Universal 360° Swivel Bracket Head with Rail Mount for Camera Tripod

Pros: Works well for non-demanding applications, and capable of supporting most non-exotic camera setups (I tested with a 1.8kb camera + lens + flash combination). Arca-Swiss style clamp and bracket, compatible with many other manufacturers (but marginally so -- see below). The ball knobs are dampened with thick grease (you can hear it gurgle when rotating...). Decent rubber coating on the knobs.

Cons: The movement is not perfectly smooth, and not perfectly uniform across the ball's range. It's quite usable, but don't expect the luxurious feeling of models that cost x10. The main head assembly is attached to the base with 3 small screws, which on my unit kept getting loose so the head jiggled in its base. To make things worse, internally there's a lot of grease around these screws (for dampening horizontal rotation), and once the grease gets into the threads they certainly won't stay put. I had to clean away the grease from the threads and screws with a solvent, and glue the screws in place with a Loctite Blue thread locker. (The screw's heads are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike metric 2.0 ball hex socket.) The "sweet spot" of the friction knob is very narrow and hard to get right. (This is the setting where friction is enough to keep the camera up but still lets you move around when the main knob is loose.) Vertical "dipping" of the ball head when tightening the main knob is relatively small (I've seen worse on much more expensive models). However, when you loosen the main knob to make adjustments it does not return, so if you tighten and untighten the knob repeatedly, the camera will slowly walk down. The clamp cannot be easily replaced. It's easy to remove (straight-through screw, use a metric 4.0 hex wrench), but the stem has a raised area that goes into a indent in the clamp to maintain orientation.

Other: Excellent value. Excellent functionality and decent ergonomics, but be prepared to clean and glue-in the 3 screws at the base.

Pros: This is VERY cheap. In Holland you pay at least 4/5 times as much for a ballhead. Its strong enough to hold a DSLR with grip, a 70/200 and a 2x converter stable. The ballhead is very stable, no slack. (Except a little bit when you loosen the horizontal rotation knob, but not much.)

Cons: The one i got had a small imperfection on the ballhead. After several tries I found it to be not so smooth. When i opened the ballhead i saw there was a little imperfection that had scratched the plastic cup it was in. After I covered the plastic cup with plumbers Teflon tape, and filed down the little imperfection, it was baby smooth again. The exact friction position when in use is a little tricky to find at first, but after a couple of weeks I get in in 2 sec.

Other: Just make sure when you get the ballhead, first disasemble it to make sure there are no imperfections. If there are: File them down. When you do it's a decent ballhead for little money. If you want a ballhead but don't have the money for a "pro"buy it, you won't get disappointed.

Pros: Sturdy Good Construction Screw fits perfectly into standard camera

Cons: None that I can think of

Other: Good item. If you need a sturdy mount to resist a lot of weight and force, this might be a good choice