Then you will be limited to using primes only so you can balance them once and leave them alone, or spring for a gyro stabilizer. Most users on this forum will probably lack the funds for a proprietary 500mm - 6oomm prime lens, or a gyro stabilizer and balancing weight by adjusting the lens plate and adding a balance counter weight will be their best economical bet. You can drop the designer/user addage and personal attacks. You don't see me much impressed, as it stands I hope you will be more professional and respectful of others in your posts. I personally don't care to waste my time in a free for all of name calling and insinuations .

MT Shooter, no actually you don't seem to have any grasp what a gimbal is for. If you want total balance and no shake whatsoever than go ahead and use it like a tripod lock it tighter than tight (why do you need any kind of head, ball or gimbal at that point when you could just screw the camera, or lens to the tripod baseplate?) If you want to control movement while following an object, the counterweight makes it easier when the lens is attached to the gimbal to compensate for any deviation in balance that zoom might create if you are following birds for example, usually you won't go from 150mm to 600mm in that turn because you will be intent to stay on your subject and that would require too much fiddling around by which time your shot would be gone. I actually do know what a gimbal is for and have a Masters in Photography, you just seem to want to argue so the description is for the forum's sake. I choose not to digress to your confrontational level.

First of the gimbal as well as the counter weight help you balance the lens/Camera combo on oversized lenses; second are you really trying to tell me you are going to operate your zoom without your hands on your camera? The gimbal is supposed to stabilize your movement and keep it from being shaky not turn it into a remote, stable platform that adjusts to your changing zoom by itself. If that is what you are after you might be better of with a drone, or a robot.

That's also why Jobu design has developed what they call a hockey puck, a round counter balance disk that attaches to the bottom of your camera housing to help balance out the larger Tele-zooms as with my 150-600mm while the zoom lens is attached to the gimbal.

I like my Jobu Design, Jobu Heavy Duty Mk. IV gimbal head with Arca-Swiss style plates made in Canada on my older aluminum Manfrotto Wilderness tripod w/ multiple length center columns, spikes, suction cups and snow shoes so I can shoot birds in flight, trout and salmon while standing in a stream, whales breaching from the slippery deck of a boat, and bobcats chasing rabbits in the snow. However, that's just my preference because I shoot wildlife, and nature (landscape); the gimbal and my relatively heavy tripod help me achieve all that and get my workout in at the same time. I tried carbon fiber but it did not supply the needed stability for a tripod I would expect; so rather than go light I go heavy and get the quality I demand.

As well it should, after all milkweed is the preferred fare for the Monarch caterpillar.

I learned how to shoot 35mm film in the late 1970s and 1980s. Went to school for it and got a Masters in Photography. I used to use bellows for Macro, did my own B&W and Color developing in my blackroom. I don't miss dealing with the chemicals, thermometers, expiration dates, a.s.o. one bit. I also don't miss being limited by how much film I brought along, having the wrong ISO film because the weather changed, and the amount of dough I had to shell out every time before I went on a shoot to purchase more film. I know how to do anything and everything with film but I am grateful for DSLRs because they and 128GB, and 256GB disks gave me the freedom to experiment as much as I like and after all these years of mostly doing what I know they once again set my creativity free and restored the joy of discovery in my photography. Rather than see your inexperience with DSLRs as a loss, look at it as a gain and a means to rediscover what you love in a whole new way and opportunity.