Suggestions for spotter ballhead.

[Bwana]

I'd like to add a decent Ballhead for my Swaro ATM65, any suggestions for one that will hold the weight at angles & have easy controls for tilt/panning...I mainly digiscope and scout, trying to cut some weight.

Brand, model number and experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

[chutinlead]

I can't remember the video, but watched a guy using a spotting scope with a ball head and flopped it over to the side into the 90 degree notch. Then just used the ball to tilt and the base of the head to pan. Of course it only works if your spotter has a collar that allows it to spin.

I'll try to find it.

 

[Nethero]

I'd like to add a decent Ballhead for my Swaro ATM65, any suggestions for one that will hold the weight at angles & have easy controls for tilt/panning...I mainly digiscope and scout, trying to cut some weight.

Brand, model number and experience would be greatly appreciated.

Whether this will provide any help or insight, I’m not sure but the only ball heads that I have found that can reliably hold the weight of a spotter without moving are pretty heavy duty ones. I personally have THIS Kirk ball head. Is it excellent? Yes. Does it hold both an ATS 65 and ATS 80 at angle without any unwanted movement? Yes. But man is it heavy! Which is counterintuitive to what you wanted.

Something like THIS Manfrotto might do what you need, cut the weight, and be much less money (still f***ing expensive), but I don’t have personal experience with it. I do have experience with their XPro video heads, and those too are great, but also heavy.

 

[5MilesBack]

I have a Sirui K-10 ball head that I used with my Meopta S2 82mm spotter that's quite a bit heavier than your Swaro (I had the 65mm Swaro before the Meopta). The control knob on the Sirui adjusts very easily from very slight tension increases to a lot of tension if needed. I sold the Meopta and my tripod but still have the Sirui ball head sitting here. Let me know if you're interested in it.

 

[twall13]

I've also used the Sirui K-10 before and it should get the job done. Like most good ballheads it has an independent panning knob and the tension adjustment on the ball itself is pretty good. I currently only have the little Kowa spotter so I switched out to a RRS BPC-16 ballhead to save some weight and actually prefer it to the Sirui but I don't think I'd recommend that ballhead for a spotter as big as the Swaro 65.

 

[Camera Land]

The Sirui K series all hold a lot of weight.
K10x 44 Lbs
K20x 55.1 LBS
K30x 66.1 Lbs
K40x 77.2 Lbs

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