Good ball head for Gitzo tripod

[frank_major]

<p>In my tragically inexperienced opinion, my research led me to chose what i believe to be really good (non-top-shelf Gitzo's) carbon-fiber tripod legs which required me to spend a lot less on the ball head (for now). I'm hoping to reap the greatest reward in the carbon-fiber tripod legs whilst not loosing too much of the benefit from the ballhead i chose.</p>

<p>I may one day regret the Manfrotto 498rc2 ballhead, but for now i'm really hoping it's going to be an upgrade from my current set-up (old Velbon video tilt/pan).</p>

<p>I hope you too find a good balance between tripod legs and a solid head-unit. The responses given here to-date (from others not me!!!) have been truly fantastic.</p>

[tdigi]

<p>Thanks Frank, its a big commitment and thats actually a route I was almost took but at this point I am pretty set on either the RRS BH-40 with RRS clamp or the Markins Q10 and adjusting the lever to fit RRS. </p>

<p>I will more then likely just stay with my Gitzo 2541 since I don't really want to deal with returning it not to mention paying for the shipping plus I did get a pretty decent deal from Adorama ( 680 with some extras and I still have a $40 rebate to send in )</p>

[frank_major]

<p>They are awesome tripod legs for sure - buy once - cry once.</p>

[rmyers]

<p>BH40= good stuff.</p>

<p>Did you buy the 4 piece legs for a reason, like shorter collapsed length? 3 piece legs are more stable as they are larger diameter on the smallest section. I know you already have it, but since you asked for opinions/advice, there is that to consider.<br>

<br /> Also, those RRS tripods are unbelievably nice. Yes they are more than the Gitzo.</p>

[tdigi]

<p>I ended up with the Markins Q10 with the RRS plate. Russell I took the 4 leg gitzo over the 3 because I wanted something that would fold up smaller. It seems very stable to me, even the 4 section borders on to big for me to lug around so no point in getting something I wont take with me. <br>

Ballhead is set to arrive on Monday so we'll see if its all worth it. </p>

[rmyers]

<p>I thought you might have gone with the 4 piece for reduced length. That's a very nice set up and will serve you for a long time. You should have no regrets there.</p>

[tdigi]

<p>Can't wait to find out, Tripod has been sitting here for over a week with no head. Got the RRS plate yesterday so I am almost there. The legs seem very stable. </p>

[mr_marks]

<p>" I understood that Gitzo was the CF tripod of choice for many, but I couldn't find any objective reason why and I hate their leg locks. I asked questions on here and spent hours searching for any objective evidence to the extent that if I bought a Gitzo I'd get sharper pictures. I looked elsewhere on the internet with the same result. Everyone likes their Gitzos but no-one seemed able to give any objective evidence to support spending twice as much on a CF tripod than I needed. I bought the Manfrotto 055 model in carbon fibre instead for half the price of the equivalent Gitzo, and so far I'm happy with it. But for me, the place I didn't want to compromise was the head and plates. I bought RRS and as I've said I'm enjoying using it and I can see the benefit I get from it every time I use it. So for me I chose to compromise on the legs not the head and I still believe I'll get more benefit that way."<br>

Dave H, what you said totally made sense to me. Thanks!</p>