Enjoy in depth videos on photography instruction and information on many of Acratechs professional imaging products including Ballheads and Camera Supports great for the professional landscape, travel, and nature photographer!
Hi Stanwalker2606, The chart you would search for is a lens focal length / field of view chart. The chart will show the degrees the lens will cover. You do want to have about 25% overlap between the images. You can also just visually estimate by finding an object in your image that is about a 1/4 of the way from the edge of the image. The degrees of rotation is not that critical as long as you have around 1/4 or more overlap.
Thanks @laurentldoldi840. Our products are robust and solid and we are still able to keep the weight at about 1lb (.45kg). They are designed to be used under the most demanding conditions and they just keep working. Our products do cost more, but they last for decades. We have been making tripod heads for over 20 years and they just keep working. We have seen some heads that have fallen off of cars on the highway or even been run over by cars and they just required some minor work to get them back working again and we only charged our customers for return shipping.
The leophoto head performance wise is not in the same league as the Acratech. The lever clamp on the Acratech locks in the closed position adding an important additional layer of safety for your camera. The Acratech has an index knob that allows you to switch the direction of the quick release clamp from front to back (for long lenses) to side to side (for camera bodies). The Acratech has an adjustable zero pointer on the pan axis which makes it much easier to repeat rows of images when doing HDR panoramics. The Acratech has large easy to grasp and tighten rubberized knobs that make them easy to tighten even with heavy winter gloves on or in the dark. The Acratech Panoramic Head is a professional tool designed to hold up to severe long term use in harsh dirty, dusty and wet environments. It will solidly support a 600 F4.0 and also works well for general photography and for multi-row panoramic images. We use all stainless steel fasteners and hardware for corrosion resistance. We machine all of our parts from solid, aircraft quality aluminum for strength, lightweight and corrosion resistance. We do not use any grease in our pan or tilt mechanisms so our heads continue to work well in extreme cold temperatures. We make all of our Acratech tripod heads in our Pomona, California, USA facility and our products have proven their reliability over the last 20 years.
I have just ordered the Acratech Pano head. I have looked at the Leofoto VH-30R, half price but looks less robust. Same weight but with one more rotation level (no needed for me) so less strong. BTW I purchased a Gitzo tripod (expensive, but on sale) when I was 16, I am 67 and it works perfectly.
How does it actually work as a levelling base? I thought once you invert it, you had to move the ball head around to ensure the connector plate is level
Hi, Thanks for your question. To use the GXP or GXP-SS as a leveling base, invert the ball-head and level the ball-head while watching the level in the quick release clamp for level. Now, when you pan you will be panning exactly level. This works for single for level panoramic images. If you want to tilt your camera up and down for multi-row panoramic images you would need to use our Panoramic Head. www.acratech.net/acratech-panoramic-head-can-be-used-like-a-long-lens-head/
I had the ultimate head long time ago. The best ball head I have ever seen or use. Got sick and sold all my equipment, but now I'm starting photography slowly again just to take photos for painting inspiration. Dreaming to get acratech again it's really just pure pain to use anything else, but it is so expensive to order here and no second hand markets for these masterpieces, nobody wants to sell if got one.
I saw this a long time ago about when it was uploaded. Always thought it was a bit off, but now i know it was ahead of its time. Preparing for the A.I era this man was.
I use the GXP Ballhead and just ordered the Pano. Both will lever clamp. For me Acratech means high quality and value. Worth the money albeit it means quite some additional spending getting it here to europe. Yo
I came to this segment from a YT by Hudson Henry, made in 2020-2021. Great how Scott accomplished a sensible how-to on this without needing to paste in any conceptual diagram.
There are less expensive products available but ,they lack the quality and features of a genuine Acratech product. Our products are made in the USA and precision CNC machined in our Pomona, California facility from aircraft grade materials. We stand behind our products with a 10 year warranty and your only cost is shipping. We actually always service our products for free even after the warranty period expires. Even if it is your fault, we have had customer who accidentally backed his car over his Acratech tripod head and we fixed it for free. We do not use castings like other manufactures, everything we make is machined from solid bar stock which is a much stronger than cast material. Our high quality stainless steel fasteners will not rust or corrode. Other manufactures use inexpensive steel or inexpensive stainless alloys that are much more susceptible to corrosion. Our Video Adapter has a quick release clamp that indexes in 90 degree increments so it allows you to use it with camera bodies where the quick release plate runs from side to side and also with long lenses that have tripod collars where the quick release plate runs from front to back.
