Arca Swiss geared heads are really designed for their view cameras, 60 & 75 Leveler, and Cube (there's also another but the name escapes me). If you don't use them with a view camera then they can feel a little weird (not much movement) and seem to be missing levels but the levels are on the cameras. With a view camera, you level the head before you attach the camera. Once the camera is attached you then use the movements (rise/fall/swing/tilt) to choose your comp. Arca Swiss heads are awesome and the last you'll ever need to buy.
I gave up on the Manfrotto 410. You get play after a while. The Benro compares favourably. Now I use a big Induro ball head with nodal ninja leveller for precise gearing. Speed + precision.
with the robus, it looks similar to my sirui head, the lock knob is a tension knob, the inner control is a "limiter", stopping the lock knob from LOSTENING beyond a given value, (set by the inner knob! ).
I just bought the Arca Swiss Cube. Lots to like except those finger knobs have very sharp ridges! My finger tips were raw and painful after/during shooting a house. It might be great for studio macro work but not for real estate. And for $2045 from BH includes tax! Sending back.
with the arca head, the system is called a "micro-metric-orbix"(mmo), on their LF cameras, or just on-axis tilt, for the rest of the manufacturers, this means the focus doesn't get too far of kilter, ie, so far off, that only FILM can be focused on it, as digital is far gone by that stage, as the plane of focus/image is shifted as well, whearas on film this "base_tilt" only affects focus d.o.f. and image convergence, etc, is controlled by sensor(film) plane shifting. with the MMO this shift is effected as if the standard was on a pin in the centre of it, axialy rolling like a spinning top tipping over, so any shift is in the range digital can handle. arca swiss D4's and the "infamous" C1-cube have this tilt as well, and suprising that they were also not mentioned, as these are fabulous options (esp. for MF cameras as well, ie the Phase One XF\XT series, which are NO lightweights by any streach of imagination-inc. the IQ back and sneider Kresnag lenses in this too :-) ).
Checked with arca swiss europe today, they replied that both the leveler 60 and the 75 have just one spirit level. There seems to be some conflicting evidence around the web about that matter, and it is unclear from the specs at the arca website. They probably changed the specs of the 75 (ie they removed the spirit levels on the sides) at some point to avoid cannibalizing the cube. That fact however more or less negates the need to choose the 75 over the 60, the double spirit levels on the sides was one of the main reasons I was going to go for it instead of the 60 but now I will probably opt for the 60 to save some cash along the way...
The lens has a "nodal point" not the sensor. (The sensor has a plane.) If you rotate a visual recording device about the lens nodal point, the view remains in constant perspective with respect to parallax. Parallax is the relationship change in objects at differing distances that occurs when you use differing viewpoints; for instance if a person is hidden behind a tree you can see them if you step the left or right of your original viewpoint. In theoretical photography terms this would mean shots for panoramas or stitching connect together edge to edge very easily without repositioning the vantage point. In practical terms this almost never matters unless you are doing something like eye surgery with lasers. ;) However, the Arca as you can see attaches under the sensor not the lens node, nor is every camera/lens combo the same height, so no it does not rotate a camera around a lens node. It does mostly rotate the camera around a point in space rather than tipping it around the surface of a sphere like a common ball head so a view is mostly maintained. It's best feature is that it is a very cool thing and a wonder of build quality. The mechanical movement of camera supports is very complex and almost impossible to do perfectly symmetrically. Even a design that is theoretically spot on will have errors due to slack in the machining of the parts.
Hello Tony, great video man! I found the video I was looking for days! I'm looking to buy a 3-axis tripod head. My equipment is heavy, I have a Hasselblad digital H5D medium format camera, and as you know, they are heavy, and their lenses and accessories can weigh up to 10lbs in some cases. Which three-axis head do you recommend if I mainly do portraits? I usually use the Hasselblad tilt-shift adapter HTS 1.5, so I need precision while also being fast and practical to use. What head do you recommend that can do all this and also make vertical photography easy and secure? Thank you!
Hi, could you share whether you will buy Monoball P0+ instead if price is not a factor and if it come with one without the Acra-Swiss QR clamp. I have the Sony A7III, GM16-35mm/24-70mm/70-200mm lenses and Lee Filter 100mm system and wonder which model to buy.
