High performance ballhead

Hey guys, I have to share what I ran into at work today. I am using a very high performance camera system to measure wheel angles and displacements for some testing on a vehicle. Basically there are 4 high speed cameras that are hung outboard of the vehicle that compare markers on the wheels to markers on the body, then magic/math happens and the relative angles and displacements are logged. There are basically no expenses spared in this system, carbon fiber all over just because. For instance, the system came with a Nikon D3x to take a bunch of pictures of the car once the cameras and markers are all mounted in order to do the initial calibration. No way that body is necessary for the task, but why not!

http://aicon3d.com/products/moveinsp...-a-glance.html

Anyways, each camera is attached to a boom with a ballhead. When working with these ballheads today I immediately got an impression of high quality. The high speed cameras weigh around 2kg each and are hanging almost a meter outside the fenders of the vehicle, and are designed to maintain the same position of the cameras while doing driving maneuvers, going over bumps, and other loads that produce forces so much higher than what a DSLR sitting on a tripod will do. Not to mention the cost of each of these cameras makes most DSLR bodies look like chump change, so failure of the mounting system is not an option. I decided to Google these ballheads when I got home, and found that they are actually really affordable! They use a 40mm ball, but instead of a typical ballhead that has just a few points of contact, the ball holder is actually a machined collet, so the ball is held evenly around the entire circumference. The holder and ball are both anodized aluminum, so the movement when the ball is not tightened down is very smooth. Comes in silver or black. They are made in Germany, so you know it's going to be good :cool:. Price is 52.9€:

http://hermann-mechatronik.de/index....010&ta=Details

I am planning to buy a couple of these and machine at least one panning base and a 45 degree top plate to make it more tripod friendly. I know this won't work for everyone, but thought I would spread the word about a very affordable high performance ballhead. If you like to tinker like I do, this may be very worthwhile to look at. If there is enough interest for the parts to make this convenient for tripod photography I may do a run of parts through a machine shop.

That is very interesting. Intriguing, really.

A couple of issues regarding using the ballhead for traditional tripod photography, though:

1) It doesn't feature a drop-down notch for shooting in portrait orientation (although an L-bracket could solve that problem).

2) It doesn't appear to have a threaded hole at the bottom that would allow for simply mounting it to a standard tripod.

The capacity for the price does look quite interesting, though – 20 kg (44 lbs)

Sean,

For #1, that's why I mentioned making a 45 degree top plate, because then you could get to vertical and 90 degrees without changing the setup. Or an L-plate would work. I actually was browsing the website and see they actually make the same thing but with an integrated 45 degree mounting surface for about the same price. I think it would work best with a square quick release plate (or L plate), then you could do 45 degrees to either side, or remount the quick release plate to do 90 degrees. I think this is probably the biggest inconvenience with the lack of drop-down notch in this design though. Could be a deal-breaker for some.

#2 is where the tinkering comes in. An interface between the ballhead and tripod would need to be made, either something that can pan, or fixed.

I am making a star tracking rig similar to an Astrotrac and I think this will work perfect with a fixed adapter plate since I will not need to do any panning, and I plan to support the tracking rig + 7D + 70-200 II.

I bought a tripod a while ago that came with a cheap ballhead, and it seems no matter how hard I tighten it, I will always get creep when trying to support the 7D and 70-200. Not really an issue for normal photography, but when trying to take long exposures of the stars it's just unacceptable. I hope this will be the cure. If it ends up working well I will go forward and make the panning base for use without the tracking rig.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. :-)

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Took some photos the other day to show it in better detail than the website has:

http://www.eric-o.com/temp/hermannbh1.jpg

http://www.eric-o.com/temp/hermannbh2.jpg

http://www.eric-o.com/temp/hermannbh3.jpg

There is a hole already drilled in the center of the base, so an adapter for standard 3/8" tripod threads could easily be pressed in. I'll update this thread once I get mine and make the modifications! I think I will also replace the clamp lever with a knurled rubber knob.

Eric, I'm curious if you continued with this project and what your findings are. Please let us know if anything happened in the meantime:)

I have not yet, but still plan to. Some other projects took priority this summer so I didn't end up making the purchase yet. I will definitely post back when I have everything in hand!

Thanks mate. I really dove info this ballhead option as I was looking to replace mine. Not having the option to easily switch to portrait modus or having a Quick release option made me buy a new regular photo-orientated tripod and head. However this option still is interesting for soms other ideas. Motorcycle mounting and such.