Don't buy this ballhead!

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Archive 2011 · Don't buy this ballhead!

Ben Horne
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p.2 #1 · Don't buy this ballhead!

Just as was discussed with the Gitzo vs. Induro thread.... you get what you pay for. I learned long ago that the best strategy is to buy once, and buy right. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the metal stem sheers off that ballhead. I've seen it happen to similar products. That $22 ballhead could result in a multi-hundred dollar repair bill for the camera/lens you choose to put on it.

Dec 18, 2011 at 06:35 PM

jzucker
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p.2 #2 · Don't buy this ballhead!

sjms wrote:
jzucker wrote:
Glenn, the ballhead cannot be adjusted wider.

Some of you guys kill me. You'd spend $300 for a ballhead to sit on a tabletop tripod to sit in your jaguar...

This place reminds me of the guitar forums where a Les Paul isn't good enough so they have to spend $10,000 on a hand made boutique version and then spend all their time waxing poetic about the build quality and shimmer of the wood.

i like the Moog Paul Vo E1 Guitar. even the production run version is a thing of beauty in both sight and especially sound

heard that live a few months ago. Sounded like a standard guitar with a boss multi-effects pedal for synthesis. Thumbs-down.

2013 © jzucker

Dec 18, 2011 at 07:30 PM

sjms
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p.2 #3 · Don't buy this ballhead!

regretfully, you really have no idea. like any instrument one must know how to use it . a Stradivarius in the hands of a hack is just a box with strings attached. i've heard many owners of LP's butcher the instrument. why don't you go and see what your capable of doing with one? remember most of the sound comes from the one playing the instrument if they understand how to play it.

me back in '76

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Edited on Dec 18, 2011 at 09:01 PM · View previous versions

Dec 18, 2011 at 08:44 PM

M635_Guy
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p.2 #4 · Don't buy this ballhead!

jzucker wrote:
I'll only review stuff that costs more than $300 from now on.

Why don't we set it at at anything less than $22.48 and call it a day...

Dec 18, 2011 at 09:00 PM

jzucker
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p.2 #5 · Don't buy this ballhead!

sjms wrote:
regretfully, you really have no idea.

Seeing as how I've taught jazz guitar at the university level, given lectures on jazz/electric guitar, opened for Chick Corea and am the author of one of the best selling jazz guitar books - Sheets of Sound for Guitar - I'd have to disagree.

Dec 19, 2011 at 12:15 AM

Benzzene
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p.2 #6 · Don't buy this ballhead!

I think that the ball head is advertised as a "mini-ballhead" should of been a clue that there might be size issues.

Dec 19, 2011 at 12:19 AM

jzucker
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p.2 #7 · Don't buy this ballhead!

I thought it was mini because it was small and made for travel-tripods.

Dec 19, 2011 at 12:24 AM

jzucker
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p.2 #8 · Don't buy this ballhead!

Anyway, is there any way to delete a thread here? This thread has become more than useless. Reminds me of the idiotic postings on thegearpage.net

Dec 19, 2011 at 12:24 AM

M635_Guy
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p.2 #9 · Don't buy this ballhead!

jzucker wrote:
Anyway, is there any way to delete a thread here? This thread has become more than useless. Reminds me of the idiotic postings on thegearpage.net

How about you stop posting and let this thread slide fitfully to the depths of the FMforums murk...

Dec 19, 2011 at 03:29 AM

jzucker
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p.2 #10 · Don't buy this ballhead!

M635_Guy wrote:
jzucker wrote:
Anyway, is there any way to delete a thread here? This thread has become more than useless. Reminds me of the idiotic postings on thegearpage.net

How about you stop posting and let this thread slide fitfully to the depths of the FMforums murk...

Have fun with your jag and your ballhead

Dec 19, 2011 at 04:23 AM

3D.Doug
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p.2 #11 · Don't buy this ballhead!

are we talking about guitars, jazz or ball heads?

.

Edit, sorry, I didn't mean to bring this sore subject to the top, I'll try to help dig a nice hole for it...to the depths of the forum archives it goes. ;0)

Edited on Dec 21, 2011 at 10:58 PM · View previous versions

Dec 20, 2011 at 10:30 PM

M635_Guy
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p.2 #12 · Don't buy this ballhead!

