Arca-Swiss B1 Monoball
I must start this review by telling how I heard about this head.
Right when I bought my Nikon N70 I was in Camera World with my
brother. He was asking if they carried the Arca-Swiss B-1 head,
but they did not. I had not heard anything about this head, so
I asked my brother, "How much does that cost?" He said, "It's
around $400." I exclaimed, "Are you nuts?!? Four hundred dollars
for a tripod HEAD? Not even the tripod, but just the head? You'd
have to be an idiot to spend that much on such a stupid thing!"
Five months later I bought mine.
It's expensive, yes, but it's worth it! The controls are so
precise, it's just amazing. Many other ballhead manufacturers
(like Gitzo) use grease to make their balls move smoothly, but
the Arca is just precision made. Once you use one of them you
will fall in love with it and always use it as a bases to judge
other heads.
I'll start by giving a rundown of all the features.
- Variable tension knob:
This is one of the things that makes the Arca stand out
from the pack. Most all ballheads on the market have a
variable tension knob, but most of them don't work like
they should. Even on the most expensive Bogen head, the
tension control isn't very progressive; it feels almost
like there's an on position, and then an off position.
With the B1, it is a very smooth, linear progression.When
the tension of the ball is set to absolute zero, the head
is completely free to move. One complete turn around will
make it so tight that it won't move a millimeter. Many
other heads on the market will still move if you try
hard enough. Not so with the B1. At all the tension
marks where the ball can still move the movement is still
very smooth, which again is something lacking on many
of the top heads. When you increase the tension of the B1,
it doesn't feel as if something is digging into the ball
to stop it from moving, it feels as if the whole inside
of the head is tightening around the ball evenly.
Also on the tension knob is a small dial to set the
minimum tension. This is very useful so you don't slop.
One of the features unique to the Arca-Swiss head is its
elliptical shaped ball. This makes it so the tension
increases as the ball is moved from level downward
in all directions. Therefor, if your camera is on the
head when you have the dial set at a low tension, when
it starts to "flop" downward, the tension will slowly
increase until it doesn't slam down against the guard.
Of course you need to set the minimum tension for your
setup so that you can still move the head when the head
is at it's minimum tension setting, but so that it's tight
enough that your camera won't slam down against the ridge
where the ball is sitting. Does this make sense?
Since you can set the minimum tension of your head,
the tension index scale can rotate. This way, when you
adjust your minimum tension, you can move the index scale
so that point is 0. The problem with this freely movable
scale is that often times when I grab the tension knob
I accidently move the index scale. I think Arca-Swiss
should have made it either harder to move this scale,
or made it so you can lock it down. This is a minor
complaint though, since I never really look at the scale.
I just go by what "feels" tight, or loose.
- Panning base knob:
When I was first considering buying a B1 I thought I wanted
the B1e, which is the same as the B1, just without the
panning base. I figured I wouldn't use the panning base
enough to justify the $100 price hike between the B1e and
the B1. Eventually I decided if I was going to blow this
much money on a head, I might as well go ahead and get the
one everyone loves, which is the B1, with panning base. I
figured maybe some day there would be something I wanted
to track which moved only in a lateral direction... though
I doubted it. However, now that I have the head I see that
simply panning is not the only thing which makes the
panning base useful. For instance, say I am taking a
1:1 picture of a flower where I have the camera pointed
downward, fitting the ball down between the notch, so the
ball is 90 degrees from its "north pole." Since this
notch is in only one very small spot on the ball, this
only allows the camera to be pointed directly down in one
position. With the panning base, I can rotate where the
camera is pointed. If I did not have this panorama base
I would have to move the whole tripod in order to slightly
change my composition! So this panning base is a must for
anyone interested in macro work. I never thought of this
when I was thinking about buying the B1e; it only came up
in actually working with the head. I had figured that
all "panning" movements could be done by just loosening
the ball, and panning the head in the lateral direction.
Sure, it would also move up and down, but as I said I
doubt I'll be tracking anything moving along just one
axis. The panning base is also nice when I just want to
change my composition slightly in the lateral direction
without risking slightly changing my vertical composition.
By the way, when the base is completely free to rotate,
like the ball itself, the motion is extremely fluid. In
fact, it feels like a fluid head. It really is
great.
