The Ultimate Guide to Buying a New Ball Head for your Tripod
Excited to buy a New Ball Head.....some enlightening tips to fulfil your needs.
1) Your Lens
The lens you own is the most prime factor to choose a perfect Ball Head. Depending on your lens category you can opt a appropriate ball head.
Lens Categories with Ball Head Load Capacity to choose from :
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Standard Lens, Wide Zoom Lens, Mid Size Zoom Lens, Compact Telephoto Zoom Lens & Macro Lens ~ Max Load Capacity 8 to 10kgs recommended.
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Telephoto Zoom Lens (100-400 or 150-600) ~ Max Load Capacity 8 to 12kgs recommended.
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Prime Telephoto Lens (400mm, 500mm or 600mm) ~ Load Capacity of 20kgs and above recommended.
2) What you Shoot.
The subjects you shoot is to be considered while choosing a ball head.
If you shoot Landscape, Birds and Wildlife ~ Triple action Ball Head is recommended. It has separate panning knob, friction control and ball lock which is useful in controlling all movements on field.
For general shooting regular single ball lock system can be considered.
3) Your Tripod Legs.
Your Tripod legs are to be taken into consideration for a matching ball head.
Pro category tripod should be attributed with appropriate ball head, low end ball heads should be avoided to match a pro category tripod.