» Bogen-Manfrotto 482 Micro Ball Head

Bogen-Manfrotto 482 Micro Ball Head Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Ball head works great with monopod
Comment: Bogen-Manfrotto 482 Micro Ball Head
(5 stars for my purposes, 4 stars over-all)
I found this ball head to work great with my monopod (Manfrotto 790B, giving a high degree of flexibility and stability in low/lower light situation. It allowed me to take good pictures of frogs and other Costa Rican wildlife behind glass and during night hikes using just a (good quality) LED flashlight for lighting (better than flash). It allowed me to prop against walls, ground, etc. for good stability in many different angles and position, even without tightening down the ball. It is also compact enough to not get in the way when hanging the monopod on my arm or using the monopod for a walking stick at other times. The quality is much better that other small ball heads I looked at. It was perfect for my uses with small to medium sized equipment (12x optical w/ IS), but would probably not be suitable for lager bodies and lenses. For those I would use a tripod and a larger ball head. But I value the ease and flexibility in wild life situations, such as rain forests, where shot opportunities are often fleeting and lighting is often low (even during the day). It is very easy to spin off & on my camera ( w/ monopod & head in vertical position) with the extra bulk and expense of a quick release head.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Excelente producto
Comment: Hace mas de 2 años que poseo una Canon PowerShot A640 10MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom, esta es mi primera camara digital y lo que aprendi con el uso diario me llevo a la necesidad de comprarme un trípode practico y portátil. Eso me llevo a comprarme el Joby GP3-01EN Gorillapod SLR-Zoom Flexible Tripod for Digital SLR Cameras, el cual al contrario de los modelos 1 y 2 no trae la cabeza flexible para poder ajustar los ejes de vision de la camara.

Buscando en la red y leyendo muchos foros, blogs y grupos de flickr, me decidi por comprarme esta cabeza de trípode sin muchas expectativas.
La verdad es que funciona a la perfeccion con el Gorillapod3 lo cual lo convierte en casi una compra obligada si posees unos de estos tripodes.

La camara se ajusta firme y el sistema de bola permite girar casi a cualquier lugar la misma.

En cuanto a la construcción, es muy resistente no es del tipo plástico frágil, se siente muy solido y se nota que resiste el uso intenso.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Perfect for travel tripod
Comment: I have a small Slik Sprint Pro tripod that came with a small ball head. The Slik head wouldn't keep my DSLR with a medium zoom locked, so I replaced it with this head. The 482 works great and is the perfect head for this light tripod - certainly not as stable as a larger head and tripod but the combo works great when weight is a premium.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good value, few features
Comment: This is the Bogen/Manfrotto 482 Ball Head. I use it on a monopod with my Nikon 35mm and digital SLR cameras so I can get moderate adjustments without tilting the monopod at an awkward angle. It works well up to a 300mm f/5.6 lens.

There is only one lever to adjust both tilt and pan, but of course on a monopod, that's not really a problem. You need to make sure you cinch the locking knob down tight, as there is no adjustable friction, so once it is loose it is very loose. For tripod use, note also there is no separate knob to adjust pan, making it a bit tricky to create a set of shots you want to later stitch together into a single panorama.

Manfrotto ball heads certainly don't have all the capability of much more expensive heads from Arca or Gitzo, but they do the job well and you can't beat the price. If you are looking for a tripod-mounted ball head for use with a digital SLR such as the Nikon D70, I would suggest the next size up, the 484, which Amazon calls the Manfrotto Mini Ball Head. You can get it with or without a quick release plate.

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