Tripod Heads
I’ve used a variety of different tripod & head combinations over the years, including 3 way geared heads and ballheads.
My first geared head was a Manfrotto 410, at the time there was the Manfrottos at the cheap end of the range and Arca Swiss at the other end, with not many options in between.
The 410 wasn’t great in terms of design and reliability, it was very cramped, the gears wouldn’t always engage properly, and they didn’t seem to last very long before needing a rebuild. I eventually went to the Manfrotto 410 which was an improvement over the 405 in all areas except weight.
The Manfrottos use their own proprietary camera mounting system which isn’t compatible with thr Arca-Swiss standard that pretty much every other manufacturer uses. This is not something that can be removed & replaced, it is part of the casting of the 410 and 405 so requires extra parts to be added on to adapt it to the Arca Swiss camera plates. The end result is a head the weighs in just under 1.9kg (the same kit on a 410 puts it around 1.3kg).
Manfrotto 405
As much as I liked the benefits of a geared head, the size & weight was a dealbreaker, so it was time to start looking for a good ballhead.
After some research I ended up going for the RRS BH55. I’ve been using this for about 8 years now, it’s been great, easily the best ballhead I’ve ever used. The BH55 weighs in at 890g, heavy but better than the previous geared heads.
I have this on a Gitzo Systematic GT3532s, not exactly a lighweight combo but it’s manageable.
RRS BH-55
I tried going to a lighter combo for travelling, a Feisol CT-3402 with the RRS BH40 ballhead (446g). After a couple of trips with this setup I went back to the bigger combo, I’d rather carry a bit more weight and have somethig more stable & rigid. The BH40 is a good head, it was mostly the Feisol legs that didn’t cut it for me.
The BH40 can be mounted on the bigger Gitzo, but the Gitzo mounting base is considerably bigger than the diameter of the BH40 so it gets in the way of the levers.
RRS BH-40
I recently came across the Leofoto G4 geared head, which is a copy of the Arca D4 at a much lower price. It’s very compact for a geared head, weight comes in below the BH55 at 690g, or 820g for the G4 Pro version which adds a geared adjustment to the panning clamp. This would be handy for pano shooters, I’d pay extra for geared panning adjustment on the base but I don’t think i’d get much benefit from the geared clamp.
There’s not a lot of information out there about this head as it’s relatively new (and not sold in all regions).
Leofoto G4
I’ve been using this for around 6 weeks now, I’ve done probably 25-30 shoots with it.
So far I’m really liking this head, the precision makes it very easy to nail the framing & composition instead of cropping and rotating in post. Build quality is excellent.
Before this head arrived I was concerned that the 60mm base on the head mounted to the 70mm base on my Gitzo would cause problems with the lock lever for the panning base. The lever can be pulled away from the head an repositioned, and only needs 1/2 a turn of travel so there’s no problrms there.
The resistance on the adjustment knobs is a bit inconsistent, while turning the knob I will encounter areas that require a bit more pressure to turn, it’s not something that causes any issues during a shoot but you do notice it.
When I set up a composition I’ve always gone for the in camera electronic level and adjusted the ballhead repeatedly until it shows as green (the green zone covers a wide range of angles and usually gets you reasonably close to being level but I always have to correct it in post), quite often while setting the level I mess up other aspects of the composition and have to start over.
With the G4 I use the split zoom function of the D850, which zooms in on an area from the left and right of the frame, I then adjust the knob until the 2 sections of the horizon are aligned. It’s a quick process and the results are 100% spot on every time.
I have no plans to ever switch back to a ballhead. This is the best geared head I’ve used.