I'm just guessing at that. I'd look it up but I have an 8:30 tee time calling my name so I have to scoot and later I'll be up to my neck in editing but it would be interesting to snoop around and see if thats the major difference. Hmmmm, I feel a "white paper" might come from this.

Sorry I can't be more help on this one.

Gotta go hack at, uhhh, I mean hit some poor defenseless golf balls now. Later!
Don

Here's the reply from DVTec regarding the 501 plate pictured on the web. Makes sense to me. I am ordering a plate for my CobraCrane II. This email also explains some differences between the stock 501/503 and 516/519 plates:

Hi Mike,

All items in Page 7 are optional.

You have to buy the Manfrotto Bogen 3273 QR system, You will then have an
additional QR base same as the one used on the DvRigPro.
Screw the 3273 base on your 501 camera plate and you get the same base for
the rig and the tripod head.

The 33273 system is lot better. Longer travel, Camera can be inserted from
any direction, and more.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

Hope this solves your problem.

Regards,

Danny Natovich
DvTec