I concur. I know that some might balk at the price, but I've had mine for three years and it is still going strong. I've even had the pleasure to call and talk to them directly. Small US business with very nice people, they whipped up a nodal rail solution with quick release clamps to integrate with the pan and tilt head perfectly. They put it together within an hour and shipped that day. I am happy to support a small business like Arcatech.
Have one also. Not cheap, especially here in Australia. Easier to use than a ball head. Love the locking release lever, and that it can be adjusted to any Arca Swiss type plate and tensioned correctly. Paired with a Leofoto LS-285CEX RANGER LEVELING) SERIES TRIPOD. Perfect landscape combo.
Finally found a video that describes the SunwayFoto DT-03. While for my big camera and tripod I did adopt Hudson Henery’s MVH500AH fluid head with Kirk Photo’s Arca-Swiss bride I’ve been looking at smaller, simple pan/tilt heads. Bought a LeoFoto VH-30 but Hudson Henry thinks it’s very inferior to the Acrotech Panaramic head. Problem is the Acratech head is between $450-$550 which is a huge cost. Enter the SunwayFoto head which still has som issues when compared to the Acrotech but it’s much better than the VH-30 in my opinion. We will see since I’ve only had the DT-03 a little over a week. And it only cost $79 on Amazon. Thank you and take care.
Had me in the first half 6:53 , I'm not gonna lie. Seems you found a good solution for fast adjustment in one or two directions but still easy to level.
Hi chris. I have the sunway dt-03 as well and replaced the top qr plate with the sunway ddh-07. It is a panning plate and allows you to rotate 90 degrees to accomodate a camera or a long lens foot.
I just ordered a Sunwayphoto leveling base and DT03S tilt head for landscape photography. Idea is similar to yours... level the tripod easily... lock it in, and pan and tilt easily without dealing with the ball head. I found your video after the fact... not much info out there on the Sunwayphoto stuff.
I tried over a dozen heads, including the Manfrotto kirk bridge. Nothing is perfect, all compromise something. Stability, flexibility, weight, cost - take your pick. I passed on the uber expensive RRS heads, but did buy an Acratech circa £500 in UK. Good but still flawed. Now almost given up and just pick the best head I can for any situation Im going to need a tripod for. I'd pay pretty much what it takes for a strong, light, versatile brilliant engineeered head, but sadly never found one. Just bought a Falcam F38 TreeRoot pod with low level head. Looks pretty innovative (more pod than head). I'll review to see how well it suits, but will return if I don't find it adds something to my pod/head arsenal.
I've had that exact pair of leveling base and tilt pan head with a Neewer 200mm slide rail with clamp for about a year now and I like it very much. However, I find I still go back to this a lot of the time: Slik SH-747FC 3-Way Pan-Tilt Head with :Friction Control and Arca-Type Quick Release Set and it has a little flip release to rotate just the mounting clamp 90 degrees. I've never been a fan of ball heads though for the reasons you gave: too much fiddling around making adjustments and oops I'm not level with the horizon or other complaints. I like to be able to loosen 2 axes to get in the general area then lock one down, make adjustments to my composition with the other, lock it down and go back to the first, then use the pan to zero in if needed and this head sits on my 3 Legged Thing leveling base and Winston 2.0 Tripod. Although I find it does work better with the Leofoto leveling base.
I have a similar leveling based from Sirui (LE-60) that I bought to level my Tripod when using my Star Tracker in the field. I had considered the Lefoto version but I needed it for a trip and the Leofoto was backordered. The Sirui is great but I think I'd prefer the locking mechanism on the Leofoto as it can be hard to tighten the Sirui. That said, Leofoto also has the G2 and G20 which are insanely good and can be combined with either a ball head or on their own. The G2/G20 are 10/15 degree adjustable with fine adjustment
For about 15 years I have been using the Manfrotto 804RC2 basic pan tilt head and have mostly been very happy with it. However, I'm planning to photograph the upcoming total solar eclipse of the sun and my experience trying to get images of the moon led me to get a geared Benro head because I need a way to get more controlled movement as the sun/moon move out of frame fairly quickly at the 400mm (on cropped sensor, so 640mm effective view) I plan to use. I'll also be using it for indoor extreme macro, so that's my justification for the outlay. I also have a small ball head for use with a monopod.
