Ramesh wrote: I am planning replace my existing tripd with corbon fibre tripod, so was thinking about the ball heads. I have few doubts about them.
Are there any advantages in using ballhead instead of pan-tilt style ones? Which is more stable? REPLY: I suggest you look into the Berlebach wooden tripods before you buy an expensive carbon fiber tripod (www.berlebach.de). They are just as sturdy as the carbon fibers at a certain weight point. If you want really ultralight tripods you have no choice but buy carbon fiber but I don't recommend tripods weighting less than about 2kg cause they simply don't work except as emergencie cases where any tripod is better than no tripod. Light ballheads are sturdier than light pan/tilt heads simply because theres more material going into a pan/tilt head. The advantage with a ball head is that it is faster in use if you want to follow action. The thing with pan/tilt heads is that it is possible to adjust only one angle at the time precisely. This make you able to straighten the horizon without affecting the other angles. Typically you compose and frame a shot then figuring out that the horizon isn't totally level. Such adjustment can be a pain on ball heads unless you have very good eye/arm coordination. A pan/tilt head is more stable than a ball head as long as the heads are heavy, say, more than 1kg. For lighter heads the ballheads wins in general. Eg. you won't find a pan/tilt head more sturdy than my Velbon PH-273QL at the weight of 455g. Ball vs pan/tilt is mostly a question of taste when it comes to usage. P�l
