This ball head works great for my 13 pound rifle. The articulation is smooth and controlled. I would definitely recommend this product.

Aguanta o peso de um focus rail da sirui, com uma EOS 7D com Grip. Perfeito para macro.

prodotto giunto in tempi brevissimi. ordinato la sera, il giorno successivo lo avevo in mano. Grazieprodotto ben imballato, con doppia protezione, quella della ditta e quella di Amazon. Perfetto

Superbe tête de trépieds BEAU, SOLIDE, Qui permet de travailler avec du matériel lourd

Erstklassiger Kugelkopf, da habe ich keine Beanstandungen, stabil, super einzustellen,sehr stabil, der 2. den ich mir gekauft habe.

I used this ball head to replace the ball head on my cheap Geekoto ball head tripod. The mounting screw on the Geekoto protruded too far up, so when I threaded the Arctise head all the way on, the ball joint was getting stuck on the screw and couldn't move freely.So I used a compass to draw a circle on a piece of 3-ply pickguard blank material (about .088" thick ABS plastic). The Arctise base is roughly 2.8" in diameter, so I set the distance from the needle to the pencil on the compass to 1.4".Then, in the middle set mark left by the compass, I used an 11mm boring bit to drill a hole in the middle to clear the 3/8" mounting screw. I just freehand cut the circle out as having it a perfect circle is not important -- just enough to cover the whole of the base of the Arctise.And now it works great. The spacer provided the necessary distance to thread the Arctise on tight without the mounting screw obstructing the ball head. Now, onto the quality:This was a *dramatic* improvement over the stock ball head on the Geekoto, which is quite cheap. Panning shots were impossible with that. With the Arctise, the head pans slowly and securely, so you can easily get professional panning shots if you want.The 55mm ball head is a beast. An absolute beast. I got a new Laowa 60mm 2x macro lens, and I still use my old 105mm Kiron macro lens, which is quite heavy, especially since I'm using these on a Lumix GH2, which is a tiny MFT camera body. So these heavy lenses really weigh everything down unless using a tripod mount on the lens, which is quite inconvenient.I find I can use this ball head easily *without* tripod mounts on these heavier lenses. They're not *insanely* heavy, the heaviest being my 105mm Kiron macro lens.On my old Geekoto ball head, I needed to use a tripod mount adapter on the Kiron in order to use it. The ball head struggled severely with holding it up and sometimes it would just fall forward unless I really socked down the lock on the ball head.With the Arctise, with *no* tripod mount adapter, and even using a 16mm extension tube, the Kiron 105mm macro stays securely in place. I don't have to worry about it tipping forward or falling at all.QUICK RELEASE PLATES: These plates are awesome too. They can't fall out in case you accidentally don't tighten them -- they'll stop at either end if it slides forward instead of falling out. So that's a great safety feature.They also have a lot of room to slide back or forth. It's almost like a miniature, built-in focusing rail. The quick release plates seem to be made to a high quality standard. They have a solid, heavy weight, being made out of metal, and the lock is easy to tighten on the bottom to ensure solid mounting to the camera body.All in all, I'm extremely happy with this purchase. This has really taken my photography/videography to the next level. And it's made everything so much easier. Dealing with tripod mounts is a royal pain and now I don't have to, unless I get into big telephoto lenses, which I don't currently have any need for. And even then, I'd *definitely* be wanting to use this ball head, being big, strong, bulky, and secure.All in all, a joy to use, and a tremendous improvement over the cheap head I was using. I'd recommend this ball head strongly to anyone in the market for a quality ball head without wanting to break the bank. This was worth every penny. It also comes with extra Quick Release plates, which is a very nice touch, and a tremendous added value.