Thoughts on a lightweight ballhead for hiking?

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desmobob

Senior Member
I have an Arca Swiss B1 w/QR that I've enjoyed for many years on a heavy aluminum Bogen tripod. Before the B1, I used a Bogen 3025 3-D head, which I still have.

Last year I upgraded the old Bogen 3401 leg set to a nice Benro TMA38CL carbon tripod with thoughts of taking it along more on hikes. I love the B1 head, but it's heavy. (I'm 6'2" 260lbs so carrying the weight won't kill me...) I was thinking about buying a small, inexpensive ballhead to use for hiking.

Are any of the sub-$100 lightweight ballheads worth bothering with or should I just suck it up and carry the B1 on my my new Benro legset? Or use the Bogen 3025 instead of a ball?

Just thinking out loud... please feel free to share your thoughts. I'd appreciate it!
 
hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
I don't know how much your Bogen head weighs, but I still have a Bogen 3047 head that is very hefty. Definitely never liked carrying that tripod around because the combined weight was about 10 pounds. :hurt: Benro makes a ball head that is outside your price range but is widely recommended on a number of photography websites. It's the Benro B2 Triple Action Ball Head.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/743913-REG/Benro_B2_B2_Double_Action_Ballhead.html

1482748626_743913.jpg
 
D

desmobob

Senior Member
Arca Swiss B1 w/QR = 1.7 lbs.
Benro B2 w/QR = .9 lbs.

Theoretically, a significant weight loss without sacrificing a lot of performance...
 
Dawg Pics

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
I wonder if I would like that Benro. I hated that expensive one I bought. I am not sure why they would put such a long stem on the ball. It was awkward and difficult to attach the plate and lock down. The other thing is I am used to having the base screw down onto the tripod plate so the head does not come loose. I have had horrible luck with the heads loosening. Maybe I should stick with a pistol-grip.:p
 
J

jerryTheC

New member
That's one of the nice things with the Manfrotto system (in the UK, I think they're sold as Bogen in the USA but might be wrong) - they have three screws that you can get at underneath the platform that the head attaches to, and an inset ring with a sort of triangle wave up/down pattern on the bottom of their heads - so when you've attached the head, you can adjust the screws so they stick up above the platform level, engage with the triangle pattern and prevent the head unscrewing. Or just leave them down if you're going to be changing heads.
 
Dawg Pics

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
@jerryTheC
Thanks.
I returned a Manfrotto XPRO Ball Head. I didn't like anything about it. I didn't see any way to screw it down. Maybe I missed something. Anyway, that head gave me all kinds of fits. I never had such a difficult time getting my camera seated on a tripod head.
 
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Marilynne

Marilynne

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jerryTheC said:
That's one of the nice things with the Manfrotto system (in the UK, I think they're sold as Bogen in the USA but might be wrong) - they have three screws that you can get at underneath the platform that the head attaches to, and an inset ring with a sort of triangle wave up/down pattern on the bottom of their heads - so when you've attached the head, you can adjust the screws so they stick up above the platform level, engage with the triangle pattern and prevent the head unscrewing. Or just leave them down if you're going to be changing heads.
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hark

hark

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jerryTheC said:
That's one of the nice things with the Manfrotto system (in the UK, I think they're sold as Bogen in the USA but might be wrong) - they have three screws that you can get at underneath the platform that the head attaches to, and an inset ring with a sort of triangle wave up/down pattern on the bottom of their heads - so when you've attached the head, you can adjust the screws so they stick up above the platform level, engage with the triangle pattern and prevent the head unscrewing. Or just leave them down if you're going to be changing heads.
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I have a Bogen Manfrotto Tripod and Bogen Manfrotto geared head that I purchased new back in the late 1990's. Over the years, they dropped the word Bogen and label their products as Manfrotto at least here in the US.

