Manfrotto Tripods
Buying a tripod is a difficult exercise. There are so many things to consider that it can be downright confusing to make the right choice! Most people buy a tripod than realize they need a tripod ballhead to connect to the actual tripod!
So what is a ballhead? This is basically a special pivot join that is attached to the top of your tripod. The ballhead connects to your camera and allows you to control the motion of your camera. Now ballheads are very important to people who take photography (or video) seriously because the quality of your ballhead will really determine how easy it is to take photos with a tripod – and it will also affect the quality of a tripod too.
Manfrotto is a well known manufacturer or tripods and tripod ballheads. They’ve been in the business for many years and have established a very good reputation over the years. They have a whole range of different ballhead choices. All of their ballheads are very good quality. And quality in a ballhead is very important. If you buy a generic ballhead, there is a very good chance that the ballhead won’t operate very smoothly (making taking pictures with the tripod a frustrating exercise) or it won’t be very stable, causing vibration when you take pictures with a longer lens.
Picking out a Manfrotto tripod head is not an easy task however. First, you are going to have to think about what you are looking for in a ballhead. The best way to do this is consider what you intend to use your ballhead for – i.e. what sort of activities will you be doing. If you plan to travel a lot and want to bring along your photo gear, you are going to need a very different sort of tripod ballhead than if you just plan to use a tripod in a studio, for example. If you want to travel around, you are going to want to get a ballhead that’s as light as possible. Keep in mind that ballheads that are smaller and lighter won’t be able to handle camera setups that are too heavy. This means if you want an ultra portable tripod setup with a very tiny ballhead, it’s not recommend that you put on a large lens on it – the ballhead may “creep” under the weight and the pictures you take might not be as sharp as they could be.
If you are looking for a general recommendation here for Manfrotto tripods, the you may want to look at the Bogen 486RC2 tripod ballhead. This is a all round great ballhead that works well with most of their midsized tripods. It’s probably the most popular choice of ballhead for the average photographer looking to get a ballhead that’s stable and affordable.