Please suggestion on tripod head

rjalex wrote in post #10060336
Thank you all. I will try to summarize all the advice I have received:
a) ballheads are the most versatile heads and are less bulky/heavy than others, good for traveling (I will not hike often). Heads such as Markins M10, RRS BH-55 or BH-40 or Kirk BH-1 would eliminate the slippage through a larger head and better design.

b) different head designs such as the Manfrotto 410 geared head would seem a better choice when framing precision is important but of course would be larger/heavier (as a side note I am displeased by the fact that judging from the pictures of it the 410 would seem unusable to shoot panos without some adapter since the screw is off the rotation center). Something like the Manfrotto 804RC2 head would be a similar alternative if I understand correctly.

c) I feel an L plate would be very useful whether I stick to the ball head or not. I still have some confusion here on the compatibility of the aforementioned heads and the L plates.

So now got to get the calculator out and figure out a sustainable combination of head and body plates.

Thank you all
Bob

An astute summary. Panos would appear to be a problem.

http://www.pbase.com/f​itzdocs/manfrotto_410

An L plate.... maybe not necessary, depending on frequency of use and size/length of attached lens.

You could try minimizing the weight when shooting in the notch position...ditching the grip would be my first recommendation before spending any money on a new ballhead.

Touch my car, touch my laptop, touch my bottom, but don't touch my grip ! I really need the longer battery and vertical shooting of the grip. You think that relatively low weight plus the fact it's so close to the rotation center can really make e difference ? The protruding 100mm seems to be so much more important.
Thanks
Bob

Are you mounting the camera to the ballhead, or are you using a tripod collar on the 100 macro? If not, using a tripod collar would balance the load more evenly on the ballhead and remove most of the cantilevering effect that's causing the droop/sag.

Good point. I am using only the hole in the BG, no collar. But as I also had some sag with the 50 and putting a collar to that is as hard as collaring a bumblebee , I think I 'll look into stronger/stabler alternatives. Another point in which the system might be "loose" is the head screw to camera/grip base. When I use the ball horizontally (in the notch) as I am not screwing extra hard in fear of damaging the lower part of the body (sounds kinky) some of the droop/sag might be induced by some "torque" of the camera on the screw ? Would a body plate be better in this respect ?

Thank you,
Bob

A body plate would most likely help, provided that it has an anti-rotation flange built into it (RRS plates have this feature). Its basically a "lip" along one edge that has been machined into the plate which extends over the edge of the camera base once it has been attached. If you go this route, you'd need an Arca-Swiss compatible clamp as well. However, this will only work if in fact the camera/grip/lens combo is drooping around the connection point. If the ball itself is slipping inside the housing, that's another story altogether.

The best solution would probably be to invest in a new head with an A-S clamp. The RRS-BH40, Markins M-10 are two that I'd recommend (you may even be able to go smaller, depending on your gear). But the larger heads have larger balls, and the increase in surface area will provide more holding force. They're also better able to resist torque when you have a load flopped over into the notch.