Hi there... If i was to get the Acratech GXP head... do i still need a leveling base? i see that you can reverse the GXP and if i understand correctly you can level it without a leveling base? would you pls give some advise.. Thank you so much
Yes, the GXP and GXP-SS, can be used as if they have a built in leveling base when they are in the panoramic position (inverted). You can shoot level panoramic images, even if your tripod is not level (just like a leveling base). This allows you to shoot single row panoramic images. If you want to shoot multi row panoramic images or panoramic images where your camera tilted up and or down, that would require a leveling base. Thanks, Scott
@Acratech just got the lever lock version from Bob. I like it but not sure if I should use it or the simple knob model. I am trying it for a few days in house to decide. Say what is this odd cancer warning about nickel on the side? It's that crazy in the USA that they think touching a ballhead will cause cancer?
@@stevenrobinsonpictures The main advantage of the lever clamp is that the lever locks in the closed position. Although there is a small knob on the lever clamp, the knob has a nyloc insert and is hard to turn so it cannot be accidentally loosened. Also when shooting in the dark, for example; night sky photography, you will never grab the wrong knob and release your camera with a lever. On the other side of the coin, many photographers have used quick release clamps with knobs for decades and prefer them. California Prop 65 was well intended and required cancer warnings. The problem is the way prop was written just about everything can cause cancer. So the well intended labels are now on almost everything and have completely lost their purpose. So now unless we want to pay for expensive lab tests and risk expensive litigation we must put cancer warnings on everything.
@Acratech thank you. I do a lot of landscape and astro shooting - mosaics etc and star tracker use. Re the cancer thing...first I have heard thst touching nickel causes cancer. Perhaps a risk when machining parts that are ingested but with proper PPE etc woud not be an issue.
Manufactured in SoCal, Southern California, and assembled in the same shop, and customer service is done in house too. They are great folks to work with.
Hi Rick, Thank you for bringing this up. We make our tripod heads in our own shop in California which gives us the ability to control quality and hold tight tolerances to provide reliability and top performance. Also most other brands of tripod heads use cast parts which are much cheaper to manufacture but have a much lower strength to weight ratio. We machine all of our parts out of bar stock, which enables us to build a stronger and lighter weight product. All of the threaded shafts, fasteners are made out of stainless steel for corrosion resistance. We use several different alloys depending on the application. We do not use the inexpensive stainless alloys because they are more prone to corrosion. We use the best processes and materials to make the best product. We could make a cheap ball-head, but it is more important to us to make the best ball-head.
@@Acratech Most grateful for your prompt response! While an ingenious tool, I simply thought it has ben around long enough for the price to come down! I do admire your commitment to high quality material and manufacturing in good old America! Again, your response is most appreciated!
@@Acratech What you have just wrote is going to make me order a GXP ballhead I've been eyeing for a while via Bob Rigby Photographic in the UK. Solidly built products with firm backing from the manufacturer is so important to me. I wish more places were like this.
Most of these knobs could be levers, then you could see their position and lower the risk of flopping the camera over. Worst design flaw here is that the pan belongs ON TOP not on the base. A base pan implies you level the rig with the legs, which is a bear outdoors. A top pan allows perfect panning of the body after it is leveled using the hinges in the head. Acratech has solved this fundamental flaw - they sell what they curiously refer to as an "upside down" ball head that miraculously has the pan on top. Last bit see at 3:50 the absolutely disgusting fingernails on Mr. Personality.
HI from THAILAND I'm just a traveler touris photographer landscape portrait arora need a ball head that can serve good panorama >> like the GP AND GPSS >> they are the same?? can it be use on THE MANFROTTO BEFREE ADVANCE TRIPOD ??
I truly appreciate you showing that this was as simple as I imagined it was. People have 10-minute videos that still don't give you the warm and fuzzy feeling to move forward. Thank you.
1. He starts with a mistake then offers a solution at the end: He puts a ball head on a leveling base while leveling each separately. This never works in practice, as the leveling base with it's tiny bubble level has some small error, and the ball with it's tiny bubble multiplies that error, in the end the camera inevitably wobbles as it is rotated. What you should do is take great care leveling the base using a carpenter's bullet level checked at multiple angles, then skip the ball head completely, and just attach a pano clamp to that leveling base, and sit the nodal rail directly on it. Alternately use a head with an accurate vertical detent stop. 2, He does "solve" the mistaken procedure at the end by flipping the ball head upside down and putting the pano base on top. However this is something that can be done with most any ball head. 3. The method for finding the nodal point by trial & error is good instruction.
