From any ball head, you want to have the peace of mind of knowing your gear will not vibrate nor move at all out of its own volition. This saves from blurred images and potential costly repairs from nasty falls. It should stay put exactly where you set it. That is why one should avoid as much as possible any mini or midi-ball.

Markins fine products lineup

The Arca Swiss Monoballs soon after introduction became the dream of many amateurs and pros, at the forefront of quality and performance. Even today, after some 30 years of its introduction into the market, the unique ball shape (an ellipse rather than a sphere) still distinguishes it from all others. The heavier your gear, the more the advantages of the Arca Swiss become evident. This design promotes complete lock of the ball head; nevertheless, endorsement was always wide. 

Also under the light of endorsements, the next best option was then the Kirk BH-1. The Kirk is the heaviest of those tested and the separate friction knob isn't "as clean a design as the integral tension dial that Arca and Markins use", as Nikonian BJ Nicholls has pointed out. However, like the Arca, the Kirk BH-1 got high praise from pro photographers. And there is no doubt that the RRS looks sexy with its dual open channels. As for a lever action clamp that some may prefer, it can be installed on any ball head.

The table below may shed some additional light into the why of my change of mind and sudden urge to get a Markins instead, despite prior recommendations:

Arca Swiss B1**	Kirk BH-1	RRS BH-55 Pro	Markins  M10***
Weight: 1.7 lbs	2 lbs	1.86 lbs	1.1 lbs
772 grams	909 grams	843 grams	498 grams
Load capacity: 90 lbs*	88 lbs*	50 lbs	88 lbs
40.9 Kg*	40 Kg*	23 Kg	40 Kg
Load/Weight ratio: 53:1 -	44:1* -	27:1 -	80:1 .
Height: 4.5 inches	4.5 inches	3.7 inches	3.9 inches
114mm	114mm	93mm	98mm
Street Price at the time $390 -	$355	$415	$340
100%	91%	106%	87%
* Assumed. Do not specify load capacity. ** Now discontinued *** Now upgraded to the Q10

The four ball heads in the table above give you the peace of mind that your gear will stay put when fully locked. The bigger the load the ball head can handle, the easier it is, and the bigger the ratio of load capacity to the weight of the head itself, the more efficient. This means you don't have to pay a weight toll for getting such peace of mind.  

The only ball head manufacturer who publishes the torque of their products is Markins. The M10 was rated at 175 lbf-in (200 kgf-cm). This means that the maximum load rating for the M10 is measured at a 5 cm (1.97 in) displacement of the center of gravity of the load from the center of gravity of the ball head (200 kg-cm/5cm = 40 Kg).

The recommendation for professional ball heads is to have at least three times the load capacity for your heaviest camera-lens combination in order to have smooth operation at the "sweet spot". The sweet spot is the friction setting where you can still move your gear under pressure, but it will stay put, won't creep at any angle, without having to touch the controls at all, yet retaining smoothness and preventing flopping of your gear. You may want to try them all yourself as we did, you will see that only half of the above heads can do it. Is it that important? Most serious photographers and especially macro shooters will tell you that precise positioning with no creep is critical.

The Markins M10 was the lightest of all four, the smallest, capable of the same loads of the other biggies -with room to spare to ensure smoothness- and the price is most competitive (the lowest). This has been further improved by Markins with the introduction of the Q10 and Q20 ball heads. An updated comparison is at the conclusions.

So Markins shattered the old logic: "The larger the ball, the sturdier the head" with its patented unique floating bi-axial locking mechanism. When adding that materials, manufacturing and finish are at least as good as those on any other of the very few pro ball heads, not to mention easier handling, all these factors made it the clear winner and the decision to purchase and recommend it really easy. 

The Markins heads are of high quality. The design is simple, its operation even more and have proven to be reliable in the field as attested by its users. So we then turned into how to be able to share them with Nikonians around the world.