Nikon Z7, Tamron SP 90mm f2.8 VC, 10 Image Focus Stack
With some recent birthday money and proceeds from the sale of a print, I picked up a new ballhead for my tripod. I tired of fighting the sag that my old ballhead would inevitably produce whenever I tightened the locking clamp so I decided to pay a bit more and pick up a decent ballhead. Originally, I was looking at an FLM CB-58 FTR as it had topped the list of large ballheads as most stable in DPReview’s test several years ago. Right before I was about to pull the trigger, though, I came across ProMediaGear. They have some great products, including some unique ones like their BH-1 ballhead that offers a greater range of positions over a traditional ballhead. And best of all, they’re made right here in Chicagoland! I couldn’t resist trying out a product from a local company.
After weighing the pros and cons of the BH1 and the more traditional but higher capacity BH50, I opted to go for the latter option with the idea that I could use it with my 4×5 camera. It’s such a stout head that I may also try the 8×10 at some point, but want to do some more testing first.
As a bit of a shakedown, I decided I wanted to try the ballhead shooting some close-up stuff and some telephoto stuff — two areas where the sag issues from my previous ballhead were especially annoying. This shot of some old rusty gears that have become a home for a colony of lichen was the subject for my closeup work. Initial impressions are very, very favorable. There wasn’t a fraction of a degree of sag with the ballhead and the large tightening knob is just a delight to use. The telephoto stuff isn’t really worth posting but the head performed admirably there, too.
After using the head some more, I’ll make sure to post a little review of it because while the BH1 has quite a bit of coverage out on the ‘net, there’s a dearth of information regarding the BH50. If my initial impression is any indication, I’m going to be really, really happy with the head and I’d love to post some positive press for a hometown company.
Meanwhile, I’m still getting the hang of focus stacking and still need to play with this technique some more, especially with the very easy implementation on the Z7. Nevertheless, I’m getting better at it. While this shot has some foibles, they’re smaller than previous efforts and I’m liking the end results more than earlier attempts.