I use an FLM LB-15 Levelling Base for my FLM ball head to level and to use it in combination with a panorama rail. High quality and very light. However, under my Nodal Ninja panoramic head I use the Leofoto LB-60N Levelling base. Both setups are fixed on a flat top plate so they can be changed in a minute. They right amount of tension with the Leofoto makes levelling of the Nodal Ninja very easy but the fixation is sometimes hard to unlock. The FLM is using a knob and the fixation is easy and holds even long 2.8 lenses fixated.
The plates you screw on to the bottom of the camera, is the camera still suppose to swivel around or be firm in place? The plates that came with my mount have a little soft button on it next to the screw, I don't know what it's for, but the plate thus won't screw on tight enough so the camera can still pivot horizontally. I can think of only 1 pro for that but many cons as tilting the camera, it feels like it's going to stare at the ground. Or I might nudge it and it will pan on it's own. Tripod I got btw was Joilcan. Really sturdy tripod with some minor inconveniences.
You can use the tripod's ball head to set the tripod level then tighten it and use the pan and tilt head for taking your photo if you are using bridge cameras or not heavy lenses...once the ball head is set there is no need for it's use in the shot
Thank you for your solution. 12:30 This combo sound like perfekt. It looks a little bit to tall. In my opinion, there is a chance to manufakture a system, with an integrated half-ball but upsidedown. and making the tilting axle on the outside of the half-ball. That provides stiffness, compactness and engreas the payload. Maybe some manufacture read my comment, pls 😂
I went for a levelling head and a Leofoto head with only 2 axis ... left-right and up-down. Level your base, and no need for any rotational adjustment. Let's me do panod easily too.
After purchasing and using a manfroto fluid Head came to the same conclusion - to big and heavy. Using a Leofoto vh-30n - pan and tilt with rail that came with it and mounted a haoge cp- 64 on the rail (already had it) Note that Leofoto makes a replacement part lhc 60 that allows the head to be turned 90 degrees. Leveling base newer nw-10. So far great , but interfere with folding tripod legs - a little.
I have gone through about a many doing astro milky ways, the half moon leveling is the greatest BUT say you want to do a pano at night most have numbers in white on the pano section but at night you have to turn on a light and count! So a stepper degree on the base or under the clamp. I took a stepper off the base of a pano rig. With wide angle lenses 35mm and below there is no need for a pano rig you just turn and a stepper with a 15 degree stepper will be good. So at night you just tighten and every time the camera goes into NR mode you go to the next click. Putting a 14 or 12mm or the new 10mm in portrait view there will be no need for multi level for they will capture to over your your head and beyond a little for a high Milky Way arc in August. But for daytime with telephoto lenses use a pano rig either way the half moon level and turning 200 degrees make sure all is level it will be the fastest.
You were so close with the Sunway. Except you got the wrong model. Their geared head is quite compact and light. Once you use a geared head for landscapes you won't go back. I have four geared heads ($350-$1200) and this one is my preference ($350). As for leveling bases I don't know about the Leofoto but I do know the Acratech is my preference after trying many. I believe it to adjusts 15 deg (not as critical with a 3 axis geared head) but the main advantage is its super size circular level. I would not bother with the leveling base but I would take a serious look at the Sunway geared head.
After owning.many different ball heads, I saw the Sunwayfoto GH-PRO II geared head in a review by Adam Gibbs, so I bought one to try it out. I have it mounted on an adjustable leveling base with my FLM CP34-L4 II tripod, and couldn't be more pleased with the extremely controllable, finite control that this setup gives me for landscape photography. This geared head is actually not that big, or heavy and is very reasonably priced. You should take a look at this option more closely. I stll have three other tripods with good ball heads on them (by Colorado Tripod Company), and they work well for my other applications. I also have a small Leofoto leveling base mounted wit a ball head on my mid-size tripod, but it gets pretty stiff to operate / adjust in colder weather conditions.
You and I are on exactly the same journey. I also ended up with the Manfrotto fluid head based on Hudson Henry’s recommendation but I recently had a stumble on an outing and dropped my tripod. Snapped the head off. So now I’m debating between the Sunwayfoto and a similar Leofoto VH-30.
I have the VH-30 with the panning clamp. It sit atop a Leofoto LB-65 leveling base and I absolutely love this combination. I too came across Hudno's videos as well a Thomas Heaton and really liked the simplicity. I've always fussed about how much fanageling a ball he'd takes to level off, and while I own still many ballhead, most are sitting at home. I'm building a travel friendly tripod and I just bought the SIRUI AM - 284 and I think I'm going to try this head and anither leofoto or perhaps a Sunwayfoto leveling base. The only thing the VH30 has that this is missing is the large bubble level). I trust that one more that the bubble level of my LB65.
