Quote Originally Posted by Greg Miller View Post
Geared heads are too slow and tedious for me. But these things always come down to personal taste and subject matter. I use a ball head for everything. With LF my process is to level the tripod and then level the ball head (which is easy to do with a BH-55 because the quick-release has a bubble level in it. I do not point the camera up or down. I use rise and fall instead which keeps the film and lens planes parallel to each other and perpendicular to the ground. At least until there is a reason to changes the planes. With the tripod level and the ball-head level, I am free to pan the head without losing level with the camera. None of the planes changes unless there is a reason to. If you point the camera up or down, now it is necessary to make at least one plane change just to get back to square. So a Ball head works perfectly well for me and avoid all the tedium that comes with a geared head or pan/tilt head.

If I shot architecture a lot I might change my mind, but this works very well for me.

If I were in your shoes, I would borrow a bunch of heads and try them out to see what you like.
Thanks Greg. A very thoughtful response. Much appreciated.

Since I am a newbie, I am a bit nervous about spending so much money on these items. This is the kind of technique that I like to see. I'll try it out and let you know what I think.