Ball head or Pan & tilt head???

[stradibarrius]

I was curious if there was a strong preference for either a pan & tilt or a ball head?
I am new to LF and have a Cambo SC that weights about 7lbs., I think.
With my MF and 35mm gear I have always used a ball head. When I carry the 4x5 on the tripod the ball head I have does not hold the camera, even when I crank down tight on the tension adjusters.

It seems that with the big mass on top a pan and tilt would be easier???

[Richard Wasserman]

I am a fan of 3-way heads, my favorite is a Manfrotto 410 geared head. I tried an Arca Swiss ball head, but never got comfortable with it—too hard to adjust one plane without disturbing the other. Of course others will chime in that ball heads are the best...

[Joanna Carter]

Another vote for the Manfrotto 410. As Richard says, it is a geared head, not a pan and tilt head, and that means it is exceptionally easy to make very fine adjustments in only one plane at a time.

[Ari]

I've found that 3-way heads are great for monorail cameras, ball heads are not.
I've gotten away with using a ball head on a field camera, but I always found it too time-consuming to level properly.

[David R Munson]

For careful work, I don't see how people end up using ball heads. Even with a good tension control like you have on good ball head, careful axis-specific adjustments (like most of us want when doing the sort of work one is apt to do with a view camera) becomes problematic. I have a fairly cheap but decent Sirui ball head that serves me well when I want a ball head, but otherwise I have an old (~30 years?) Gitzo 3-way head that is stellar. So much easier to use effectively doing most of my work, there's no debate which head to use when I go out with the view camera.

[Fred L]

3 or two ways (Ries J250 or Manfrotto 410) > ballheads for me re:LF cameras. 35 and MF are happy on my Gitzo 1576 ballhead

[moTmeN]

3 or two ways (Ries J250 or Manfrotto 410) > ballheads for me re:LF cameras. 35 and MF are happy on my Gitzo 1576 ballhead

Another vote for 3 way head. I had a Manfrotto ballhead for all-purpose equipment (for small format with 500/4 lens, and Cambo SC monorail) which had an affordable result. After I successfully broke the ball(!), I've decided to invest some money on proper heads, so I bought a big ballhead (Foba superball), and gave a chance to a 3 way head (Manfrotto 229) for landscape and macro work. After the first shots with 3 way head my ballhead is only used for animal (mostly bird) photography (with DSLR). For other, slower subject I use the 3 way.

[Ivan J. Eberle]

I like my Novoflex ballhead well enough for a folding 4x5 Meridian, but it would probably be awkward with a monorail. It's a matter of the cantilevered weight over the ball and the amount of tension needed to resist it. The Novo is too light on the resistance tensioning.
But I still have a really big Manfrotto Super Heavy Duty Ballhead (268) from 20 years ago that was the bee's knees used with a Sinar Norma. I earlier used it with a 300mm f/2.8 on an SLR for a great many years to wonderful effect. It's overkill for most things, I'm sure it would be at least adequate to 8x10 and maybe larger. I've used it with a 2000mm mirror lens that it handled with aplomb.

[rdenney]

I have an Arca-Swiss Monoball (the model before the B1). It's excellent...

...for everything except large format, particularly when using a monorail camera.

When I travel with a camera, it's often my Pentax 6x7, and the ballhead works nicely with that camera. It's also compact to travel with, and quite robust. But it's a special Hell to try and level a Sinar F on a ball head, such that the camera can be turned without having to do it all over again.

I have used large Bogen three-way heads and they have always been worthy of their weight and bulk--that's all I ever used with the Calumet and Cambo view cameras I used for years. It's all I ever used for commercial work, most of which I did with a Mamiya TLR.

I have also tried the 410, but I found that it wiggles a bit more than the big clamping heads, and the quick-release plate isn't big enough for a monorail camera. I suspect it would be fine for a field camera with a nice, flat bottom surface on which to mount that plate. For the Sinar, there is the tilt-head and then there is everything else, and now that I have that, nothing else will do for that camera. But it only works for cameras that can roll about the rail mounting, because it provides pitch and yaw movement only.

Rick "who really ought to sell his Bogen heads" Denney

[goodfood]

I have 410 gear head. When I use on my heavy Linhof tripod with large disc (77mm) the disc catch the turning notch when tilt upward about 30 degree. So be aware.