@@KaReEdCahey there. What benefit do you feel the panning clamp gives you since for panos we usually want it on the bottom of the head, especially if we want to do multi-row. I’ve seen some use them on the VH30 to rotate 90 degrees, but you can mod them easily to allow for that without the weight and expense of a panning clamp. Thanks for any input. I might be missing something.
Just recently bought a new tripod. Arca Swiss plate. I prefer manfrotto plate that snaps in, but most plates are arca these days. On YT trying to find an adapter and ended up here! 😃
Can't believe you don't have the Acratech GXP in here given the title. Although much more expensive it's a 3 function head and doesn't require me to get a separate levelling head.
I've been using a universal one from 3 Legged Thing for the past few years and haven't had a problem with it. I always had camera-specific plates up until I got my G9, but since I couldn't find any, I took a gamble and it paid off.
Just a note fix your audio levels it's not good to watch a video and have to turn your sound up and then at the end the audio for Comercials or other videos is shockingly loud.
When your dealing with a pro body camera and super telephoto lenses you need something that can handle a lot of pounds, im assuming thats why your friend uses that huge fluid head.
Crap. Came to late to this vid. But he is honest. It better to combine thous 2 together (manufacturer doesnt matter) Til/pan and the leveling base. Then you can get any tripod not looking what head it comes with
Thanks for this video, it helped me to take a decision and also to save some money too.
Acratech makes a great tilt and pan head with a built-in knob for rotating that top piece 90 degrees.
They do indeed, beautiful engineering which is reflected in the price, which is waaay out of my budget.
I concur. I know that some might balk at the price, but I've had mine for three years and it is still going strong. I've even had the pleasure to call and talk to them directly. Small US business with very nice people, they whipped up a nodal rail solution with quick release clamps to integrate with the pan and tilt head perfectly. They put it together within an hour and shipped that day. I am happy to support a small business like Arcatech.
Have one also. Not cheap, especially here in Australia. Easier to use than a ball head. Love the locking release lever, and that it can be adjusted to any Arca Swiss type plate and tensioned correctly. Paired with a Leofoto LS-285CEX RANGER LEVELING) SERIES TRIPOD. Perfect landscape combo.
Finally found a video that describes the SunwayFoto DT-03. While for my big camera and tripod I did adopt Hudson Henery’s MVH500AH fluid head with Kirk Photo’s Arca-Swiss bride I’ve been looking at smaller, simple pan/tilt heads. Bought a LeoFoto VH-30 but Hudson Henry thinks it’s very inferior to the Acrotech Panaramic head. Problem is the Acratech head is between $450-$550 which is a huge cost. Enter the SunwayFoto head which still has som issues when compared to the Acrotech but it’s much better than the VH-30 in my opinion. We will see since I’ve only had the DT-03 a little over a week. And it only cost $79 on Amazon. Thank you and take care.
Had me in the first half 6:53 , I'm not gonna lie. Seems you found a good solution for fast adjustment in one or two directions but still easy to level.
Hi chris. I have the sunway dt-03 as well and replaced the top qr plate with the sunway ddh-07. It is a panning plate and allows you to rotate 90 degrees to accomodate a camera or a long lens foot.
I just ordered a Sunwayphoto leveling base and DT03S tilt head for landscape photography. Idea is similar to yours... level the tripod easily... lock it in, and pan and tilt easily without dealing with the ball head. I found your video after the fact... not much info out there on the Sunwayphoto stuff.
I tried over a dozen heads, including the Manfrotto kirk bridge. Nothing is perfect, all compromise something. Stability, flexibility, weight, cost - take your pick.
I passed on the uber expensive RRS heads, but did buy an Acratech circa £500 in UK. Good but still flawed. Now almost given up and just pick the best head I can for any situation Im going to need a tripod for.
I'd pay pretty much what it takes for a strong, light, versatile brilliant engineeered head, but sadly never found one.
Just bought a Falcam F38 TreeRoot pod with low level head. Looks pretty innovative (more pod than head). I'll review to see how well it suits, but will return if I don't find it adds something to my pod/head arsenal.
