Tripod- ball head

[ketan]

Hi,
I plan to buy a good tripod for my landscape and macro photography. After reading various reviews, I have shortlisted Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod.
Now I need to take decision about the ball head.
I have two choices manfrotto 322rc2 and manfrotto 488rc2.
Which one is preferred?:meh:
Thanks

 

[tirediron]

Whichever one you like! My preference would be for the 488 because it has more accurate control and a separately controllable panning base. The 322 is more of a speed/action grip.

 

[ketan]

I am least on speed photography. Mainly I need for Macro, Landscape and portrait.

 

[Overread]

Forget about ball heads - ok they might work for landscape but for macro they are a nightmare (unless possibly looking at the very top range). I would also say forget the 055XPROB as well since I've never become a fan of its low angle method of having the head slip out and go sideways - not only does it throw off your angle of shooting, but it also gives you a long arm bit that gets in the way.

My advice is to look for a regular set of tripod legs that have a removable middle column that will let you mount an adaptor to it for low angle shooting - there is a previous 055 model from manfrotto that has this feature.

Further on the tripod head front the head of choice for many (esp in macro work) is the manfrotto Junior Geared head (don't let the junior fool you its strong and heavy!). This head lets you adjust each of the 3 axis with fine, and smooth controls with no drooping or dropping (something ballheads are prone to do when you release your hand even with the pressure turned fully onto the ballhead - not noticeable in regular shooting, but very problematic with macro work). You can also release the pressure to quickly adjust each axis one by one, but it requires your hand on the release control the whole time - fine for landscape and macro, but clearly no use for sports or speedy things.