A tripod head is one of the most important pieces of equipment a photographer can own. Most photographers start with cheap, shoddily built tripods with integrated heads, sometimes bought as part of a kit. While they don’t know it, these tripods aren’t worth their weight in plastic, which is a fancy way of saying they’re worthless.
3Pod has unveiled the Everest Series, a new line of carbon fiber tripods and accessories designed for photographers and videographers. The Everest Series comprises two four-section compact carbon fiber tripods and a pair of accompanying Arca-Type ball heads.
ProMaster's Air Support Monopods are designed with a primary focus on speed and ease of use. Forgoing typical twist or clip locks, the system instead uses a single-button system that's way simpler.
I just don't get excited about tripods anymore. Sure, there are some clever designs every now and again, but they all basically play on the same ideas. But with the X-Aircross F38, I was giggling with joy because this tripod is just so darn cool.
The makers of the Platypod have launched their latest product, and it promises to turn the tripod world upside down... literally. It's called the Platyball, and it's an inverted ball head with some really interesting design choices and features.
The Denver-based tripod maker Colorado Tripod Company has announced the world's first hollow titanium ballhead. It's called the Highline Ballhead Titanium, and it's designed to be ultra-light, ultra-strong, and ultra-versatile.
If you've got some money to burn and you're looking for a versatile new tripod head, put Novoflex's ClassicBall heads on your list. The creatively designed ball heads are actually 'reversible,' giving you a ball head and a leveling panorama panning base all-in-one.
Most still shooters use a ball head mount on their tripod, but photographer Hudson Henry wants you to reconsider. As he explains in the video above, using a fluid head built primarily for videographers will give you a lot more versatility.
This will probably be of limited interest to most of you, but we like to know how things work, not just how well they work. We thought we’d take a couple of pictures when we disassembled a ballhead in case any of you were interested. Our demonstration partner today was a Benro B1 ballhead that had a stripped tension adjustment knob, but all ballheads work basically the same way.
There's a video demonstration of a Chinese military shovel that's becoming quite popular on YouTube. Induro's PHQ-Series tripod heads are similar in that they seem to do a little of everything. These are a cross between flexible ball-heads and accurate pan-heads, offer five directions of precise control (quintaxial positioning), and are equipped with five different bubble levels to help you adjust. Want to take 3D photographs? There's a feature for that.