Pictures of a bargain price ballhead - Smicth Victor BH8

I came across this low price ballhead from Amazon, but could only find very few pictures of it online. I don't use my tripod setup much, so don't qualify to wright any meaningful review, but lets have some fun with the pictures in case someone is researching for it.

Search Amazon.com will fine this baby for under $60.

Looks well made. Good find.

Was about to order this until I noticed shipping and handling cost more than the head. Tried Amazon.co.uk and Ebay.co.uk but it looks like no one in the UK sells it.

Nice shots Lotto.

I have this as well. It's definitely the best bang for the buck. Mate it with Slik 700DX and have to say it's the most solid pod combo under $150. With the money saved, I purchased high end ND filter. In the end, it's the picture that counts. Here are couple of long exposure shots taken at the beach recently.

Be careful, I feel that you get what you pay for. While this head may work for a time, I suspect that either the inferior metal or construction will mean throwing away $60 that you could have applied to a better head.

I remember that when Benro first came out with a ballhead, someone took it apart and sawed it in half to show very shotty construction. They since have improved the head and raised the price.

If I'm wrong, I'd like to know, so post after using this head regularly for a year.

I've been using a £20 ballhead for 2 years and had no problems. Sometimes stuff's cheap because it's crap but that's not always the case. Almost everything costs more than it's retail price to manufacturer, maybe some makers are greedier than others when it comes to mark up.

The Ran wrote in post #13049434
Was about to order this until I noticed shipping and handling cost more than the head. Tried Amazon.co.uk and Ebay.co.uk but it looks like no one in the UK sells it.

Can't be certain but it looks like one of the Triopo range that has been re-badged. I have the little Triopo RS3 (£30 on a certain auction site) that easily holds anything Canon currently make. Add a QR clamp (I use one from CGUK on same site) and you have a nice setup for under £55.

You should see if you can buy a lens plate so that your 70-200 will mount to the ball head via the tripod foot, instead of using the camera's tripod plate. You'll get much better balance.

He was just doing that to test the balls holding strength, I'm sure he usually uses the foot.

Looking around on Ebay I found two Triopo heads similar to this one, the B-4 with a holding capacity of 20kg and a 54mm ball for £95 which was a bit much for me and probably overkill, and the NB-3S which holds 12kg with a 43.5mm ball for £50 which I ordered along with an extra plate for £10. I was looking at Triopo copies of the Flashpoint F3 but they were only about £20 cheaper for a much smaller ball and I don't think any friction control.

Has anyone tested this with other arca-swiss plates?

I was looking at this awhile back, because I need a cheap tripod and bullhead for use as legs for my motion capture rail system. However, I'd like to have a ballhead on there that's arca-swiss so that it's compatible with my real legs and gear too.

The Ran wrote in post #13054159
He was just doing that to test the balls holding strength, I'm sure he usually uses the foot.

Looking around on Ebay I found two Triopo heads similar to this one, the B-4 with a holding capacity of 20kg and a 54mm ball for £95 which was a bit much for me and probably overkill, and the NB-3S which holds 12kg with a 43.5mm ball for £50 which I ordered along with an extra plate for £10. I was looking at Triopo copies of the Flashpoint F3 but they were only about £20 cheaper for a much smaller ball and I don't think any friction control.

The RS3 I mentioned has no friction/panning control. I bought it because it was cheap and light. The RS series (models 1,2+3) from Triopo use a different locking system, according to them. I find the lack of two out of three controls of little consequence to me - what I do like is the lockup. I bought it to support a maximum load of a 5D + 24-105 and found it so good that, just for a giggle, I tried it with my Canon 600 F4IS + 1D4 which the RS3 holds with ease. Unfortunately my Gitzos are not rigid enough to test this head and my gear is too light - now if I could get hold of a 1200 F5.6, that should really test it, and my nerve

Thanks for looking, guys.

Jay, thanks for the heads up. I knew from the start that there is no way to produce a head that has the quality of RRS or Markins for $60. I shoot portraits and studio stuff for most part, and find that using tripods slows me down. My new 7D's video part leads me back to tripod setup, and I would also like to explore the AS compatible plates and brackets, so I hope by trying this ballhead to convince myself to using the tripod more, and finally justify to upgrade my 15 year old Slik with pan head Anyway, I am afraid that it will take lot longer for me to cross the finish line of " normal year worth of usage", but I can report if anything breaks.

The main reason I chose to try out this head is the ball size. The lens gave me the most headache is the 24-70L in portrait position. With the other ballheads that I tried, including a friends 49xRC2, I had to crank down hard to keep the head from creeping. From my limited testing, if there's scale of 1-10 and 10 being the tightening nob at as far as it can goes in, at 5~6 position will hold the L lens and body solidly. I mean I could push camera body on one side till it starts to flex, and the ball still won't move, exactly the kind of overkill I was looking for.

Todd Lambert wrote in post #13054164
Has anyone tested this with other arca-swiss plates?

I was looking at this awhile back, because I need a cheap tripod and bullhead for use as legs for my motion capture rail system. However, I'd like to have a ballhead on there that's arca-swiss so that it's compatible with my real legs and gear too.

I don't have another AS plate yet, but I measured the opening of the BH8 clamp, 38mm-41.5mm, is within the AS spec that I could find online. From the B&H and such selling side, some buyer reviews reported that it works with other AS plates. Though one review states that the BH8 clamp does not open wide enough so the other plates can not installed from the top, but sliding in from the side is OK.

Lotto, yeah.. that's what I'd read and was concerned about. It's awfully hard to slide in sideways, in the dark, but if it's the only cheap option that is decent in other regards, I might be willing to make that sacrifice.

Glad to know it's following arca-swiss format - sure wish more MFGs would.

I'm with tvphotog in believing that you get what you pay for. It'd be interesting to see how these cheap heads hold up after several years of use and in all types of inclement weather (rain, snow, etc.) and challenging climates (water, desert, ocean). I paid quite a bit more for a Markins head, but in three years its been through hell and still going quite strong...simple cleaning is all that's been needed.

Have a link? I do not see it on Amazon