Leofoto LH-40PCL Ballhead Review
A solid ballhead is something that every good photographer should have in their kit. Us I told you before I started to have difficult problems in my photo trips with strong winds and that helped me to understand the importance of a good ballhead. Just like buying a tripod, if you buy the right ballhead it will last a lifetime because unlike today's cameras and lenses, technology of modern ballheads is relatively simple and changes very little. Instead it all comes down to manufacturing quality and machining accuracy to produce a perfect, solid platform for your camera.
Everything about getting a ballhead seems to push you up to a higher price bracket. It started with the cheapest option (and not very cheap at that); the Manfrotto 3ways milimetric head. During my last trip to Iceland, I had very difficulty to stabilise the photos, i had very strong winds tempest.
OVERVIEW AND SPECIFICATIONS
- Leofoto LH-40PCL with a ball 40 mm in diameter.
- Three locking controls for maximum weight control placed on top.
- NP-60 removable aluminum shoe, Swiss Swiss type.
- Bubble level indicator
- Two position quick lock lever
- 360º panoramic rotator with independent locking
- 90 mm height
- Supports a weight of 30 Kg
- Weight of 560 grams.
- 57 mm pan base
- The base with 3/8 screw entry
- Three locking controls for maximum weight control placed on top.
- NP-60 removable aluminum shoe, Swiss Swiss type.
- Bubble level indicator
- Two position quick lock lever
- 360º panoramic rotator with independent locking
- 90 mm height
- Supports a weight of 30 Kg
- Weight of 560 grams.
- 57 mm pan base
- The base with 3/8 screw entry
This is a very compact ball head model with some serious weight shaving compared to the LH-55, weighing in at 60% as much as the larger head. as wide at the minimum primary diameter and those numbers do not seem as differentiating as they appear in real life (hopefully the comparison image makes that difference clear for you).
Recommended for any telephoto lenses, including super telephoto lenses:
600mm F/4, 800mm F/5.6, 200-400mm F/4, 500mm F/4, 400mm F/2.8, 300mm F/2.8, 100-400mm F/5.6, 50-500mm F/6.3, etc.
600mm F/4, 800mm F/5.6, 200-400mm F/4, 500mm F/4, 400mm F/2.8, 300mm F/2.8, 100-400mm F/5.6, 50-500mm F/6.3, etc.
For the delicate operation of the head it is highly important to carefully balance out the mounted equipment!
The clamp can only capture 60 mm or longer plates.
BODY
This ballhead chassis is very-strongly and precisely CNC-machined from aircraft aluminum.
BALL LOCK KNOB
The ball lock knob is the part that you will spend plenty of time with it in your hand. These knobs are generally rounded or in a lever configuration. In this ball head is not round but a machineted in a lever knob. While round knobs are generally easier to roll with fingers, they cannot be made large enough on a compact head. The extra length is needed to comfortably provide the torque necessary to lock a ball tightly and this head gets the lever.
BALL TENSION CONTROL KNOB
When we talk in mid larger size ballheads models the Ball tension control knobs are a common. A tapered, rounded design makes the knob easy to roll in the fingers.
As alluded to, I typically find that the ball tension should be comfortably-tight for the least amount of ball movement on lockdown. The movement is most-readily seen in longer focal length lenses and these larger lenses are typically more usable under stronger tension than smaller ones. So, that issue mostly works itself out naturally.
DUAL DROP NOTCHES AND LOW HEIGHT PROFILE BALLHEAH
Ergonomic large main locking knob gives easy handling. Low height proffile gives better reliability. Preisely machined ball makes the movementsilky smooth. Dualdrop - nothes allow you easy change from andscape mode to portrait mode or other angle shots. Laser-engraved scale on the panning base for easy and precise control during panorama shooting.
The front-positioned drop notch is most common and shooting upward means that the ball lock knob is going to feel like it is on the wrong side of the head for most photographers. If not using an L-plate or lens-plate-equipped lens, visualize the camera and main knob positions when the camera is in vertical orientation to assess the design of a ball head.
