Review on Manfrotto Grip Action Ball Head: Lightweight Magnesium Fluid Tripod Ball Head for Content Creation, Vlogging, and Photography by Alexis Guiney

This is the most perfect photography ball head I have ever found. For me the main problems it solves are ease of use, compact weight and reliability. What annoys me the most about most ball heads is that every time I adjust the head properly, tightening the locking mechanism causes the head to move. If they moved the same every time, I could at least compensate for that, but that doesn't happen; Movement is always random and unpredictable. With this head, when I let go of the lever, the head stays where I put it - as long as there is enough tension to support the weight of the camera and lens, of course. important characteristic. This is something to play with and become familiar with before headshooting. I reckon it won't take more than half an hour of experimentation to get up to speed for photography. I highly doubt this would be a viable option for video. Likewise, I don't think it's the optimal head for panning, although after a bit of practice I see that it's possible. I found this head to be surprisingly stable in the horizontal position, so much so that I'm curious to see how it performs in the vertical or "joystick" orientation. Someone else will have to answer those questions. This head loses a star because, in my view, it has what many other heads have, which is the slant to the corners down instead of up. A simple workaround is to mount the camera so that the grip lines up with the lens. This allows the head to be operated with one grip from the front instead of the back or side. Again, this is perfectly viable for photography, but probably useless for video. In terms of assembly, I find great versatility and sanity in standardizing the Arca-Swiss system, so I've added a lightweight Arca-Swiss compatible system. Clip on the included Manfrotto plate. This works for me and YMMV.