On Thu, May 02, 2013 at 05:00:59PM -0400, Stan Halpin wrote: > I use the smaller of the two Kirk ballheads. > http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/554685-REG/Kirk_BH_3_BH_3_Ballhead_with_Quick.html > > I use a real cheapo ballhead on my monopod, but Kirk also has a couple > variations on the theme for monopod usage. > Kirk makes good stuff. > I also use Kirk camera plates if available, but they haven't been keeping up > with the Pentax range. They have a camera plate for the K-7/5 body, but not > for the body with grip attached. They had an L-braket for the K-7/5 body but > it is no longer available. Same for Really Right Stuff.
Shopping for tripod heads seems to be a bigger can of worms than shopping for a camera body. With a DSLR, I expect that even if the body won't be obsolete in a few years, I'll be able to get one that has so much better performance that upgrading will be irresistable in a few years. But, since tripod heads are a mature technology, that shouldn't be the case. There is little reason why the tripod head I buy this week shouldn't work as well twenty years from now as it does today. For that matter the heads I bought three years ago work as well now as they did three years ago, it's just that my standards have gotten higher. I could easily take the above and make a very good case that I should just spend the money, get the top of the line Kirk, RRS or whatever and just be done with it. Unfortunately, my finances can't support that sort of investment right now. So, rather than optimizing on performance, or performance for weight, I need to optimize on performance for dollar. Looking at features, the $200 Vanguard or Induro seems to compare with the $300 Kirk or RRS, even if it doesn't have quite the quality or performance. However, the $300 Vanguard, or Induro, might well outperform the $300 kirk. As an engineer, I'm annoyed that there are not standardized performance specs. How much the head will sag at a certain weight. How much vibration damping it provides. Things like that. I'm not a mechanical engineer, so I can't design the tests off the top of my head, but I've got some ideas of how they could be done. Instead we've got some vague (good for x Kg) rating, which could mean that you can shoot with a 500mm lens and not get motion blur at 1/10 second, or it could mean that if you put that much weight on it, and it's properly balanced, the head won't snap in two and dump your gear on the ground. I suspect that rather than trying to figure out how much I need to spend, I should just figure out how much I can spend, and find the best I can get for the money. If I go to Arca-swiss then I won't need to worry about getting new mount plates when I do have the money to get "best at any cost" gear. -- Larry Colen [email protected] http://red4est.com/lrc -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
