A warning for owners of manfrotto ball heads

I was doing a shoot the other day and disconnected my camera from the tripod and loosened up the knob that tightens down the ballhead.

Don't do that.

The knob backed out and was never to be found after hours of searching - leaving me with a flaccid ballhead. Forever. Or until I paid manfrotto a ridiculous price for a new one. Or so I thought.

My solution was to just go to the hardware store and get an M8 bolt that was long enough - the same size as the manfrotto one, but a much bigger PITA to use. I've since wrapped the head of the bolt in gaffer tape so I have a pseudo knob to grab onto.


So, before you put away those ballheads, make sure that they are clamped down securely or the bolt that tightens it up might back out on itself. Thankfully the solution is cheap - 90 cents plus tape, but a bit uglier than the stock manfrotto piece.

I have a 488rc2 for anyone who was wondering, it might be different on other models though.

It's the little knob with the arrow on it that says BALL LOCK, closest to you:

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This is hardly unique to manfrotto ball heads.

BTW, you should be able to find a proper knob with an M8 threaded shank so it won't look as ugly.

hey. it gives you credibility, it sort of says , hey look ive used this thing so much im losing parts...thats how good of a photographer i am LOL....faulty logic in there....

I've never had the need to loosen the ball lock knob on my 488RC2 more than a half turn. I've never had the knob loosen itself any more by itself, though I seldom - if ever - leave it loose at the end of a session. I don't see why anyone would want to leave the knob loose, as mounting the camera for the next session would be more difficult that way. In addition, putting the tripod into a case with a loose ball head would be more difficult than if the head was set straight up and tightened so it would not fall over.

SkipD wrote in post #10254723
I've never had the need to loosen the ball lock knob on my 488RC2 more than a half turn.

Same here!

I really don’t like the newfangled newer style Manfrotto offset heads with the big knob. Really like the older tommy-bar type of which I must have collected half a dozen on ebay over the years.

Simon_Gardner wrote in post #10254836
I really don’t like the newfangled newer style Manfrotto offset heads with the big knob. Really like the older tommy-bar type of which I must have collected half a dozen on ebay over the years.

What is a "tommy-bar"?

SkipD wrote in post #10254723
I've never had the need to loosen the ball lock knob on my 488RC2 more than a half turn. I've never had the knob loosen itself any more by itself, though I seldom - if ever - leave it loose at the end of a session. I don't see why anyone would want to leave the knob loose, as mounting the camera for the next session would be more difficult that way. In addition, putting the tripod into a case with a loose ball head would be more difficult than if the head was set straight up and tightened so it would not fall over.

My thoughts exactly.

SkipD wrote in post #10254723
I've never had the need to loosen the ball lock knob on my 488RC2 more than a half turn. I've never had the knob loosen itself any more by itself, though I seldom - if ever - leave it loose at the end of a session. I don't see why anyone would want to leave the knob loose, as mounting the camera for the next session would be more difficult that way. In addition, putting the tripod into a case with a loose ball head would be more difficult than if the head was set straight up and tightened so it would not fall over.

Hit the nail on the head here. OP: why on earth were you unscrewing the tightening knob so much? I have never even come close to loosening a ballhead knob so much that I thought I might be anywhere near where it might come off. Come to think of it I just assumed they couldnt be taken off.

I didnt unscrew it more than half a turn- as soon as it is backed out just a tiny bit it is very easy for it to become unthreaded.

Never had it happen with either of my 486s or my 488.