Veteran Member Registered: May, 2009 Location: Twin Cities, MN Posts: 2,867
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: August 4, 2011 | Recommended | Price: $179.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | Very smooth, easy to operate (even one handed!) | | Cons: | Works best with a balanced load | |
I'm sure that other arca-swiss plate compatible ballheads out there from Markins, RRS and other brands work just as well, but for the price, the Photoclam line can't be beat! I've had mine for 2 or 3 years now (it gets harder to remember with age, haha), and it still works as it did right out of the box.
The finish of this ballhead is amazing. I could head down to National Camera here locally in Minneapolis and check out a dozen different ball or tilt/pan heads priced from $40 to well over $200 and at the high end they are barely touching the quality of my Photoclam. The pricier ones are bigger, weigh twice as much and you'd be lucky to find all the features.
The great things about this head are the panning base that locks down tight, but opens and turns smoothly with one hand. The bubble levels (if your camera doesn't have that feature, like the K7/5) are actually a useable size and work well. The friction control knob works on two levels - the large dial locks it down as tight as you need. The smaller silver dial (seen towards the middle of the large knob) is a thumb screw - what this does is allow you to set a minimum tension for the larger knob. This prevents the knob from coming too loose, which could cause your camera/lens to flop over.
The ball itself is also very smooth. On a cheap ballhead you have two options - open to move it and closed to clamp it down. Not so with this type of ball. The tension knob is just that - it applies more tension in a controlled manner. By doing this, the ball can be locked tight enough to hold the camera in place, but at the same time loose enough that fine adjustments can be made with one handed movements. It is much more precise than an inexpensive ballhead. I can honestly say, having gone through a few cheap tripod heads, that you won't believe how great a head like this works.
So, for a reasonable price you are getting a great head that matches quality heads from RRS, Markins and others that sell for $100+ more!
The only thing I would suggest is this. If you intend to use a larger lens that Doesn't have a tripod collar (I.e. the 50-135mm, 200mm or 300mm DA * lenses), you would be wise to get one of the larger diameter ballheads photoclam offers. The reason is that the more surface area on the ball, the better it will handle the larger amount of off-center balance. With large lenses that have a tripod collar (120-400, 150-500 and 50-500 from sigma for example), this head will work reasonably well as the camera/lens sits in a balanced/centered position. It would still be better to get one of the bigger photoclam heads (which run about $40-70 more), however the 33ns would do a good job if you're on a budget.
Hope that was helpful!
Edit: The head also comes in Black! I've got the blue one, and like it alot - nice to have a bit of color in an otherwise formal looking gear bag (black!).
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Veteran Member Registered: July, 2007 Location: Florida Gulfer Posts: 3,054
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: November 21, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $179.00
| Rating: 10 |
| Pros: | SMOOTH!! Levels, Quality | | Cons: | None | |
This head is all QUALITY and I mean it. You wouldn't believe how easy it is to move your head around by just backing it off a half turn. I've put my Vivitar 120-600mm monster Lens on it with no problems what so ever. Also my Sigma 150-500mm and 100-300mm f4 and they just loved this head. This head is as good as a ball head 3 times it price. . If you are a owner of a RED Pentax DSLR it would sure look great with a RED Photo Clam PC-33NS.
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