Need help with which ball to use on tripod?

[STUART M. ALPART]

Which BALL is the best for carrying the weight of a 4 x 5 or 5 x 7 camera with lense? Either the ARCA - SWISS B-I BALL, LINHOF BALL or the new REALLY RIGHT STUFF BALL?

[Michael E. Gordon]

The Acratech

[Bob Salomon]

You also want to look at the new Novoflex ClassicBall 5

[Ted Harris]

My personal choice is the Acratech mentioned above. I switched from the Arca to the Acratech about a year ago and have been delighted with the beast. I could go on about its virtues forever but see details at the following websites: http://www.clearsightusa.com/acratech1.html and http://acratech.net. You will also find several threads in this forum dealing with this whole question.

[Pete Caluori]

Greetings,

Lots of folks use the Arca ball and they are nice, but my Linhof ball has not let me down. It's been through a lot and has adequately held my 8x10.

Regards, Pete

[Ellis Vener]

Arca-Swiss B1 or The Linhof Profi III

even better is the Arca-Swiss B2 Monoball which is really a double axis head that looks like a ball head.

[Kevin Crisp]

Acratech, ditto.

[Ellis Vener]

Have any of you guys recommending the Acra-Tech (which is a very nice but small head) used one with a 5x7 camera? I have and I can't recommend it.

[Leigh Perry]

<p style="margin-right: 9%">
I used a borrowed Acratech ballhead for
a month while
my B1 was repaired. In my opinion the Acratech is an significant achievement
in one main area: it is an amazingly light ballhead but is still very stable
with 4x5.
<p style="margin-right: 9%">
Coming from an Arca Swiss, though, took a bit of adjustment. Firstly, you have to
tighten the main knob much more firmly than with the Arca Swiss. This leads to a
few unexpected dives to the left by the camera. It particularly seemed to happen
when moving the tripod slightly while
adjusting a composition. You just have to learn to lean into it a lot more.
<p style="margin-right: 9%">
The second thing that takes some adjusting to is the angled ball-enclosure (?) that
you can see in the picture. It limits the range of directions that you can tip
the camera over, and I occasionally ran into it. It's easy to overcome by panning
the entire ballhead, but it's one more thing to worry about when setting up a shot.
<p style="margin-right: 9%">
The ideal situation for me would be to use the Acratech as a hiking ballhead and
the Arca Swiss for
Weston-compliant situations.