Worked great for a couple of years

Common problem of locking up, which makes the ballhead useless.

Bought this head 3 years ago. Worked great until a few months ago. Now it locks up erratically. Have done a lot of trouble shooting to no advail. Did a google search on issues with this ballhead and was suprised to see that so many people had similar problems. Also many people had said that the customer service of Arca Swiss left much to be desired. I have sent them an email about the problem and am awaiting a reply. I am really really dissappointed because I thought I was buying the best and it would be a one time purchase.......now I wish I would have bought a Kirk Ballhead..... :(

Wow, the quality feel. Superb craftmanship.

None, except that it probably isn't at your local photo retailer to try out. You have to try this out to believe it. The price may seem high but this will make you want to use your tripod.

Unbelievable quality. Perhaps the finest photo equipment made? I love the feel of this very impressive ball head. I have owned various tripod heads over the years and have really not felt anything special about using them until I got this. What a difference. Now I want to use my tripod. It's a pleasure (although it isn't any lighter...) to use now that I have finally gone with this ball head. I'm amazed at how smoothly this head works. The fit and finish is extreme as are the operational characteristics. One knob controls how much tension is on the ball. The progression is very gradual so that any lens you might have on it feels right. The ellipical design of the ball inspires confidence. I just love to load a lens on this and see what I can do. It's a pleasure to have such wonderful equipment available since most people find using ball heads and tripods annoying.

Customer Service

None needed.

Similar Products Used:

Various Bogen pan and tilt heads, Gitzo ball heads.

I just put together this B1E on top of Gitzo MK2 1500 Legs because I just upgraded to a Sinar X view camera which was too heavy for my current Bogen setup (I have the beefy bogen largeformat legs (cant remember #) and a three way bogen head (# escapes me--but it's not their large format one). I broke down and upgraded my tripod because (1) my current tripod head was not large-format grade, and (2) If I was going to upgrade the head, I wanted go ahead and get the legs that were rated for the weight (21 pounds or so). Using the B1E with the Sinar X is sorta iffy in some ways --I'm not too confident about the lock, and the different friction levels are never quite right to get the camera perfect. I do a lot of stepwise panoramic shots so I probably would have done better by getting the next ball head up that allows panning. . . but it has pointed out that the ballhead which is supposedly the best in the biz isn't exactly the most fine-tuned of instruments when a heavy monorail 4x5 is on top of it. However, I love the simplicity and am so thankful not to have another knob to keep track of (ever used a monorail before?), and I feel so much safer with the locking QR on the B1E. The simplicity and design of the unit are wonderful.

see above

Arca-Swiss Ballhead w/ Sinar X1 in the field

She's light and strong, she can't be wrong.

Price. $432 ain't easy to lay down for a pretty piece of equipment weighing only 1.7 lb. but when you consider the long term investment of owning this head it does put it in perspective--best to get the right item once.

To cut to the quick this head is excellent. Most importantly it preforms! It's not perfect, cosmeticly I would have liked an easier to get at friction screw, and would have thought it would be cute if the numbers for reading your pan angle and tention glowed in the dark, but I'm picky; at thier price you tend to be a little. Funtion wise it's tops.

Customer Service

Don't think I'll need it.

Similar Products Used:

N/A

Craftmanship and rigidity.

None

I use the Arca Swiss B1 ballhead on a Gitzo Mountaineer G1349 tripod. Compared to Foba and Kirk ballheads I've tried this is by far the best. The craftmanship is superb and the rigidity is state of the art. It has smooth movements and all the knobs are well placed. Love it!

Customer Service

Never used

Similar Products Used:

Kirk and Foba

Compact and light for load capability.

At the top range of prices for ball heads. Only justifiable if you use your tripod a good deal and appreciate fine machine work.

I believe this is an excellent product. I bought it despite owning another competing model, the Foba Super Ball (Balla) The Foba convinced me of the beauty of the sophisticated ball design and the quick release. I found the Foba, a Sinar Bron product, to be pretty good, but also a heavy and bulky item. I bought it used at a very good price and talked myself into having two tripods and two heads for different purposes. The B-1 with quick release goes on my Gitzo model 224, and the Foba stays with my Bogen model 3030a legs. I find the Arca Swiss construction to be more clever than the Foba. Example= My model Foba has the quick release head screwed on to a round platform, a waste of material. The quick release jaws are more crudely machined then the A-S and somewhat larger. Also, the knobs on my pan bed and ball tension adjustment are spring loaded and can and will come flying off. I have used RRS plates for ten years. I can''t imagine dealing with any other place than a specialist who has a dedication to the niche product. If Foba and Arca Swiss are competitive in price, it is clear to me that the Arca is the better buy. Both are in the top league thogh. No freeze problem experienced. I do not pack my head in checked luggage of course

Customer Service

Not required.

Similar Products Used:

Foba Superball, Slik Large Pro Ball, Bogen Ball Head, lever type controls model.

Tension control, strength, smoothness, solidity, quick release system

Pricey.

If you''re sick of heads that slip, creep and mounting platforms that vibrate, and are willing to fork over the cash for the last ballhead you''ll ever buy, this is the one. I tried the Kirk BH-1 for a week and was sorely disappointed. The tension adjustment was a joke, and the head was far from smooth. The Arca-Swiss gives perfect friction control every time, doesn''t creep at all, and has the best mounting platform in the business (I use RRS dedicated plates, BTW, which are really necessary to fully appreciate the AS quick release platform). This head has no equal, and no one is even close. The freeze-up "problem" is merely propaganda disseminated by arca swiss'' competitors. The AS elliptical ballhead, with progressive tensioning is the last word in professional ballheads. Period.

