Passionate eye wrote:
I\'m going to weigh in on this one.
sjms...have you ever used an Arca Swiss and be able to compare the BH55 with the Z1?
molson provided his opinion and you are certainly entitled to yours. He backed his claim by having tried the BH55 and eventaully selling it because he wasn\'t satisfied with the way it locked and then making the switch to the AS Z1. The little issue with the Z1\'s 2 piece neck being glued together wasn\'t a wide spread issue as not every person owning that ballhead had the problem. At least I didn\'t see it all over the net.
I\'ll speak for myself now as I too own a RRS BH40 and not the BH55. I just received the ballhead last week and when it arrived, there was grease coming out of the separation between the panning base and the main body. Not a big deal as I can wipe it off but really, couldn\'t RRS make sure that a $375 ballhead come out of the factory brand spankin\' new for a proud customer? Leads me to wonder whether someone over greased it? As for the locking of the ball head, I do see a slight sag of the camera/lens combo and this is with my D3/70-200. This is rated for the occasional 500 f4 usage. By the way, I have it mounted on a Gitzo CF 3530 tripod as well. A friend of mine reported the same thing happening with his brand new BH55 but I haven\'t done a hands on comparison with his 55 to my 40. I also have an Arca Swiss ballhead (tested it on the same tripod) but an older B1 and when I turn the knob to lock down the head, no movement is observed.
For all those who owns the BH55 or 40, try putting the focus point onto a subject with a horizontal line, tighten the lock knob and remove your right hand from the camera and see if the focus point is still lined up with the horizontal line. With the AS, it sure does but not the BH40. However, once it\'s settled, the BH40 doesn\'t move anymore.
I bought the BH40 for its lightness and compactness to go hiking with. To this end I am not disappointed but for its locking abilities, I\'d have to say the Arca Swiss wins.
As a side note, I have never experienced the dreaded AS freeze up of the ballhead. I read somewhere a long time ago to make sure the ballhead is loose during non-usage to prevent the freeze up.
Jack
yes i have with AS B1 but not the Z as i have had no reason to need to. i had a B1 for 4 years (and that is going back 10 years) and then went to a markins M10 and now both a BH55 and 40. the B1 would move off of target often and slowly droop unless an unusual amount of locking effort was administered. the M10 i just plain retired but i have to say still required more force to lock then both my RRS heads. if you have had a B1 you would have discovered the dreaded ball lock. but it took them awhile to getting to the fix. the fix was a complete redesign of the ball geometry which is a whole lot more spheroid these days on the Z series. i shoot regularly with both the RRS heads and seem to get what i shoot at with less drama then what i had previously. so here is where we stand you have your \"facts\" and i have my \"facts\" so that being you enjoy what you got and i\'ll enjoy what i got.
you know when i took delivery of my companies first B777 back in 1998 and i put my hand on the nose gear during my maintenance walk around inspection darn i got grease on my hand. you\'d think that after buying a $164,000,000 aircraft they\'d have it perfectly clean for delivery.
you know grease is a fluid and subject to shipping and environmental changes. at least you know it got good amount of lube in it. check the inside of a D3 mirror box. it too is well lubed.
Dec 09, 2008 at 09:26 AM
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