WHAT IS THE BEST BALLHEAD FOR A 500 OR 600mm LENS?
Here again, there are only two choices for general bird photography, and a third if you do lots of flight shooting with a 600mm f/4 lens. Simply put, the ARCA Swiss B-1 is my everyday tripod head. It is small, fast, lightweight, and strong. It has the smoothest tension adjustment of any tripod head on the market. For more than a decade, folks have been telling me that it is not possible to produce razor sharp images with big lenses and such a tiny ballhead, but my images prove that they are wrong. If you are a sharpness fanatic, or if your technique is not quite perfect, you may do better with the ARCA-Swiss B-1G, the giant version of my beloved B-1. I have recently come up with a way to prevent damaging the housing with either of these ballheads when a heavy lens flops down when you are working at a light tension setting and some drop-dead gorgeous bird makes you so excited that you loose control of your rig. Visit a local plumbing store and purchase two large rubber washers. You’ll u
