All photographers worthy of the name know you need a Ball Head Tripod in your pocket, but it's important not to miss the modest kit! Tripods are usually supplied as standard with heads, but these are usually not the best you can get. It is therefore interesting to find a particular patella that suits your needs.
The compactness and ease of portability are good, but if you can support your camera without a mirror DSLR or CSC with a big goal, even small ball must create a precarious balance. Small ball heads can also be affected by eating locking knobs and camera mounting systems to complex quick releases that will slow down your flow.
But when it's time to shift up a gear, you generally do not exclude ball heads. High-Quality reinforced design is probably more compact than a three-way head and faster to use. The trick is to choose ahead with a larger ball diameter of 40 to 50mm, which is an ideal point to provide extra stability while maintaining portability. The fancy balls are usually also more smooth, while being crowned with quick release plates more practical, often based on the universal mounting standard Arca-Swiss.
Manfrotto XPRO Magnesium Ball Head with Top Lock plate
At first glance, Manfrotto's XPRO patella is not very beautiful, but it's more than you think. The magnesium construction is designed for 10 kg: enough for almost all full-frame configurations, but the head moves at a reasonable speed of 520 g compared to the scale.
The centrepiece is a ball big enough for good stability. The non-greasy polymer casing allows exceptionally smooth movement, even in the event of severe friction. Friction is tuned with a tactile click wheel that is better than most systems, allowing you to choose a precise level of resistance. Instead of using rubberized or knurled knobs, the movement of the ball and bushing is tightened with levers that lock securely with minimal force.
The XPRO head can be supplied with different versions of mounting plates. We chose the Top Lock system, compatible with Arca Swiss and whose QR plate was released with a simple but effective button. The top plate is surrounded by three individual bubble levels to ensure accurate camera alignment. They can be viewed with the camera mounted.
