Ball, 3-Way, Geared and Gimbal: Why choosing the right tripod head matters

We take a look at the different types of tripod head you can buy. What is a ball head used for? When would you use a geared tripod head and what's so special about gimbal heads? We explain it all. Watch our other tripod videos too:
Best Travel Tripods: • DPReview TV: Travel Tr...
Video vs. Photo Tripods: • Video tripods and flui...
Music provided by BeatSuite.com
www.beatsuite.com
Special thanks to Maple Bacon Photography for the use of their Benro geared head
www.maplebaconphotography.ca
Other tripod heads supplied by The Camera Store
www.thecamerastore.com
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[@bburchellphotos]

I made in 50% of the way through the video before I ended up in hospital due to Chris' drinking game suggestion.

[@karolykrausz5534]

So I have just spent almost 10 minutes listening to a guy talking about balls and heads.

[@danieldougan269]

I'm surprised there was not a segment with Jordan talking about fluid heads for video.

[@FlyFishFairwx]

Did you forget to bring a fluid head, the king of all heads.. ???? They are better that the gimble for BIF and landscape and every thing else, check out a pro Hudson Henry he can show you how it is done.

[@SuperSuperka]

DPReview is crazy wrong about using 3-way head. The right way is 1.Unlock horisontal pan lock. 2. put your hands to two other locks (handles), unlock them simulteniously (it just slight turn) and compose the shot (keeping holding for handles) with all three axis unlocked. When you composed, just slight rotation to lock two handles, then lock the horisontal. In reality it so much easy to do, it super-convinient. Because after composing the shot you can easily fix (if needed) your horizon seperatly.

[@pmc7105]

Panoramic heads? Video heads? Would have been interesting to learn about those too, I know next to nothing about them.

[@georgestancl2283]

Since you announced the beginning of the drinking game i counted 31 heads. If each head would be a shot of 4cl (1.35256 oz) it would make 124 cl which is 1.24 liters of alcohol ( 41.9294 oz ) .. of course not every alchohol weights the same so lets just use water for the sake of universality. 1.24 liters = 1.24kg (2.733732 lbs) that leaves us to a final conversion which is 62% of the weight of NOCT.

[@costafilh0]

38 HEADS LATER 🙃

[@JayVardhanSingh]

Please do a video on lighting also. Thank you.

[@sclogse1]

Issue with these ball heads and padded plates. You can't get complete snug with the plate and a camera body, especially noticable with a long lens or a medium lens like a vintage pentax 135mm 2.8 that is a real tank but not very big. No amount of plate tightening or ball head tightening stops the camera and lens from tilting down a bit after you let the camera go. You have to loosen the ball, raise the angle of the lens a bit higher than you want, retighten, and then see where it drops too after. This is no way to run an army. You're stuck changing the angle by lifting or lowering the camera and lens, thrn while holding it, tightening the ball head. Then you let go, and the camera and lens droop down a few degrees, making you crazy. My K&F concept is a perfect example.

[@mipmipmipmipmip]

Just in time for father's day we have Chris presenting us with a lot of head.

[@bartjeej]

Jordan's finishing of the cold open had me cracking up :-D

[@kilohotel6750]

I used my Pentax 645Z with my gimbal head. The design of the Pentax being able to put a small arca swiss plate on both the vertical and horizontal not needing a L bracket made it work perfect on the gimbal. With the addition of a leveling base it was the perfect setup for when I wanted to shoot wildlife with a 600mm F4 or shoot landscape with the 645.

[@monstrok]

Finally, a video about the most most important part of any tripod or monopod: the interface to the camera! Thanks!

[@comeraczy2483]

743 but i ran out of beer afert 2 munites. If I got things right, Chris' take on a good head favours big balls and a single small knob over heavy and large equipment that defies gravity.

[@nageshwaradhikarla950]

Thank you for explaining it so well.

[@EricOuellet2]

Great Videos!!!!! So nice to have quick reviews and nice roundup once in a while!!! Excellent work! Thank you very much!!!

[@alphanimal]

My personal choice is a fluid head with a levelling tripod (bowl head)

[@janette99]

Hands down the best opening I've ever seen on a TH-cam video - nice one!

[@MrPhilbautista]

You guys forgot to include Jordan's favorite head, a fluid head. And if you're including gimbal heads in the niche factor, you could've included Panoramic heads, macro rails, pistol grip heads and motorized heads. That would've gotten everyone drunk for sure.