Hi Andrea,
The Acratech ballhead is like a lot of things - its weaknesses are its strengths, and its strengths are its weaknesses - although I don't feel that it really has any weaknesses.
If I get into a situation where I want my camera to be vertical on my tripod/ballhead, I have a couple of choices:
1. Make certain that the "high" side is to the left (or right) and the low side is on the opposite side, and then flip my camera into place; frequently, if my tripod isn't level, I don't have a choice, so I'll flop the head to the lower side (or, what will be the lower side) and the rotate the lower body of the ballhead so that the low side is lower (does this make sense???); or,
2. If the low side is already on the correct side, I'll flop the camera to that side, and I may have to rotate (pan) the camera body so that the lens is pointing forward, instead of backward.
The same issues above affect me if I want to tilt forward/backward, and I have the high side in the way. When the high side does get in the way, then I'll loosen the pan knob, hold onto my camera body, loosen the main knob and rotate the ballhead body so that the high side is out of the way, and then tighten the knobs in reverse order.
I hope that this all makes sense. My first (and, smaller, cheaper) tripod, which I purchased like 20 years ago, has three different knobs for these same movements (tilt, pan & horizontal/vertical movement of camera body on an integrated platform/head), while the Acratech head has just two - pan and everything else. It's sure a lot easier, I feel, to set the pan to about where I want, and then finish off the other two axes with one knob.
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<x-tad-bigger>Tim,
... I've had [ the Acratech ballhead ] for a couple of years and really like it. ...
How do you find the ability to swivel the ball -- right down at one point, tapering off to "not at all" on the opposite side? It does seem to be beautifully thought out.
&i (:
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Tim Mulholland
Illuminata Photo
Fitchburg, WI
608/628-2925
Tim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.TimMulholland.com