@@tonyroslund Thanks again Tony! I’ve had two 410 Manfrotto heads and they are great for 6 months, then they gum up and need repairing, in my experience. The 405 may fair better, but I’m worried the design will be the same inside.
Hey Tony. Enjoying your PRO EDU course and excited to find you on TH-cam. I am doing real estate photography (for now) and I'm concerned that the cube would be a little slow for that. But I would love to have two planes for panning and the manfrotto 405 doesnt have that. So my question is have you used the Arca Swiss d4? It looks like it might be the sweet spot for real estate and hopefully sufficient if I get into architecture. I'm trying to figure out what the cube does that the D4 doesnt. The only thing I can think of is that the cube maintains the nodal point (entrance pupil?) and the d4 doesnt. Which I think I can live with. Have you used the d4? Any thoughts? Thanks!
I used to have a D4. Great head. Go for it. Alternatively you can check out the LeoFoto G4. Or, you can attach a panning clamp to any regular tripod head.
Hey, nice review. Question about the cube for architecture work: do you think the Geared Panning option is worth the extra money or is the top pano head precise enough?? Thanks
Pretty sure I said Nodal Point. And as for not understanding, I’m pretty sure it refers to the point in a lens that you can avoid parallax. I realize this is more accurately called the entrance pupil, but most people just say nodal point because they don’t know the difference. I’m trying to keep things simple here, not host a science experiment. Plus it’s what I could think of at the moment. I’m glad we have people like you to correct us. All we’re trying to do is rotate on a single axis point without moving the input to the sensor right or left. Ideally we’d get a perfect panorama stitch if that was our goal.
@@tonyroslund Nice of you to reply. Yes, the nodal point is when there is no vertical or horizontal parallax. Combine all that with a genuinely rectilinear lens (almost impossible to design) and chances are good for a perfect stitch. I made a whole series of gigabyte multicellular hdr pinhole panoramic pictures with shockingly good registration. I’ve been working with a customised Manfrotto rig for many years, and the biggest bugbear is the sheer weight of carrying it all. But it works, and the results can be heavenly.
I think Ballheads are The Worst for landscape photography. I think the 410 is aka Junior. It's good, if you don't want to do panoramas. I think it's better than any ballhead for any purpose. Mine cot $AU20 on eBay, I don't think anybody else know what they were looking at. I now use videoheads so I can do panoramas, Hudson Henry explains why.
The arca swiss are definitely NOT BOMB PROOF.... My D4 developed play after 2 years and They voided the warranty because I had kept it in my trunk. They said I needed to treat it like a precision instrument and keep it in a case when not in use.
That sucks. I’ve never seen or had one get any play. The only issues I’ve ever seen are with the spirit levels leaking from altitude pressure, which Arca replaced.
It´s a big difference, if you are using a 410 or a 405 geared tripod head: on the 410, you can´t really grab the knobs with your hands, so you adjusting the knobs more or less with your fingers...but on the 405, you can grab the knobs like a handle from a screwdriver. Also both have a different load capacity. If you are using a heavy load on both geared tripod heads, both will work fine, if you only have to adjust the level to a certain degree. But for adjustments, like 45°- 75° down, the 405 is superior because of its long knobs. So the 405 is the ultimate geared studio tripod head, and the 410 is a good travel tripod head. (I own both, so i know, what i am talking about) There are two other geared tripod heads from Manfrotto, but the biggest one is made for big format bellows cameras, and the latest one is made out of a polymere, so i only can recommend this head for small and leightweight cameragear, like a compactcamera (unfortunately, with enough force, you are able to bend the polymere with bare hands, because it is a elastic material...and yes, i own this head too) But for architecture and landscape, you will only need a leveling plate, or a geared leveling plate, like the Leofoto G2 geared panaoramaplate. The Arca Swiss Cube is probably overkill for other cameras than medium format cameras. Linhof makes a similar cube shaped geared tripod head. A ballhead is the worst tripod head for landscape. This head is only good, if you need flexibility without locking the ballhead...so you can follow and adjust your subject in your pictureframe. So it is a great tripod head for portraits. On longer lenses - 180mm upwards - you want a gimbal head , because on a ballhead, this heavy lenses or the heavy camera/lens combination will tend to tip to the sides and can damaging your ballhead.
