chrcapi
Registered: December 2006
Posts: 8
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Arca-Swiss Monoball B1 Ball Head review by chrcapi
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Review Date: 1/4/2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: None indicated| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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aspherical ball, outstanding craftsmanship, sturdy, easy to set-up
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Cons:
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Flip-Lock lever could be better, aspherical design needs some care
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I'm a happy user of the Flip-Lock version of this legendary ballhead. I've found its craftsmanship unrivaled, and groundless some bad comments about "poor quality check" of the latest series.
It's really easy to lock every lens or camera, even the heaviest, without strains. Thanks to high precision controls, your gear won't need extra adjustments, once locked. The aspherical ball gives you the option to use a small friction setting, allowing to track moving subject. Aspherical design could lead as well to a freeze-up of the ball, so you have to be quite careful in this regard. All controls are smooth and easy to set. Panorama control screw is a bit small, but I don't need it very often.
Regarding Flip-Lock, I'm quite happy with its performances, but I've found lever design not really successful: the release button is difficult to pull and doesn't seem to be built as well as the monoball is.
All-in-all, I highly recommend this head, especially if you don't need Flip-Lock feature. But, be aware: probably you can safely choose cheaper B1e version (without panorama control) only if your tripod provides panning feature, otherwise panning could be really boring.
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