The ultimate tripod ball head?

Came across this flipping through a Popular Science from October of last year. It is a really interesting idea that they are looking to use for ball joints in prosthetic limbs and robots, but man it would make for a killer ball head with zero creep!

http://www.popsci.com …cle/2008-10/lock-and-roll

http://www.medicalbion​ics.com/tech1.php

I'm amazed it's taken us so long to think up such a simple idea!

awesome.

I wonder how precisely it locks at the position you want. I'm sure it holds tight once locked, but does it lock at exactly position you're holding the load when you lock it? It looks like there might be just enough play between the pins and the nubs to shift slightly on lockup.

mike_d wrote in post #10206752
I wonder how precisely it locks at the position you want. I'm sure it holds tight once locked, but does it lock at exactly position you're holding the load when you lock it? It looks like there might be just enough play between the pins and the nubs to shift slightly on lockup.

My question also.

Ball joint concept is cheap simple and effective this thing looks like a headache...overcomplic​ated solution for a simple problem. I can see where it may have it's benefits but surely it's prohibitively expensive.

Thought this going to be a thread on the ultimate ball head by acratech lol

Always the nay sayers to change and new technology...

rjx wrote in post #11447668
Thought this going to be a thread on the ultimate ball head by acratech lol

I saw my friends, it is pretty nice but I still love my RRS BH-55 with PCL-1 panning clamp, worth every single penny, held up to my 500mm at the civil war reenactment. But that medical stuff is pretty sweet.

ssracer wrote in post #7312122
Came across this flipping through a Popular Science from October of last year. It is a really interesting idea that they are looking to use for ball joints in prosthetic limbs and robots, but man it would make for a killer ball head with zero creep!

http://www.popsci.com …cle/2008-10/lock-and-roll

http://www.medicalbion​ics.com/tech1.php

If you could manually "loosen" the pins then relock them in the desired position I could see this working, but avoiding any play is unlikely...

That would be too cool to use lol

Setting a self timer and propping the camera on a wall or fence works just fine for me.

nice idea, I wonder who is working on it for us?

Mr B Snappy wrote in post #7312199
I'm amazed it's taken us so long to think up such a simple idea!

...are you involved with the design?

Looked at this again, I don't know if it would work in some of the dirty environments we find ourselves in.