What Photography Related Item Have You Bought or Sold This Week?

[Bryan Conner]

I have the Sunwayforo Geared head also, which I use most for precision landscape framing. For that purpose it’s great.
What would you say differentiates this head from a ball? Just thinking about it seems like it would be somewhat restrictive in use?

It is restrictive in use, which is why, in my opinion, it needs to be mounted on a leveling base which gives you some lateral adjustment. But, this "restriction" is also what I like about it. It is much easier for me to get the camera level on the head after leveling the tripod head for panoramas. Even though my Linhof ballhead has adjustable resistance to keep the camera from "flopping", it is still difficult for me to loosen the head a bit with one hand to enable me to to move the camera on the head with the other hand. For me, this is partly because of the infinite possibility of movement direction of a ball head. I want to tilt the camera up a bit, but I instead tilt it up and a bit to the left. Sometimes, it feels like leveling a heavy camera/lens on my ballhead is like trying to herd cats. But that is just me. A head like the VH-30R will rotate and move up and down. So, when I get the head level using the leveling base, I can put my camera on the head and then the camera is level laterally and I only have to level it up and down. It isn't easy for me to explain it. I didn't understand it myself until I tried a small version on my monopod.

For me, each type of head has its place and each type has advantages and disadvantages.