You’re talking about the VERY old 405 head with the screwdriver type knobs, not the updated one shown in this video. It’s virtually identical to the 410, only bigger and with higher weight capacity. I also have the largest 3-way head from Manfrotto you mention for my bellows camera. But it’s kind of irrelevant these days as I’m not shooting with a bellows camera anymore.
@@tonyroslund You did misunderstood...i said you can grab the handles "like" a screwdriver handle, not it "is" like a screwdriver handle. The 405 is looking the whole time like the same, since he was indroduced. I bought him few months after that in the year 2002 and i didn´t regret it for a second. The only difference to the current 405 heads are the different Manfrotto logos on the plasticcups with the scales. But besides that, there is no difference to the current 405 picture on the Manfrotto homepage. My 405 head doesn´t have that cups anymore, because i had to put on new grease on the gear mechanism. I didn´t need them anyways, because i did always adjust the head with looking through the viewfinder from my cameras.
Arca Swiss geared heads are really designed for their view cameras, 60 & 75 Leveler, and Cube (there's also another but the name escapes me). If you don't use them with a view camera then they can feel a little weird (not much movement) and seem to be missing levels but the levels are on the cameras. With a view camera, you level the head before you attach the camera. Once the camera is attached you then use the movements (rise/fall/swing/tilt) to choose your comp. Arca Swiss heads are awesome and the last you'll ever need to buy.
Fantastic video and just what I was looking for. Thanks Tony!
I gave up on the Manfrotto 410. You get play after a while. The Benro compares favourably. Now I use a big Induro ball head with nodal ninja leveller for precise gearing. Speed + precision.
...and I’ve never kept a Gitzo head. Price doesn’t always mean quality.
I now use the benro in preference to the Manfrotto
Good to see you back Tony. Thanks.
Always good to hear from you Andrew. Thanks for continuing to tune in.
with the robus, it looks similar to my sirui head, the lock knob is a tension knob, the inner control is a "limiter", stopping the lock knob from LOSTENING beyond a given value, (set by the inner knob! ).
I use a 405 Manfrotto with a Phase One XF and a Cambo Wide Rs. It’s good enough.
405 is a good head! A great pairing with that Cambo/Phase combo.
Always love the way you explain Tony! Cheers 🍻 🤙🏼
Very sympathetic, well explained, well done. Thx a lot.
I just bought the Arca Swiss Cube. Lots to like except those finger knobs have very sharp ridges! My finger tips were raw and painful after/during shooting a house. It might be great for studio macro work but not for real estate. And for $2045 from BH includes tax! Sending back.
Great video, have seen some heads that are not covered by others. Only head i missing is the gimbal for wildlife and birding photography.
Awesome review, looking forward more to come :)
Tony, you’re awesome. Thank you
You’re awesome! And you’re welcome
Nothing wrong with the Benro geared head. They also support the very popular Arca Swiss style release plates
I’ve found the Benro stuff gets loose over time, then you’re fighting with play. Unfortunately I’ve seen it happen multiple times with them.
with the arca head, the system is called a "micro-metric-orbix"(mmo), on their LF cameras, or just on-axis tilt, for the rest of the manufacturers, this means the focus doesn't get too far of kilter, ie, so far off, that only FILM can be focused on it, as digital is far gone by that stage, as the plane of focus/image is shifted as well, whearas on film this "base_tilt" only affects focus d.o.f. and image convergence, etc, is controlled by sensor(film) plane shifting.
with the MMO this shift is effected as if the standard was on a pin in the centre of it, axialy rolling like a spinning top tipping over, so any shift is in the range digital can handle.
arca swiss D4's and the "infamous" C1-cube have this tilt as well, and suprising that they were also not mentioned, as these are fabulous options (esp. for MF cameras as well, ie the Phase One XF\XT series, which are NO lightweights by any streach of imagination-inc. the IQ back and sneider Kresnag lenses in this too :-) ).
