Markins Q3 Q-Ball vs Acratech Ultimate

I'm looking at purchasing a second BH for dedicated use on my Sky Tracker. FWIW, my current BH is an Arca Swiss BH1. Looking on Craigslist in my area the two BH's listed are available at approx. the same price, with the Markins going for $200 and the Acratech $175 and both appear to be in good/great shape . I'm looking to see if anyone has experience with either or both of these and could help steer me in one direction or the other. Let me know if you need any further info and thanks for your help.

I had three Markins Q3T heads and still have one of them. They are very well made and finished, smooth in operation and without question they're a quality product. Some people have issues with the panning knob not locking ball housing rotation properly but it's really only an issue if you've got the head at an angle such that the weight of a lens can cause the ballhead to rotate on it's base. If you live in a cold climate the ballhead binds and can ultimately lock up. They're great ballheads but they can be finicky to use.

I now use three Acratech heads; an Ultimate, a GP and a GP Ultimate. These are also of excellent construction and finish and are designed to be more-or-less maintenance free. They're great if you shoot in extreme environments like severe cold, shore & sandy beaches, high winds and so on. If one gets mucky you just run it under a faucet and the open design facilitates the water just sluicing the dirt out. So far mine have not locked up in the winter and we had a bad one this year (I live in Boston).

I prefer the Acratechs because I never have to worry about taking care of them. They look weird but they really do work well when conditions get difficult and I particularly like the GP type of model that has a built-in leveling base feature that's just really useful. Also the company will honor a warranty whether you're the first owner or the tenth.

Peter, thanks for the thorough response! From your experience, going either way will work, but lean towards the Acratech as the better choice. This is exactly the type of response I was hoping for. Thanks so much!

J-Blake wrote in post #17648594
Peter, thanks for the thorough response! From your experience, going either way will work, but lean towards the Acratech as the better choice. This is exactly the type of response I was hoping for. Thanks so much!

i've never used the acratech, but have the markins q3t, and a rrs 50. the markins is definitely significantly silkier moving around. i wouldn't be surprised if it has the smoothest action in any head. and as blake mentioned, the panning knob SUCKS HARD. you really have to crank that thing mad hard otherwise while moving your camera around, with any kind of resistance, it will turn the head. markins' argument about vibration is the biggest pile of crap ever.

so.... mixed review from me on the markins. it certainly has one of the silkiest actions there is, if not the most. but the panning thing is annoying enough that i wouldn't mind downgrading to something like rrs that's a bit stickier, but at least won't be panning around unintentionally.

I've used all major brands.

Markins has the silkiest movement. Never had a problem.

RRS BH40 not the greatest. Never tried BH55 but people seem to like it.

Arca Swiss P0 has great silky movement but no tension control. Seemed like a more delicate design.

Acratech has worst movement but if it fell in mud I wouldn't be worried.

For my stuff the Markins are a great compromise. If I was purely shooting in extreme weather it would be Acratech. My Markins has been to the beach several times and I never had issue but I've never thrown it in the sand or submerged it in water.

As for panning on Markins. I feel like they may have silently improved this. My latest Q3T seems to lock it's pan better. I would call to confirm.

Also with Markins they now sell a panning clamp that integrates directly with the ball head. It pushes the weight up around 30 grams more than the Acratech but it is a superior setup in my option.

Funny, of all the heads I have used the Markins is the best to use with a wimberly sidekick, which means it's the best at panning with a heavy load (500mm)

I've not used an Acratech outside of a store. Someday I would like to own one for a while, but my Markins is not over a decade old and still going strong. It's seen some serious tough conditions too.