Bogen/Manfrotto 3055 head.. complaints?

[Kintama]

Have any of you used the 3055 head it's a larger ball head but also has a 360 degree panning ability when the ball is locked.... curious if anyone has had problems at all with this because I just bought it... It seems like exactly what I want.

Normal ball head won't allow me to make wide stitched shots (with ease), and the 3 axis type of heads won't allow me to put the cam where I want it on all 3 axis's and then lock quick, so the 3055 has the best of both worlds... and it's rated for 15.4 pounds of equip on it. Even better it was $50.

The only down side I see so far is that darn monster hex shaped plate. I wouldn't want that damn thing on the camera all the time and have it poking me in the chest if cam is on my neck strap. :-/ However admittedly it's just about as big as the vertical grip so it doesn't seem all that bad. And I know it's better to have the larger size anyway.

Unfortunately the tripod I got to use it with (3001Bpro) has a busted clamp so I won't be testing this for a couple days. (Wish they'd rethink those clamps, I can't belive the number of times I've got bitten by the vicious thing.)

James

[Jonathan H]

I have one and I like it plenty... my 30D/grip and 70-200 2.8 live on it. Thinking about selling it and upgrading to a Kirk, but only for L-bracket functionality. If anyone wants it, e-mail me. Same price as Kintama paid, $50 (plus $5 shipping)

[JWright]

I'll echo your sentiments about the plate on the 3055. I have one and I don't use it anymore. I can see it if you were shooting with a medium or large format film camera, but not for the current crop of DSLR's. A better head that has a separate panning control is the Manfrotto 488RC2 ball head. This has the smaller plate than can be left on the camera all the time.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/272779-REG/Bogen_Manfrotto_488RC2_488RC2_Midi_Ball_Head.html