Checked with arca swiss europe today, they replied that both the leveler 60 and the 75 have just one spirit level. There seems to be some conflicting evidence around the web about that matter, and it is unclear from the specs at the arca website. They probably changed the specs of the 75 (ie they removed the spirit levels on the sides) at some point to avoid cannibalizing the cube. That fact however more or less negates the need to choose the 75 over the 60, the double spirit levels on the sides was one of the main reasons I was going to go for it instead of the 60 but now I will probably opt for the 60 to save some cash along the way...
I agree with your logic.
The lens has a "nodal point" not the sensor. (The sensor has a plane.) If you rotate a visual recording device about the lens nodal point, the view remains in constant perspective with respect to parallax. Parallax is the relationship change in objects at differing distances that occurs when you use differing viewpoints; for instance if a person is hidden behind a tree you can see them if you step the left or right of your original viewpoint.
In theoretical photography terms this would mean shots for panoramas or stitching connect together edge to edge very easily without repositioning the vantage point. In practical terms this almost never matters unless you are doing something like eye surgery with lasers. ;)
However, the Arca as you can see attaches under the sensor not the lens node, nor is every camera/lens combo the same height, so no it does not rotate a camera around a lens node. It does mostly rotate the camera around a point in space rather than tipping it around the surface of a sphere like a common ball head so a view is mostly maintained. It's best feature is that it is a very cool thing and a wonder of build quality.
The mechanical movement of camera supports is very complex and almost impossible to do perfectly symmetrically. Even a design that is theoretically spot on will have errors due to slack in the machining of the parts.
Hello Tony, great video man! I found the video I was looking for days! I'm looking to buy a 3-axis tripod head.
My equipment is heavy, I have a Hasselblad digital H5D medium format camera, and as you know, they are heavy, and their lenses and accessories can weigh up to 10lbs in some cases.
Which three-axis head do you recommend if I mainly do portraits? I usually use the Hasselblad tilt-shift adapter HTS 1.5, so I need precision while also being fast and practical to use. What head do you recommend that can do all this and also make vertical photography easy and secure? Thank you!
have the 801113 Monoball Z1dp quickset classic. Is this good for architecture photography?
Hi, could you share whether you will buy Monoball P0+ instead if price is not a factor and if it come with one without the Acra-Swiss QR clamp. I have the Sony A7III, GM16-35mm/24-70mm/70-200mm lenses and Lee Filter 100mm system and wonder which model to buy.
Thanks Tony, a great variety of heads on display! Which would you use with a long (wind catching) lens please?
The cube is pretty legit. It’s a big beefy thing. But the 405 would also hold up well at a fraction of the price.
@@tonyroslund Thanks again Tony! I’ve had two 410 Manfrotto heads and they are great for 6 months, then they gum up and need repairing, in my experience. The 405 may fair better, but I’m worried the design will be the same inside.
Tony, could you give more details on the padded cover you use for the Cube? Did you make it yourself or do Arca make one?
It’s from my Really Right Stuff BH-55 head.
Hey Tony. Enjoying your PRO EDU course and excited to find you on TH-cam. I am doing real estate photography (for now) and I'm concerned that the cube would be a little slow for that. But I would love to have two planes for panning and the manfrotto 405 doesnt have that. So my question is have you used the Arca Swiss d4? It looks like it might be the sweet spot for real estate and hopefully sufficient if I get into architecture. I'm trying to figure out what the cube does that the D4 doesnt. The only thing I can think of is that the cube maintains the nodal point (entrance pupil?) and the d4 doesnt. Which I think I can live with. Have you used the d4? Any thoughts? Thanks!
I used to have a D4. Great head. Go for it. Alternatively you can check out the LeoFoto G4. Or, you can attach a panning clamp to any regular tripod head.
@@tonyroslund Thanks!
Hey, nice review. Question about the cube for architecture work: do you think the Geared Panning option is worth the extra money or is the top pano head precise enough?? Thanks
No. It’s a “nice to have” feature, but honestly once you’ve got the head dialed to that point, rotating the top pan freely isn’t a huge deal.
Nodal point....?
That’s what I said. But not sure if that’s correct. Lol
That’s the entry point of the lens
Oh, no tripod video, no further videos? Something is wrong….
A node point is not what you say it is - can be Googled ......
I’m not saying Node point. Thanks for watching though.
