Yet, after much consideration and numerous borrows, I’ve finally decided to get one for personal use. It was rather a difficult decision to make but with the powah of the internet, the verdict was made within 412318 hours.
There are different brands which offer different quality individually. But, at the end of the day, after various researches (via internet, duh!), due to its availability and wide range of products as well as price factor, I chose Manfrotto instead of other brands such as Markins and Giottos.
Then, came the type of head. IIANM, there are 3 types; ball, geared and three-way. Each of them has pros and cons. One might good in one situation but not in others and so on. I was torn between choosing a ball or a three-way as I might do panorama landscape photography in future. Three-way is the obvious choice in this category as it offers precision but having said that, I went for ball head. I didn’t not choose 484RC2 ball head (like the one I used during my Taiwan trip) as it supports up to 4kg only. Instead, I chose 488RC2 ball head for teh future.
From the specs sheet, it weighs around 0.7kg and it could support at maximum weight of 8kg. Apart from that, it has separate lock on the panoramic axis which is a good thing as it eliminates the ability of losing framing. And as usual, it has safety latch on the quick release to avoid any mishaps.
Once it is attached to Manfrotto 190XPROB, it weighs a spanking of 2.5kg!! It’s not an ideal weight if you want bring it out for traveling (especially backpacking). It looks alright when I latch my Canon EOS 40D onto this ball head. The size for both of them somehow proportional to each other. But this is what it will looked like when I use it with…
Weird, eh….