I've had that exact pair of leveling base and tilt pan head with a Neewer 200mm slide rail with clamp for about a year now and I like it very much. However, I find I still go back to this a lot of the time: Slik SH-747FC 3-Way Pan-Tilt Head with :Friction Control and Arca-Type Quick Release Set and it has a little flip release to rotate just the mounting clamp 90 degrees. I've never been a fan of ball heads though for the reasons you gave: too much fiddling around making adjustments and oops I'm not level with the horizon or other complaints. I like to be able to loosen 2 axes to get in the general area then lock one down, make adjustments to my composition with the other, lock it down and go back to the first, then use the pan to zero in if needed and this head sits on my 3 Legged Thing leveling base and Winston 2.0 Tripod. Although I find it does work better with the Leofoto leveling base.
I have a similar leveling based from Sirui (LE-60) that I bought to level my Tripod when using my Star Tracker in the field. I had considered the Lefoto version but I needed it for a trip and the Leofoto was backordered. The Sirui is great but I think I'd prefer the locking mechanism on the Leofoto as it can be hard to tighten the Sirui.
That said, Leofoto also has the G2 and G20 which are insanely good and can be combined with either a ball head or on their own. The G2/G20 are 10/15 degree adjustable with fine adjustment
For about 15 years I have been using the Manfrotto 804RC2 basic pan tilt head and have mostly been very happy with it. However, I'm planning to photograph the upcoming total solar eclipse of the sun and my experience trying to get images of the moon led me to get a geared Benro head because I need a way to get more controlled movement as the sun/moon move out of frame fairly quickly at the 400mm (on cropped sensor, so 640mm effective view) I plan to use. I'll also be using it for indoor extreme macro, so that's my justification for the outlay.
I also have a small ball head for use with a monopod.
I use an FLM LB-15 Levelling Base for my FLM ball head to level and to use it in combination with a panorama rail. High quality and very light. However, under my Nodal Ninja panoramic head I use the Leofoto LB-60N Levelling base. Both setups are fixed on a flat top plate so they can be changed in a minute. They right amount of tension with the Leofoto makes levelling of the Nodal Ninja very easy but the fixation is sometimes hard to unlock. The FLM is using a knob and the fixation is easy and holds even long 2.8 lenses fixated.
The plates you screw on to the bottom of the camera, is the camera still suppose to swivel around or be firm in place? The plates that came with my mount have a little soft button on it next to the screw, I don't know what it's for, but the plate thus won't screw on tight enough so the camera can still pivot horizontally. I can think of only 1 pro for that but many cons as tilting the camera, it feels like it's going to stare at the ground. Or I might nudge it and it will pan on it's own. Tripod I got btw was Joilcan. Really sturdy tripod with some minor inconveniences.
You can use the tripod's ball head to set the tripod level then tighten it and use the pan and tilt head for taking your photo if you are using bridge cameras or not heavy lenses...once the ball head is set there is no need for it's use in the shot
RRS BH-55 is my beast mode for landscape photography
Thank you for your solution. 12:30
This combo sound like perfekt. It looks a little bit to tall.
In my opinion, there is a chance to manufakture a system, with an integrated half-ball but upsidedown. and making the tilting axle on the outside of the half-ball.
That provides stiffness, compactness and engreas the payload.
Maybe some manufacture read my comment, pls 😂
Sunway makes very good quality heads
I went for a levelling head and a Leofoto head with only 2 axis ... left-right and up-down.
Level your base, and no need for any rotational adjustment. Let's me do panod easily too.
After purchasing and using a manfroto fluid Head came to the same conclusion - to big and heavy.
Using a Leofoto vh-30n - pan and tilt with rail that came with it and mounted a haoge cp- 64 on the rail (already had it) Note that Leofoto makes a replacement part lhc 60 that allows the head to be turned 90 degrees.
Leveling base newer nw-10.
So far great , but interfere with folding tripod legs - a little.
I have gone through about a many doing astro milky ways, the half moon leveling is the greatest BUT say you want to do a pano at night most have numbers in white on the pano section but at night you have to turn on a light and count! So a stepper degree on the base or under the clamp. I took a stepper off the base of a pano rig. With wide angle lenses 35mm and below there is no need for a pano rig you just turn and a stepper with a 15 degree stepper will be good. So at night you just tighten and every time the camera goes into NR mode you go to the next click. Putting a 14 or 12mm or the new 10mm in portrait view there will be no need for multi level for they will capture to over your your head and beyond a little for a high Milky Way arc in August. But for daytime with telephoto lenses use a pano rig either way the half moon level and turning 200 degrees make sure all is level it will be the fastest.