@@tonyroslund You did say “node point” without actually understanding what one is in relation to using a tripod.
Pretty sure I said Nodal Point. And as for not understanding, I’m pretty sure it refers to the point in a lens that you can avoid parallax. I realize this is more accurately called the entrance pupil, but most people just say nodal point because they don’t know the difference. I’m trying to keep things simple here, not host a science experiment. Plus it’s what I could think of at the moment. I’m glad we have people like you to correct us. All we’re trying to do is rotate on a single axis point without moving the input to the sensor right or left. Ideally we’d get a perfect panorama stitch if that was our goal.
@@tonyroslund Nice of you to reply. Yes, the nodal point is when there is no vertical or horizontal parallax. Combine all that with a genuinely rectilinear lens (almost impossible to design) and chances are good for a perfect stitch. I made a whole series of gigabyte multicellular hdr pinhole panoramic pictures with shockingly good registration. I’ve been working with a customised Manfrotto rig for many years, and the biggest bugbear is the sheer weight of carrying it all. But it works, and the results can be heavenly.
I think Ballheads are The Worst for landscape photography. I think the 410 is aka Junior. It's good, if you don't want to do panoramas. I think it's better than any ballhead for any purpose. Mine cot $AU20 on eBay, I don't think anybody else know what they were looking at.
I now use videoheads so I can do panoramas, Hudson Henry explains why.
The arca swiss are definitely NOT BOMB PROOF.... My D4 developed play after 2 years and They voided the warranty because I had kept it in my trunk. They said I needed to treat it like a precision instrument and keep it in a case when not in use.
That sucks. I’ve never seen or had one get any play. The only issues I’ve ever seen are with the spirit levels leaking from altitude pressure, which Arca replaced.
It´s a big difference, if you are using a 410 or a 405 geared tripod head: on the 410, you can´t really grab the knobs with your hands, so you adjusting the knobs more or less with your fingers...but on the 405, you can grab the knobs like a handle from a screwdriver. Also both have a different load capacity. If you are using a heavy load on both geared tripod heads, both will work fine, if you only have to adjust the level to a certain degree. But for adjustments, like 45°- 75° down, the 405 is superior because of its long knobs. So the 405 is the ultimate geared studio tripod head, and the 410 is a good travel tripod head. (I own both, so i know, what i am talking about)
There are two other geared tripod heads from Manfrotto, but the biggest one is made for big format bellows cameras, and the latest one is made out of a polymere, so i only can recommend this head for small and leightweight cameragear, like a compactcamera (unfortunately, with enough force, you are able to bend the polymere with bare hands, because it is a elastic material...and yes, i own this head too)
But for architecture and landscape, you will only need a leveling plate, or a geared leveling plate, like the Leofoto G2 geared panaoramaplate. The Arca Swiss Cube is probably overkill for other cameras than medium format cameras. Linhof makes a similar cube shaped geared tripod head.
A ballhead is the worst tripod head for landscape. This head is only good, if you need flexibility without locking the ballhead...so you can follow and adjust your subject in your pictureframe. So it is a great tripod head for portraits. On longer lenses - 180mm upwards - you want a gimbal head , because on a ballhead, this heavy lenses or the heavy camera/lens combination will tend to tip to the sides and can damaging your ballhead.
You’re talking about the VERY old 405 head with the screwdriver type knobs, not the updated one shown in this video. It’s virtually identical to the 410, only bigger and with higher weight capacity. I also have the largest 3-way head from Manfrotto you mention for my bellows camera. But it’s kind of irrelevant these days as I’m not shooting with a bellows camera anymore.
@@tonyroslund You did misunderstood...i said you can grab the handles "like" a screwdriver handle, not it "is" like a screwdriver handle. The 405 is looking the whole time like the same, since he was indroduced. I bought him few months after that in the year 2002 and i didn´t regret it for a second.
The only difference to the current 405 heads are the different Manfrotto logos on the plasticcups with the scales. But besides that, there is no difference to the current 405 picture on the Manfrotto homepage.
My 405 head doesn´t have that cups anymore, because i had to put on new grease on the gear mechanism. I didn´t need them anyways, because i did always adjust the head with looking through the viewfinder from my cameras.