Arca Swiss Z1 ball head

[Jase]

I've been meaning to replace my tripod head for ages and was going to get the Really Right Stuff but ordering from the US has put me off (that and I want something for Christmas, lol).

I'm just about to order an Arca Swiss Monoball Z1 SP with Fliplock but before I do I was wondering if anyone uses one and how do they rate it? I don't have a chance to try before buying so don't want to make a mistake.

I tried some Gitzo heads today but didn't like them.

Cheers

 

[DanF]

Yeah it's a really nice ballhead, I've had one for a few years now and been very happy with it. I went for the screw lock adapter instead of the quick release, it's barely any slower to use and you get to make sure it's tight. There's some info about it on dpreview forums and some reviews.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/thread/1855368
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Arca-Swiss-Monoball-Z1-Ballhead-Review.aspx

Just watch out for some of the comments on it. The initial ones where slightly different and also people where expecting the pan lock to be stronger but it'd designed not to be. It's not designed to be tightened to the extent where you can use it to unscrew from the base plate by grabbing the top like some try to do. I've not used the bh55 but imagine they will both do the job more than well enough.

 

[Jase]

Thanks for the reply, I actually ordered one last night so it should arrive tomorrow