You were so close with the Sunway. Except you got the wrong model. Their geared head is quite compact and light. Once you use a geared head for landscapes you won't go back. I have four geared heads ($350-$1200) and this one is my preference ($350). As for leveling bases I don't know about the Leofoto but I do know the Acratech is my preference after trying many. I believe it to adjusts 15 deg (not as critical with a 3 axis geared head) but the main advantage is its super size circular level. I would not bother with the leveling base but I would take a serious look at the Sunway geared head.
After owning.many different ball heads, I saw the Sunwayfoto GH-PRO II geared head in a review by Adam Gibbs, so I bought one to try it out. I have it mounted on an adjustable leveling base with my FLM CP34-L4 II tripod, and couldn't be more pleased with the extremely controllable, finite control that this setup gives me for landscape photography. This geared head is actually not that big, or heavy and is very reasonably priced. You should take a look at this option more closely. I stll have three other tripods with good ball heads on them (by Colorado Tripod Company), and they work well for my other applications. I also have a small Leofoto leveling base mounted wit a ball head on my mid-size tripod, but it gets pretty stiff to operate / adjust in colder weather conditions.
What geared head model are you referring to?
@@alaintran84 Gh-Pro II
You and I are on exactly the same journey. I also ended up with the Manfrotto fluid head based on Hudson Henry’s recommendation but I recently had a stumble on an outing and dropped my tripod. Snapped the head off. So now I’m debating between the Sunwayfoto and a similar Leofoto VH-30.
The VH-30 was another contender when I was looking into this style, but just wasn't sure if it was going to be worth paying almost twice as much.
I have the VH-30 with the panning clamp. It sit atop a Leofoto LB-65 leveling base and I absolutely love this combination. I too came across Hudno's videos as well a Thomas Heaton and really liked the simplicity. I've always fussed about how much fanageling a ball he'd takes to level off, and while I own still many ballhead, most are sitting at home.
I'm building a travel friendly tripod and I just bought the SIRUI AM - 284 and I think I'm going to try this head and anither leofoto or perhaps a Sunwayfoto leveling base.
The only thing the VH30 has that this is missing is the large bubble level). I trust that one more that the bubble level of my LB65.
@@KaReEdCahey there. What benefit do you feel the panning clamp gives you since for panos we usually want it on the bottom of the head, especially if we want to do multi-row. I’ve seen some use them on the VH30 to rotate 90 degrees, but you can mod them easily to allow for that without the weight and expense of a panning clamp. Thanks for any input. I might be missing something.
Just recently bought a new tripod. Arca Swiss plate. I prefer manfrotto plate that snaps in, but most plates are arca these days. On YT trying to find an adapter and ended up here! 😃
Use the level in the camera!
Can't believe you don't have the Acratech GXP in here given the title. Although much more expensive it's a 3 function head and doesn't require me to get a separate levelling head.
That is essentially a ballhead. If anything, the acretechblong lens is closer to this... But it's 5x more expensive.
LeoFoto is Dope Dawg
I’ve been looking at a 2 way head as well… but having a real hard time finding L-brackets for my pany m43 cameras. /sigh
I've been using a universal one from 3 Legged Thing for the past few years and haven't had a problem with it. I always had camera-specific plates up until I got my G9, but since I couldn't find any, I took a gamble and it paid off.
@@csnyderphoto i just returned a 3 legged thing Lexie, as it wobbled even when fully screwed down.
Just a note fix your audio levels it's not good to watch a video and have to turn your sound up and then at the end the audio for Comercials or other videos is shockingly loud.
When your dealing with a pro body camera and super telephoto lenses you need something that can handle a lot of pounds, im assuming thats why your friend uses that huge fluid head.
That's precisely what I said 😄
Crap. Came to late to this vid. But he is honest. It better to combine thous 2 together (manufacturer doesnt matter)
Til/pan and the leveling base. Then you can get any tripod not looking what head it comes with
RRS. 13 minutes of your lives saved. You are welcome.
Not close view
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Where's the Platyball?
That has always been one I've found interesting and would love to check out, but not something I've wanted to spend my own money on.
Not any more than you pay for any other quality tripod head. No knows to deal with or break off in transit.
That's knobs