Hi John, Thank you for your response. The levels on our leveling base are larger than other leveling bases at 20mm or (over 3/4" diameter) and easy to see and very precision. Even if the photographer did not center the bubble in the center of the circle and it was touching the edge of the circle, the leveling base would still be accurately leveled better than 1/2 of a degree which is more than accurate enough for photography. Although your carpenters level might be accurate, the quality control on carpenters levels in not very good. Just for fun, I once went into a home improvement store and put 4 carpenters levels on top of each other to see if they would all show the same reading and they were all over the place (yes I know about flipping carpenters levels end for end or rolling top to bottom to check or minimize error). We check our levels on a calibrated precision granite surface plate and level it using a Starett Master Precision Level, and check the levels after they are installed, so they are very accurate. 2. You cannot invert most other ball-heads and use them upside down. This works on our GP and GXP heads because we have risers on the bottom of the quick release clamp to prevent the quick release knob from colliding with the pan knob or interfering with the opening of the clamp. Our unique interlocking clamp and ball stem allows the clamp to secure with only moderated hand tightness of the screw, so the clamp is easily removed and reinstalled on the bottom of the head. 3. Thank you
@@scottdordick176 - 1. I am sure your products are very good and people know it by the price if not by ownership, but there is no reason to even have the ball in the equation in your demo, as you prove at the end. No level of accuracy (pun!) is more accurate than simply not introducing potential error to begin with. Q. Will the rail on the pano base with leveler not do? Yes it will, so now see Occam's Razor. 2. Anyone looking at BH for two minutes can see endless (perhaps most) ballheads have removable clamps, and that is the only requirement for them to be used upside down. As we work our way down to "moderated hand tightness of the screw" I think I can declare you lost this one. PS You have odd habits in hardware stores. ;)
Can you let me know if there are any issues using their nodal rail with an ultra-wide lens??? What I'm wondering is that if used with an ultra-wide lens, is the rail going to be so long, that it will show up in the shot???
Hi KSS, Often nodal rails are used with focal lengths ranging from semi-wide angle to mild telephoto and that is primarily what we designed our nodal rail for. An ultra-wide would likely have the rail in the bottom of the image. We do have a spherical panoramic head that works with the ultra-wide Sigma 8mm with its 180 degree field of view. I hope this helps, Scott
Unfortunately the problem with this base is that as it is tightened the leveling is thrown off slightly. So one has to try to tighten it while slightly off level so that when tightened, it will be level. It is very frustrating and why I am looking at other leveling bases.
Hi Tom, Please send it in. We never charge for service. The bubble level is the only part we do not make ourselves. We did get some bubble levels that are too sensitive and make it appear out of level when it is only off by a few thousands of an inch. Whatever the issue is, we will take care of it for free, you would only need to pay for shipping.
I do not understand the logic behind these adapters, I can buy a new video head for the price of this adapter. This adapter costs $170, I can buy a Leofoto BV-5 video head for less than that and Leofoto Bv-10 for 10$ more. I bought a Manfrotto MVH500AH for about 100$ in Indian Rupees, and was looking for a Arca Swiss Adapter. The ones from Kirk Photo costs about $145 and others in amazon were also in similar price range. Finally got a Arca type clamp for about $21 and screwed that to the QR plate that came with the head. What is the point in making accessories that cost double than the original product ?
A good video head costs much more than the items you mentioned and they are not Arca Swiss compatible. This attaches to a video plate and allows you to use any Arca Swiss style plate in it. It is shown with a Manfrotto but even that is low end in comparison to what a serious videographer would use but it is a popular head.
@@pattysullivan3136 I Agree to that, but there is a reason good video heads does not use arca swiss plates, it does not provide stability. The adapter in the video stands tall on the existing plate, overall it is going to introduce a lot of play. I'm saying this from experience of trying to jerry rig my manfrotto fluid head to arca. Also what they are trying to achieve can be done with a 20$ arca clamp.
@@rithwikjacob I think that what you are missing is that this was designed almost 15 years ago when DSLR's were becoming capable of shooting video. It was not designed for use with a video camera. If you are experiencing problems with your setup not being stable, it could be what you are using. This is a solid setup for shooting with a dslr or mirrorless camera. The whole purpose is to allow you to use camera specific plates which is a far more stable than using flat plates that rely purely on friction. I really do not know why you think that Arca plates are less stable?
