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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
10-06-2009, 02:54 PM
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I don't think of myself as stupid, but it took me a little while to figure out what I posted. I actually really figured it out only after I took the entire ball head apart. It was only in seeing the way the knobs interacted that I finally understood the principle.
I would like to see the insides of the ball heads that have the tensioner as a thumb screw in the locking knob, like the Markins, to see how they work.
Thank you
Russell
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Forum: Pentax Camera and Field Accessories
10-06-2009, 01:40 PM
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Using the knobs is a lot about how good a ball head can be. I didn't quite understand this when I finally got a ball head that had tension control. I had been using a one knob ball head where like you say, tightening the locking knob down hard was the only way, so I had to learn to use the new ball head and practice to use it effectively.
I don't know if the following is universal or not, but this is how it works with the Feisol CB-50. The tensioner is on one side of the ball head and the main locking knob is on the other. Inside the ball head, the ball sits in a clamp. To adjust this clamp, you tighten the unit with the locking knob and then on the other side you lightly twist the tensioner knob until it makes contact. You then back off the tensioner knob a little. You now loosen the locking knob and check the tension of the ball head. When you tighten the locking knob the first time you are not cranking down on it at all. As you adjust both the tensioner and locking knobs, the ball head actually tightens without much force on the locking knob and none on the tensioner.
You want it to move when you move it and stay when it you don't move it. If it is too tight, lock the ball head again and back off the tensioner a tiny amount. Then loosen the locking knob and try the set up again. In loosening the locking knob you aren't opening it all the way up, you want it to be lightly tight, as it too is providing tension.
The tensioner and the locking knob are the right and left sides of the clamp. You need both to be adjusted to provide the proper force needed to keep the lens in place but movable. If one or the other is looser than the other, when you move to the looser side of the head, the camera will move when it shouldn't. Once you have the tension right for the camera and lens combination, you can move the camera into any position and leave it there. Getting this balanced tension set up is the slow part.
Thank you
Russell
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