Jump to content

Can you please recommend a ballhead?


Recommended Posts

Paulette,

 

a pair of rubber work gloves usually do the trick. My 86 yr old mother now opens her jars herself again ;-)

Otoh we have a saying here that roughly translates to tight is tight. Which is not a bad thing for a tripod. So maybe wait until after Alaska.

And only if you want another tripod or another head.

I'm not sure if I would use my longest lens as my crowbar or wrench ;-) 

There are a lot of gizmo's for opening jammed jam jars and jammed oil filters (none of which worked as well for my mother as the work gloves).

As always you can improvise your own McGyver tool: the trick is leverage. My approach would be: a stick or 2 sticks with cord attached at the end. Preferably cotton. Wet the cords and wrap them in opposite directions around the ball and the central column until the sticks are on either side. Now put your knee in the center and pull the sticks towards you. If they slip, add the rubber bands that have been mentioned previously, or the famous rubber dental dam we all have in our bag to remove a jammed filter.

If you have a carbon fiber tripod, be careful not to use a vice or pliers: carbon tube is very strong in a lot of ways, but it can be crushed like a toilet paper core.

 

wim

 

edit: OK just tried it with a Gitzo column and a Manfrotto head, that had just the symptoms yours had. At first try, I managed to brake the 5mm cord, so there's quite some force going on there. (1 pole was a broom stick and the other a thinner 70 cm leftover piece.) On the second try I doubled the lines and it worked. Seen from the top: the cord goes clockwise around the column and counter clockwise around the head. Knots for the cord to the pole were with a simple pole hitch (- what else).

 

edit 2: everything Phillippe said!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sure you will meet plenty of lumberjacks or king crab fishermen with strong hands willing to help a damsel in distress -_-

 

You have a  G R E A T  time in Alaska and say hello from me to the bears and moose (mooses (?) ...... or is it mice?).

I envy you :o

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

I'm in the midst of packing up my gear now. So many odds and ends! The 90 year old woman I will spend time with in Homer feeds sandhill cranes and they will be in the yard every day. So beautiful! Then off for a lodge that has grizzly bears. I'm very lucky!!

 

Paulette

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paulette,

 

a pair of rubber work gloves usually do the trick. My 86 yr old mother now opens her jars herself again ;-)

Otoh we have a saying here that roughly translates to tight is tight. Which is not a bad thing for a tripod. So maybe wait until after Alaska.

And only if you want another tripod or another head.

I'm not sure if I would use my longest lens as my crowbar or wrench ;-) 

There are a lot of gizmo's for opening jammed jam jars and jammed oil filters (none of which worked as well for my mother as the work gloves).

As always you can improvise your own McGyver tool: the trick is leverage. My approach would be: a stick or 2 sticks with cord attached at the end. Preferably cotton. Wet the cords and wrap them in opposite directions around the ball and the central column until the sticks are on either side. Now put your knee in the center and pull the sticks towards you. If they slip, add the rubber bands that have been mentioned previously, or the famous rubber dental dam we all have in our bag to remove a jammed filter.

If you have a carbon fiber tripod, be careful not to use a vice or pliers: carbon tube is very strong in a lot of ways, but it can be crushed like a toilet paper core.

 

wim

 

Thanks for the tip. I have a nifty jar opener that I can't use on the ball head unfortunately. My hands seem to be plenty strong enough to put things on too tightly but not strong enough to unscrew them.

 

Paulette

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

a pair of rubber work gloves usually do the trick. My 86 yr old mother now opens her jars herself again ;-)

 

 

wim

 

Okay, it's perhaps a tad off topic. But here's a great tip for grandma's having difficulties opening jars in the middle of the desert where there are no rubber gloves to be found.

 

  • Turn the jar upside down.
  • Tap it, as if a midwife would tap a newborn baby's bottom to make it cry (still dunno why they do that :huh:)
  • Turn it again (or the contents will end on the floor :o )
  • And voilà, it opens with a minimum of force.

I guess it has something to do with the pressure inside.

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Philippe,

 

my mother probably taught me that  ;-)

 

wim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"McGyver of Alamy" :D

“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”  - Oscar Wilde

 

(When Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was my age he had been dead for 13 years.)

 

from 1965:

0:52 - 1:15

 

wim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7dayshop have a cheap head at 10.99

http://www.7dayshop.com/7dayshop-tripods-professional-quality-ball-socket-tripod-head-in-magnesium?backUrl=L2NhdGFsb2dzZWFyY2gvcmVzdWx0Lz9xPWJhbGwrc29ja2V0

which I have been using for a while with an A350 and 55-200.

Used to be half the price but still OK.

I don't use it often though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I'm sure you will meet plenty of lumberjacks or king crab fishermen with strong hands willing to help a damsel in distress -_-

 

You have a  G R E A T  time in Alaska and say hello from me to the bears and moose (mooses (?) ...... or is it mice?).

I envy you :o

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Just got back from Alaska and it was wonderful. We had San Diego weather for two weeks. Of course, that presented its own problems with too much bright sun. In Alaska that is most unexpected. The guides at my lodge got the ballhead off my tripod so the strong Alaskan was the solution to that problem. I was too busy to spend much time looking at my images. That was a problem, actually, but hard to turn down the opportunity to spend more time with the Brown Bears. They are very habituated to the presence of people and would come quite close. So I really don't know what I got in the way of images but I do these trips more for the experiences than anything else. I will re-live it in my photos.

 

Paulette

Link to comment
Share on other sites


 

Just got back from Alaska and it was wonderful. We had San Diego weather for two weeks. Of course, that presented its own problems with too much bright sun. In Alaska that is most unexpected. The guides at my lodge got the ballhead off my tripod so the strong Alaskan was the solution to that problem. I was too busy to spend much time looking at my images. That was a problem, actually, but hard to turn down the opportunity to spend more time with the Brown Bears. They are very habituated to the presence of people and would come quite close. So I really don't know what I got in the way of images but I do these trips more for the experiences than anything else. I will re-live it in my photos.

Paulette



I am glad that you got your ballhead off the tripod.

Sung
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.