3D.Doug wrote:
are we talking about guitars, jazz or ball heads?

.

Doug, we're really trying not to talk at all...

Let's let the unproductive thread die, shall we?

Dec 21, 2011 at 03:38 AM

dehrk
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p.2 #13 · Don't buy this ballhead!

jzucker wrote:
sjms wrote:
regretfully, you really have no idea.

Seeing as how I've taught jazz guitar at the university level, given lectures on jazz/electric guitar, opened for Chick Corea and am the author of one of the best selling jazz guitar books - Sheets of Sound for Guitar - I'd have to disagree.
Nice use of Papyrus on the cover. It really lends an air of sophistication & credibility.

Dec 21, 2011 at 03:35 PM

jzucker
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p.2 #14 · Don't buy this ballhead!

dehrk wrote:
jzucker wrote:
sjms wrote:
regretfully, you really have no idea.

Seeing as how I've taught jazz guitar at the university level, given lectures on jazz/electric guitar, opened for Chick Corea and am the author of one of the best selling jazz guitar books - Sheets of Sound for Guitar - I'd have to disagree.
Nice use of Papyrus on the cover. It really lends an air of sophistication & credibility.

Folks who have bought it and written about it in magazine interviews (dweezil zappa for example) don't seem to mind the papyrus.

Dec 21, 2011 at 03:49 PM

dlabrecque
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p.2 #15 · Don't buy this ballhead!

I have one of these ball heads or something that looks a lot like it. I think all these ball heads that come out of China come out of the same factory. I took off the existing clamp and with a metal file, did a little surgery on it so it could accept an RRS lever clamp. The result turned out great and used it like that for a couple of years till I ended up using the clamp for something else. Still have the ball...

Dec 21, 2011 at 09:38 PM

jzucker
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p.2 #16 · Don't buy this ballhead!

how did you take the clamp off? I can't tell if its welded, cast or epoxied on. Doesn't seem to unscrew. I still think this would make a good head for a tripod that fits in my carryon bag.

Dec 21, 2011 at 09:46 PM

MikeW
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p.2 #17 · Don't buy this ballhead!

I can't see why you shouldn't buy this ballhead...You obviously didn't read the description, it never claims to be arca swiss compatible, it says to put it on the tripod & then screw it onto your camera...you know what they say about people who assume...

Dec 25, 2011 at 06:21 AM

Lasse Eriksson
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p.2 #18 · Don't buy this ballhead!

MikeW wrote:
I can't see why you shouldn't buy this ballhead...You obviously didn't read the description, it never claims to be arca swiss compatible, it says to put it on the tripod & then screw it onto your camera...you know what they say about people who assume...

If you have to screw it straight into your camera, don't buy it. Every decent brand use some kind of quick release system.

Dec 25, 2011 at 08:23 AM

jzucker
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p.2 #19 · Don't buy this ballhead!

In fact this ballhead uses an arca style release very similar to my kirk plate (which also has to screw onto the camera)

I have to say that the level of negativity on this forum is very surprising. There seems to be a lot of very unhappy people here. I posted a simple warning and I get called an ass.

Well happy holidays folks.

Dec 25, 2011 at 01:04 PM

campyone
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p.2 #20 · Don't buy this ballhead!

jzucker wrote:
Glenn, the ballhead cannot be adjusted wider.

Some of you guys kill me. You'd spend $300 for a ballhead to sit on a tabletop tripod to sit in your jaguar...

This place reminds me of the guitar forums where a Les Paul isn't good enough so they have to spend $10,000 on a hand made boutique version and then spend all their time waxing poetic about the build quality and shimmer of the wood.

Nobody is saying you should have spent $300 (though that isn't excessive for a good ballhead IMHO) or that there was anything wrong with trying to save money. But $22?

I've owned three ball heads over a period of about 20 years. The first was a Bogen, the second was an Arca Swiss, the third and present is a Really Right Stuff head. The Bogen cost about a fourth of what the other two cost. The Arca Swiss was, and the RRS is, a pleasure to use. The Bogen was made well but it wasn't nearly as smooth as the other two, it was kind of "sticky." Which meant it was almost impossible to make very fine adjustments of the kind that can be critical for architecture, products, etc. IMHO ball heads are one area where you do indeed get what you pay for.

Dec 25, 2011 at 07:48 PM

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