Benro

[maxwellmcauley778]

Comments on the benro B1 double action ballhead thanks.

 

[TCampbell]

I don't specially own the B1. I have a B00, a B2, and a B3 - they're all great.

They have a large knob which tightens the head and holds it where you put it. In addition, they also have a smaller "drag" control knob which allows you to adjust a bit of friction -- the idea being that when you loosen the main knob, the head doesn't just "flop" down with your gear on it. There's also knob which allows it to rotate (and index marks for those who like to use index marks when rotating the head for shooting panos.)

The camera mount is an industry standard Arca-Swiss type mount - this is a 1" wide dovetail and you can get mounting plates (bars) in many different lengths -- which is nice when you're trying to slide your camera forward or backward to keep it's center of gravity over the tripod. I buy spare plates for my long lenses. Keep in mind... these plates are an industry standard. You don't have to buy the plates from Benro, you can get them from anyone who sells Acra-Swiss style dovetail plates.

You can even get camera straps from folks like Carry Speed and Black Rapid that have the dovetail plate built-in to the strap (their straps attach to the tripod mounting bolt on the bottom of the camera -- so this makes sense.)

The main difference in the model is the physical size and heft of the head -- larger numbers are physically larger and are designed to solidly hold more weight.