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THE DIGITAL SOAPBOX OF ANDY CLEAVENGER

ACRATECH ULTIMATE BALLHEAD

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Email:  graycard18@gmail.com

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This is a great ballhead with an unusual design.

First, a disclaimer: the name “Ultimate Ballhead” is actually the official name it is marketed under by Acratech. While I do like my Ultimate Ballhead, the “ultimate” part is not a moniker that I gave it.

That being said, I have to admit that this is a pretty kick ass ballhead for certain applications. What I mean by that is that I find this head particularly helpful when strange tripod positions are needed (like the one below), which is quite common if you’re into shooting plants or bugs.

The design of this head is such that the range of motion is remarkably flexible when shooting between a 45º and 90º angle. One doesn’t need to search for the little notch that’s only in one spot in order to tilt the camera more than 45º, because there is no notch. It’s just all open on the side. It leaves you much more leeway to tweak the postion. To achieve the above position with a traditional ballhead you would have to rotate the head until you found the one notch that lets you tilt the camera farther than 45º. And then once you got the head positioned in that notch you would not have much range of motion to tweak the position.

The limitation of this design is a limited range of motion when the head is positioned at a 0º tilt (the way it appears at the top of this page). It’s pretty easy to see in the picture at the top of the page that if you were to try and tilt the camera to the right you wouldn’t be able to go much farther than 5º - 10º. To do it, you would have to rotate the base so that the open side was on the right, and then tilt the camera. This issue is not much of a problem for me because most of the time if I’m using a tripod, I’m using it in a really odd, low position like the one you see in the middle of the page. In this position, its unconventional design is a massive help, not a hinderance.

<hijack> Now, when it came time to buy a ballhead for my Shen Hao, I went with the Acratech V2, which is a more conventional design. I did this because I rarely, if ever, need to tilt my 4x5 more than 45º. And I never EVER need to tilt it 90º. There’d be no point. If I want to shoot vertical I just switch the back on the camera. So for 4x5 a conventional ballhead design actually gives me a greater range of motion in all the directions I care about when shooting that format.</hijack>

In terms of the Ultimate Ballhead’s operation, it leaves me with no complaints at all. I love the fact that in two and a half twists of the knob I can secure the camera to the quick release. The Calumet ballhead I used to have at work took something like 10 or 12 turns of the knob to secure the camera to the “quick” release. The other two knobs on the Ultimate Ballhead likewise take only a couple of quick turns to go from loose to fully tightened. And I have never once had the camera “creep” due to its own weight.

Another thing I like about the Acratech line of ballheads is that they are compatible with the Arca Swiss standard quick release plates. Yes, there are some small variations in this standard between manufacturers, but for the most part any Arca Swiss compatible plate will work. This can not be said of any Bogen/Manfrotto head. Every Bogen/Manfrotto head has a dedicated plate that only fits that specific model head. This makes it difficult to use the same camera on two different tripod heads (something I do a lot at work).

In summary, this is a great ballhead. The unconventional design isn’t perfect for everyone though, so before you buy, really think about the circumstances under which you usually use your tripod.