Dawg Pics said:
@jerryTheC
Thanks.
I returned a Manfrotto XPRO Ball Head. I didn't like anything about it. I didn't see any way to screw it down. Maybe I missed something. Anyway, that head gave me all kinds of fits. I never had such a difficult time getting my camera seated on a tripod head.
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Did you ever try the Demon DB-44 ball head? After reading up on a number of ball heads, this one kept coming up with positive reviews.

desmobob, sorry I didn't think of this one the other day when i posted.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TQ54CZO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

One of many positive reviews: https://improvephotography.com/52305/52305/

81N7K5n2UdL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
Dawg Pics

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
@hark I haven't tried anything since I returned the other one. I am not in love with the design in general of those heads, but I'll keep that on on the list in case I decide to try another one.
 
hark

hark

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Staff member
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Dawg Pics said:
@hark I haven't tried anything since I returned the other one. I am not in love with the design in general of those heads, but I'll keep that on on the list in case I decide to try another one.
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I'm not a fan of ball heads myself or even the Arca Swiss design. BUT I have an L Bracket that is Arca Swiss which is the only reason I got it. Obviously I don't use it much and forgot about it. :shame:

I much prefer my Manfrotto geared head. :)
 
TwistedThrottle

TwistedThrottle

Senior Member
I like the Joby Gorillapod 5k. I had the 3k for about a week and hated it, too light weight and the ballhead was horrible. Returned it for the 5k and its been great! Nice compact and lightweight but sturdy enough for mirrorless and DSLRs. Most of the time, I have the ballhead on my PlatyPod which is easy enough to add the ballhead/platypod assembly onto the legs of the Gorillapod when I need a little stand, but the ballhead is small enough to leave mounted on the platypod and hung attached to the camera with a strap around my neck or disassembled and packed into the bag.
 
D

desmobob

Senior Member
Dawg Pics said:
@desmobob Did you find what you were looking for?
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Sort of... I decided to just suck it up and carry the weight. I think to find anything lighter that also functions well, I'll have to spend a bunch of money to save a half-pound or so of weight. If I lay off the ice cream for a couple of weeks, I can probably shed that same half-pound of weight off myself instead of the tripod, at no cost. ;) And I do love my Arca Swiss B1. Anything else would probably feel like a big step down so I'll just carry it.

And I spent the money (and more) on a new Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8G anyway... :)
 
Dawg Pics

Dawg Pics

Senior Member
desmobob said:
Sort of... I decided to just suck it up and carry the weight. I think to find anything lighter that also functions well, I'll have to spend a bunch of money to save a half-pound or so of weight. If I lay off the ice cream for a couple of weeks, I can probably shed that same half-pound of weight off myself instead of the tripod, at no cost. ;) And I do love my Arca Swiss B1. Anything else would probably feel like a big step down so I'll just carry it.

And I spent the money (and more) on a new Nikkor AF-S 35mm f/1.8G anyway... :)
Click to expand...
That sounds like a good plan. :)
 
D

desmobob

Senior Member
Roscoe Primrose said:
I love mine. And, it weighs next to nothing.:encouragement:

Roscoe
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Appropriate! I happened to bring up that lens and the AF-S 50mm f/1.8G on DXOMark for comparison. The 35mm is actually sharper throughout the aperture range. I've learned to take the DXOMark stuff with a grain of salt sometimes (one of my all-time favorite lenses, the AF-D 180mm f/2.8 is a good example) but it's nice to feel that I made a good choice. :)

Funny thing... that 50mm f/1.8G is another example of DXOMark weirdness. It shows higher MTF numbers across the range than the 1.4G and similar distortion, etc., but they rave about the 1.4G and give the 1.8G a kind of ho-hum review.

Anyway, all this talk about lightening up my hiking load is just daydreaming as I sit inside on a 6˚F and windy day here in northern NY. But I do plan on bringing out my D200 on an ice fishing outing tomorrow...
 
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D

desmobob

Senior Member
I settled the too-heavy tripod issue by throwing money at the problem, as usual. :rolleyes:

I bought a Peak Design carbon fiber Travel Tripod. And I love it.
 
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