wiltw
Subscriber
ive never liked ball heads. when you release the tension, your camera comes slamming down into the tripod legs. it takes acfew accidents to get use to hanging onto your camera as you release the adjusters.
i prefer the good old pan/tilt heads like my bogen 3047.... just so fool proof n sturdy. i have no problems carrying n using a heavy tripod for my heavy cameras.
And that is the reason for a tension control, which leaves a certain amount of 'drag' on the ball even when the lock is fully released. Some ballheads also have a somewhat elliptical design of the ball so that as the head leaves vertical, the amount of drag on the head increases progressively as it gets to 90 degrees.