Also, I'm not sure I understand ball heads, so how does the "geared" part work?
Also, it has a plate but looks like it's not a "quick" plate but a sort of screw in type?
I know my current head is very old, but one of the things I like about it is that as I placed the camera onto the head, the locking mechanism automatically locks the camera so I don't have to worry about it falling off as I'm trying to fiddle with locking it down.
View attachment 98382
The brass pin is depressed by the plate on the camera and locks closed, it also has a double action unlocking design so you can't accidentally unlock the release.
Can you explain why these plates are more popular?