Ball Head for Medium Format

I've never been satisfied with manfrotto qr plates or ballheads. I've now got an acratech ballhead (v2) and kirk 'L' bracket for my mamiya 7 and kirk plate for my RB. This combo is noticebly more solid.

m_liddell said:

I've never been satisfied with manfrotto qr plates or ballheads. I've now got an acratech ballhead (v2) and kirk 'L' bracket for my mamiya 7 and kirk plate for my RB. This combo is noticebly more solid.

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Sorry to borrow this thread Sandy.

I too like the Mamiya 7/7II Kirk L bracket for the Arca Swiss type QR. It works great making it easy to switch from horizontal to vertical.

Here is the Kirk link for anyone interested that is reading this thread:

Dead Link Removed

Rich

naturephoto1 said:

Hi Sandy,

Inexpensive but I hope good head. Hope things work well for you and you like their QR system. It is a bit heavy for its holding power. My substantially stronger Markins M20 only weighs 20.4 oz with the Kirk Arca Type QR with 99 lb holding power. The Giotto head that you are getting with their QR weighs 22 oz with ability to support 22 lbs.

Rich

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Since I don't plan to use anything on the head over about 3.5 lbs there should be no problem with how much the Giotto supports. In fact, I started to buy a smaller one since 22 lbs is more support than is needed. I am much more concerned about how smooth it works since Ole mentioned some problem in this regard with older units.

But I am curious why there would be such a big difference in capability between the Marks M20, which as you say has 99 lbs of holding power, and the Giotto which can support only 22 lbs. Are these equivalent terms?

Sandy

The problem with the older units wasn't the holding power, but that the "socket" tended to come unstuck - always at the worst possible moment, of course. When I was looking for a smaller ball head for the smaller cameras I checked the available information thoroughly, and found that the manufacturer had redesigned the ball heads to get rid of that problem, and that no such problem had ever been reported with the newer units. Since all reports of the older ones were positive until the moment of "disaster" (it didn't drop the camera or anything, just stopped holding), I felt confident that the new & improved version would be exellent. So far mine has been. Even the low-end one is very easy to both set and adjust, so easy that my wife adopted it immediately for her macro shots. I may have to buy one more if I want to get to use it...

Oh - about "holding power".

I don't think there is any defined standard for reporting the holding power. I would use those numbers only as an indication of the relative strength of different heads from one manufacturer. Comparing manufacturer "A"'s heads to "B"'s on that basis has very doubtful value.

Ole said:

Oh - about "holding power".

I don't think there is any defined standard for reporting the holding power. I would use those numbers only as an indication of the relative strength of different heads from one manufacturer. Comparing manufacturer "A"'s heads to "B"'s on that basis has very doubtful value.

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Hi Sandy,

Ole is correct. Different companies use different methods of comparing the capabilities of their own heads. The problem is trying to understand what was/is used by the different makers. I know the way that Markins tests its heads is to suspend a weight. Markins America has some Videos of their test:

http://www.markinsamerica.com/MA5/demo.php

There are articles that have tested the heads for strength as well as forums elsewhere.

Here is the Nikonians review of the Markins heads including the new Q3 in comparison with other heads including those by Arca Swiss, Kirk, Really Right Stuff, Manfrotto (Bogen), Linhof, Novoflex, and FLM.

http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/non-nikon_articles/markins/markins_1.html

Rich

sanking said:

Well, for better or worse, and on the general advice of Ole re: Giotto heads, I am going with this one. Get the head, four Q/R plates and shipping for abo,ut $160.


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...959&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

Sandy King

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I received the Giotto ball head today, with a number of Q/R plates. Although it is very modestly priced compared to a number of other ball heads of similar size and strength I am at this point very pleased with the quality in terms of finish and smoothness of operation. I may have more to say after using it in the field for a few months.

Thanks again to all who offered advice and opinion on this.

Sandy King