Photo Clam Ball Head

[Hightowerman1]

Que le pasa en la cabeza?

[ArizonaMMJ]

Even better is the new Vanguard 300 for $99

[itchyundies]

the camera is on the plate the wrong way champ making it hard to access release plate

[gslusher]

@itchyundies

I caught that, too! The rails should go side-to-side, so that the knob ends up in front of the camera. Looks like the Studio Coach is an amateur.

Of course, if you use the ballhead with a collared lens, the plate you get for the lens will run fore-and-aft, so the knob ends up on one side. (I always put it on the left side, as I hold the camera with my right hand when attaching the lens to the ballhead.)

I have a Markins M-10 and a smaller GIottos head, plus a Jobu gimbal head.

[itchyundies]

i just scored a acratech gv2 ballhead not bad and really lightweight solid as a rock though with my gitzo LvL series 2 carbon fibre tripod

my 1st tripod was a giotto thing it was a shocker and i tossed up wether to get the markins M-10 but went for the acratech gv2 as its lightweight as

cheers

[gslusher]

@itchyundies

Great! Acratech is high-class. I don't like the gv2 because the ball is exposed. The gimbal feature could be nice, but it puts the camera/lens off to one side, which is less stable & increases vibration. It lowers the camera a lot, so I'd have to raise the tripod to use the viewfinder. It doesn't pivot around the center as Acratech claims & might be hard to balance. Try a real gimbal head to see the difference.

I don't know about Giottos tripods. My Giottos head is on my monopod.

[keoniahlo]

@gslusher Unless he's using a Markins camera plate, which has a square clamping area, allowing the user to rotate the camera 90 deg in any direction. It's a cool idea, actually.

[ezygrin]

What is so special about that? I thought every good ballhead works like this.

[gslusher]

@ezygrin

Many ballheads do not have adjustable friction. Those that do include Really Right Stuff, Kirk, Markins, Acratech, Arca-Swiss, and Benro, plus Photo Clam. The "Studio Coach" doesn't mention that feature, unfortunately.

The Photo Clam is pretty much a knockoff of the Markins.

[fvgotch]

Very nice, but where can I buy it?

[Photopro888]

@fvgotch You can get

[Photopro888]

@Photopro888

You can get the ball heads here in the US at really big cameras

[TechGirl64]

What an impressive device! Thanks for the review.

[dcsplicer]

looks great, thanks for the demo coach!