My question to Sachtler via their website
"DV-6 maximum weight
Will 16 pounds ruin the dv-6 head, it is rated at 13.2lbs but the dv-4II is rated for 16lbs. This is confusing?"

My reply (I will leave the name off for privacy but the gentleman is definitely from Germany and is the product manager of ENG)
"Hi Jerry,

Neither 16 pounds will ruin a DV6 fluidhead, nor any bigger payload.

(The only thing that will happen is, that if you go too high with the payload, the head will not be balanced well any more.
The working payload depends also on the center of gravity in height of the camera set up.)

There was a fault in the old catalogue / pricelist according to the payload of DV 4 II.
16 pounds will work very well on a DV 6.


Best regards"

First off I appreciate the fact that he answered my email but it leaves a bunch of other question related to the max load of Sachtler tripods. I just thought I would share this to see if others are equally confused, the DV-6 is rated at 13.2 max lbs but 16lbs should work "very well". I am on the verge of buying a new tripod but I will have to re-evalute it, I hope someone outbids me on ebay for the 100mm bowl pod I am top bidder on.

I think what he is saying is that both heads are physically strong enough to support a 16 lb camera and doing so won't physically break anything. But the problem is, a 16 lb camera is outside the DV6's counterbalance range. That is, the counterbalance springs inside the DV6 is not quite strong enough to perfectly couterbalance the 16 lb camera when you tilt it from level. It is close to being strong enough so the degree of out-of-balance isn't severe. Consequently the Sachtler guy felt that it is still usable.