Customer Service

?

Similar Products Used:

Bogen heads, Kirk BH-1

- Super-smooth ball and pan adjustments
- Knobs are easy to grab and adjust easily
- Head doesn't move when locking-down
- QR system is great

- Expensive
- Thumbscrew can be loosened/tightened accidentally
- Doesn't come with QR plates

At $400, the Arca-Swiss B1 is nearly 8x more expensive than Bogen's 3055. Not to mention any QR plates you might need. (I spent ~$120 on two custom-fit plates from http://www.kirkphoto.com/.) That's about $520 for a ballhead and QR plates. Is it really worth that much more?

Yes. A resounding yes. Without a doubt. I would not have thought that the B1 could be that much better, but it is. I'm sure you don't believe me, but it is that much better. Incidentally, I use my tripod for probably 90% of my photos.

"Friction control" and "progressive resistance" are major benefits. The knob to lock/unlock the ballhead controls the ball's friction/tension. It is numbered from 0-12. 0 is no tension, so the head just flops around. 5 is tight, but can be moved. 12 totally locks the head. So you can unlock the head to, say, 7. The head will still be tight enough that it won't move at all, but loose enough that I can move it if I want. Progressive resistance keeps the head from letting your lens flop over. As the lens points to the ground, it encounters increased resistance.

Arca-Swiss's QR plate should be avoided. It's a one-size-fits all variety, and since you can have a custom-fit plate for roughly the same cost... well, you might as well get the custom-fit QR plate. Plates are made by Kirk Photo (http://www.kirkphoto.com/) and Really Right Stuff (http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/)

Both RRS and Kirk can explain the benefits of the Arca-Swiss system better than I, but here's my short summary: The custom QR plates have little bumps and ledges that correspond to the camera body/lens shape so that when it's attached it can't move. There's no cork or rubber between the plate and camera. (It's not needed--the QR plate fits that tight.) On the Bogen system (and most others) it's a one-plate-fits-all deal with cork or rubber. The way it stays in place is that you tighten it as much as you can so the force keeps it from moving. I can tell you from experience the cork/lots-of-force idea doesn't work well. As well, the Arca-Swiss style QR plates are so small that you hardly notice them, unlike the monstrous Bogen QR hex plate. The QR system isn't as fast as Bogen's hex plate system. With the Bogen, you just set the plate in place and press down. Then "snap," things lock into place. The Arca-Swiss QR system requires you to put the plate in place then you screw the clamp tight. The knob to screw the clamp in place is quite big (3/4"?) so it's easy to do, but it isn't as fast. I don't think that matters much.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Bogen 3055
Slik AF2100 Pro

Smoothest ballhead I've ever tried. Coupled with Really Right Stuff plates, it's the best on the market.

Can lockup if used inproperly.
Very hard to find in stores.

Simply the best ballhead for any type of photography or equipment

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Graf Studioball

Blows away all other balls; inexpensive ($400 is inexpensive??? A good ball head is more important than your camera body, so yeah, it's inexpensive).

Don't let sand get into it, or water.

There is an opinion expressed in the Really Right Stuff catalog that the Arca-Swiss B1 ballhead makes the carbon fiber Gitzo 1227 top heavy and unsuitable for that tripod. By the time you put Brian's B2-Pro clamp onto his recommended Linhof Profi II, you have a combination that weighs 23.8 ounces, not the 20.8 ounces he quotes in his catalog. Meanwhile the Arca-Swiss weighs in at 26.3 ounces, which means that the B1 weighs only 9.5% more than the Profi II. Add in the 52 ounces that the 1227 tripod weighs and the difference is only 3.3%, hardly grounds for saying the B1/1227 makes for a top-heavy combination and the Profi II/1227 does not. It's top heavy with either ball, but so what? It is true that the base of the B1 is larger than the top of the 1227 center column post, but only by less than a quarter of an inch! It looks just fine on the 1227!

I know all this from personal experience, because I was driven to try out a B1 in place of the Profi II because the Profi II just doesn't have the muscle to hold a Nikon F100 with 32 ounce lens (without tripod collar) or 48 ounce lens (with tripod collar). You practically have to break your fingers turning the knob to stop the Profi II from creeping with the lens only slightly off the horizontal. Hardly any torque at all is needed to lock the B1 down as solid as a single chunk of steel with lenses that weighty attached to the camera body. The price of the Profi II + B2-Pro clamp runs about $300, the B1 $400. The Profi II is rated at 17.6 pounds holding capacity, the B1 90 pounds. If you're spending that much anyhow, $100 more is chicken feed when you consider the enormous increment in performance that you get, with trivial increase in weight (2.5 ounces).

(I don't mean any of this to cast aspersions on Brian of Really Right Stuff. I can't count the number of times he has helped me out, including giving me verbal instructions on how to actually adjust that B1 ball (the instructions that come with it are next to useless). He is a very sincere, helpful, and hard working person, whom we should all be grateful for. Few on this list (in particular) have the right to hold it against anyone for sometimes being opinionated.)

Similar Products Used:

Linhof Profi II