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Look,
Feel, Weight, and Support
The
Markins M10 is a smaller ball head than you would expect.
It is no weakling however. In fact, for its size it supports
more weight than any other heads in its class.
The
smaller size means that your very light carbon-fiber
tripod will
not feel top heavy like with some of the other big
fat heads that support less weight.
The
Markins has a unique patented "bi-axial locking
mechanism" that allows it to be smaller and lighter,
yet support more weight. In fact, the weight to load
ratio is 80:1, which means the Markins will support eighty
times more weight than it itself weighs.
The
M10/M20 use the industry standard Arca Swiss style dove-tail
plates, so you'll never have problems finding extra plates
for them. I bought three Markins plates for my M10; one
for each the D2X, D200, and my larger Nikkor 80-400mm
lens. You'll
want to get a plate for each camera body and any
lenses with collars,
since they are designed to attach semi-permanently.
Other
tripod heads I've used in the past were simply too tall.
Some of the squeeze type heads can be so tall that you
can't fully extend the legs of the tripod and still look
through the camera viewfinder. The Markins M10 is not overly
tall at 3.9 inches (98mm). I am slightly less than six
feet tall (1.83 meters), and I can comfortably extend my
tripod to full height and still see through the camera
viewfinder.
Some
low cost ball heads have an oily or greasy substance smeared
on the ball, and since your hands are always touching
the area you will invariably get the grease on your hands.
This substance always seems to attract dust too.
Fortunately,
the Markins ball heads do not have any oil or grease on
the ball. The Markins is designed to be used
in
a wide range of weather conditions, and will not attract
a lot of dust to the ball area. It is basically a "maintenance
free" head. You'll be able to use it for years without
worrying about oiling the thing. Just clean it every once
in a while with a dry rag, and you are ready to go.
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