The Markins Ball Heads
by J. Ramón Palacios

username: jrp
Nikonian in Mexico

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INTRODUCTION

The absolute sharpness of the landscapes and architectural images we admire has a lot to do with the rock steadiness of the camera while shooting. To obtain it, a sturdy tripod and an unmovable tripod head are a must. Having a ballhead therefore meant to be at least halfway towards the professionals level in terms of camera support, adding to vibration reduction, ease of use in the field and equipment safety.  However, these most ingenious devices came not in comfortable sizes, nor weights and definitively not prices. 

Arca Swiss and Kirk ballheads

So while I upgraded tripods, kept on using various 3-way heads, but dedicated long hours to study the structural, mechanical and operational characteristics of the top ball heads ... and to yearning. 

It soon became very evident the superiority and ease of use of the top brands. One single partial twist of a knob (or none!) and the camera could be tilted, inclined, in fact rotated. And most made panning a cinch. Locking capacity was comparatively huge, making the camera almost impossible to move after setting.

The questions "Do I really need one?", "Can it really make my images better?", "Can I justify it?", had different answers depending on the mood and the budget at the time. One good night, very late, after reading John Shaw's "Close ups in Nature" and "Landscape Photography" for the n^th time, the answers to the three questions were simply: "Yes", "Yes" and "I don't have to" respectively. I must have been running a fever since I also remember the thought: "Ok, I have the F4 and the 24mm f/2.8 AF like he does, all I need now is the ballhead". Yeah, right!

Anyway, I took upon serious consideration Shaw's recommendation for a Bogen 3038 (Manfrotto 268) and decided against their lever design. These are now discontinued so the market has spoken. But the decision to go into a pro ball head was made. After the excellent experience with Manfrotto tripods (Bogen in the USA) and John Shaw's admonition "Generally speaking, the larger the ball, the sturdier the head", I kept on looking into their products and bought the knob design Manfrotto 468RC (now updated as a 468MGRC2 / Bogen 3435QR). The then existing 469RC just seemed unnecessarily massive. Well, my camera was finally rock steady, it never vibrated again, slip, creep or twist, once I had the 200PLARCH-14 (Bogen 3157NR) "architectural" plates on.  I have no complaints, only praise for this ballhead, even when it made my carbon fiber tripod top-heavy.

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So I was in ball head heaven for no less than three years, until Nikonian BJ Nicholls posted a message to say: "Have you seen the Markins ball head?"  I've seen it and it had caught my attention, so went back for a fourth and fifth closer look. That was the beginning of the end of the intensity of my love affair with the 3435QR. Deep affection and gratefulness remain; I still occasionally use one of the two that I ended up buying with all sorts of plates for camera bodies and lenses. (The other later became a Christmas gift for a relative). No regrets. But as soon as I saw the Markins, read its specs, made an objective comparative analysis over its metrics and listen to the impressions of its users, I knew what I wanted now.