The one complaint I have about this knob is its tendency
to be more a "on/off" knob than a variable tension knob
like the main friction knob. Say the knob is completely
loose and the base is free to pan. It takes about a half
a turn before any friction is added; that whole half turn
is wasted. Once that half turn is complete though, it takes
just a quarter turn to make the base locked down pretty
solidly. Unfortunately, unlike the larger ball friction
knob, you really have to crank the panning base knob
in order to make it hold the base tightly. Often in the
field I will think I have tightened the base plenty but
then it still rotates some. I then have to give it an
extra hard crank, and put a lot of muscle into it to make
it hold. What's so fantastic about the ball's friction knob
is how rock solid the ball gets without putting much
energy into turning the knob. Too bad they didn't make
the panning base's knob the same way.
- Quick Release Device:
I'm sure you've heard about the fantastic Arca-Swiss
quick release system. It really is very nice. The plates
slide in and out with ease. It takes just a few seconds to
pull the camera out of your bag, mount it on the head,
and be ready to shoot. Hmm, well I suppose that's the point
of any quick release system, isn't it? Well, what makes
the Arca-Swiss one so great is the wide array of
custom plates available for the system. Companies like
Really Right
Stuff and Kirk
have made custom plates for virtually every modern camera
and long lens (with tripod collar) on the market. These
plates are custom made for your toy so that they will
stay securely on it, not rotate, and be very unobtrusive.
The plates are so unobtrusive that most people leave them
on their cameras at all times, even while hand holding,
because the plates simply don't get in the way. Well, the
A-S plate system has been so beat to death that I'll just
stop talking about it here. I'll just add that I doubt
you'll find a better system by any other company either...
Well that covers the main "features" of the tripod. So how
is it overall? Splendid! I firmly believe that there is not a
better ballhead on the market today. Sure, maybe the Arca-Swiss
B1G, or B2 is "better", but they are built with the same
craftsmanship as the B1, and are just for larger setups. For most
35mm, and medium format work, the B1 is just fine. Some say that
the B1 isn't adequate for a 600mm f4 lens though. At the same
time, many other professional photographers use their 600mm f4
on their B1 and get stunning results. Since I do not have the
pleasure of owning this $8,000 lens, I can not add any further
insight to the discussion. All I can say is this is a
beautifully crafted piece of equipment. You certainly will not
regret it if you buy one
Before buying the B1 I researched all the other top ballheads.
I really didn't want to spend $400, so I was looking for a
cheaper alternative. There are many other fine heads out there
(most of which simply try and copy the Arca Swiss design), such
as the Graf Studioball, Linholf Profi II, NPC Pro Head, F&L,
and Kirk BH-1. The last of these, the BH-1, is the one which
sparked most of my interest. I asked questions in different
photography forums about how the BH-1 compared to the B1. Most
people gave me the worthless response of, "Everyone seems to
love the B1, so you can't go wrong with that. Get the B1."
I believe you that everyone loves the B1, but does anyone love
the Kirk BH-1? I found a few people who tried both heads, and
all of them liked the Arca Swiss slightly better. Since they are
in the same price range (I consider +- $100 the same range with
such a high priced item) I decided to go ahead and get the Arca
Swiss. The main thing which intrigued me was that Kirk claims
Gallen Rowell and John Shaw both use the Kirk BH-1, and not
the Arca-Swiss. I admire both of these photographers, so I
wondered what they knew that most others didn't. I never did
find out... Anyway, if you really wanted to pinch
your pennies, I'm sure you'd be almost as
happy with the Kirk head as I am with the Arca-Swiss B1. :-)
Excuse me for stating the obvious, but you don't want dust and
dirt to get in the ball. I didn't have a problem with this when
I was hiking in forests, but once I started doing high elevation
stuff where I'm mostly walking on volcanic rock and ash, I
noticed dust was getting all over the head. If dust is on the
ball, and you then move the ball around, you can jam that
dust right underneath the ball, where you can't get at it to
clean it. A very fine solution to this is the small Zing lens
pouch. It fits snuggly over the head, and can be tightened with
a draw string. Made out of neoprene, it is the perfect size, and
provides some additional padding as well as dust protection.
For $7, it's a must to protect your $400 head.
|