>>4392321>Bro even the amazon brands are rated at like 12lbsYeah they are, but they're not rated at what they're stable for, they're just rated at what they guarantee they won't break with (which in my experience isn't even true, but thats just an anecdote). I was also mainly speaking about their stability when tilted all the way to the side, in portrait mode, as this hurts the stability further. I'm not saying they're not stable enough for any camera, they will definitely do the job for some people. Personally I shoot a 5D, sometimes with a battery grip and a 300 f2.8, so they don't work for me. And since tripods are dirt cheap used, I don't see the point in buying an ulta-cheap one used.
>Hardly representative of all ballheads.True, but I'm not going to go add up which ones do and don't
>Well that's funny because my ballhead handles my 70-200mm f/2.8 and 150-500mm just fine and it's not even a particularly large one.You must have a ball of steel my friend
>And also it's just not as convenient or as quick as using a ballheadI dunno, I find the lockers on fluid heads to be so fast to use. I really dig them. I find it way faster to use a fluid head to get a critically aligned shot than a ball or a pan tilt.
>You don't want a plate sticking out of the front and back of a stills body.Why not? It's on a tripod. Most fluid heads are just arca swiss so if it really matters to you, you could just get a shorter plate.
>Don't get me wrong, fluid and pan/tilt heads are great for what they're designed for, but that's video work.In my experience, any camera setup that I need a tripod to shoot with, I would prefer to use a fluid head. And the panning actions aren't useful just for video, think about if you're tracking something moving with a long lens, like shooting motor sports. A fluid head works awesome for that.