PANNING BASE AND CLAMP
Now a days almost good tripod ball heads are equipped with a panning base, and the LH-40PCL remains the tradition, but with improvements, they assembed a clamp panning at the top of the ball, allowing the head to be rotated regardless of the position of ball adjustment keeping the tripod leveled without a level base.
Both the base and the upper clamp include the orientation of the ball lock button for comfortable use, for panorama capture and to simply move the object's frame from side to side.
The Leofoto LH-40 Ball Head's panning base measures 57 mm. Another common feature on the panning base is an index. Indexed bases are most frequently used for precision panorama captures and this head has this feature with marks laser-engraved at 2.5 degree intervals.
What I think is missing in this part is stop knob to give audible and tactile clicks every 15˚.
Ball heads minimally require threads on the ball stem and ideally have a quick release clamp for convenient camera mounting. The LH-40PCL clampis compatible with the highly-desriable Arca-Swiss standard.
lso of high importance is how the clamp's locking mechanism works. This head is available with a lever-release or screw-knob clamp. The screw-knob is a large CNC-machined aluminum design that works great.
COLD WEATHER BEHAVIOR
Not all ballheads behave in the same way on mild days and on days with negative temperatures, sometimes the operation of the ball head is negatively impacted by very low temperatures.
Leofoto did exhaustive tests to make the material behave in the same way with the various meteorological conditions, they submitted the material to negative temperatures to make sure it would work the same way.
GEAR CAPACITY RECOMMENDATIONS
Generally, ball head manufacturers provide load capacity specs for their heads and expect you to figure out what gear will play nicely together with their respective heads. While that can work, I'm generally not comfortable using weights approaching max load capacity with vibrations and load manageability being primary issues.
Can be easily assembled 600mm F/4, 800mm F/5.6, 200-400mm F/4, 500mm F/4, 400mm F/2.8, 300mm F/2.8, 100-400mm F/5.6, 50-500mm F/6.3,
PRICE AND VALUE
Leofoto can be purchased for its value and great performance and also for the great looks, i think for the quality they offer in this ballhead, is not expensive, you can buy this ballhead in Spain in Leofoto.es for 249€ .
Those who understand and appreciate the value of quality buy Leofoto products without hesitation.
MY CONCLUSION
This is a very robust set, a good carbon tripe, 1.5kg in height, with the 32mm thickest leg.
based on my photographic experience and with the photographic travel experience this is a tripe for exhaustive use, for everyday life, it is a light, small tripe that can easily travel in a handbag. In my opinion if you are going to shoot for places like Iceland, Norway, Canada, it may not be an advisable tripod, since they are countries with very adverse weather conditions, then I advise the purchase of Leofoto mountain tripods.
The Ballhead, is a very complete head, also very robust, withstands a lot of weight without any type of problem, easily withstands the weather of the most complicated countries.
Both the tripod and the ballhead have been tested and work perfectly in minus temperatures.
I can say more, I really like this set, and I can tell you that it will be my photography company for a long time.
based on my photographic experience and with the photographic travel experience this is a tripe for exhaustive use, for everyday life, it is a light, small tripe that can easily travel in a handbag. In my opinion if you are going to shoot for places like Iceland, Norway, Canada, it may not be an advisable tripod, since they are countries with very adverse weather conditions, then I advise the purchase of Leofoto mountain tripods.
The Ballhead, is a very complete head, also very robust, withstands a lot of weight without any type of problem, easily withstands the weather of the most complicated countries.
Both the tripod and the ballhead have been tested and work perfectly in minus temperatures.
I can say more, I really like this set, and I can tell you that it will be my photography company for a long time.
WHAT I LIKED
-Made of carbon fiber, which becomes a resistant and durable tripod
-There’s an incredible amount of controls that allow the user to dial in the perfect camera position
-The controls are smooth and glides around with ease!
-The Top Clamp with Panning Base, easy to make panoramas.
WHAT I FEEL COULD BE IMPROVED
- Could come equipped with a hand grip on one of the legs
- The spiked feets could have a rubber cover, to avoid taking off
- Could have a stop knob to give audible and tactile clicks every 15˚
