Precision Rifle Gear Fix that BallHead, stumbled on a thought

[Lowlight]

So today we were talking, tripods, ball heads, Anvil 30 vs the others, and we were looking at the legacy ball heads

We had a thought, so I tried it, and it works,

Ignore the connector, I had to bridge two different size studs, and the stem on the RRS has a notch so it's not flat, but a tiny modification and this will work, and it feels solid.

Whaddya Think ?

I have a knock off, cheap head coming, I am gonna do this for real to see if it improves the feeling

 

[Lowlight]

 

[Nik H]

Pretty slick idea

 

[Lowlight]

you want the stem to be flat, this one has a notch in it, then you need to open up the threading to the tripod, the 1/4 is too small which is why I have the adapter on it.

But it changes the ball head and if you drop a step down insert on the bottom, mount the plate there, and then open up the stem, this works.

 

[strikeeagle1]

I fabricated some similar contrivings years ago connecting a Swarovski CF tripod to Manfrotto's / HOG saddles / LaRue picatinny adapters. It
worked quite well when the mounts were as low as possible on the center column-tripod interface. Also needed to fabricate a few different
connector bolts for thread size mismatch and metric v. imperial threading.

 

[Lowlight]

That is the issue I was fixing the stem,

You actually want the stem as small as possible and underneath like an Anvil 30

We did a short video I just need to edit talking tripods and how we choose. I had several versions we see and the camera ball head is the weakest link.

So we talked about reversing it, so I tried it.

My extension sucks but it was the only adapter handy that bridged the two sizes I had on hand. Change that stem, make it flat not notched and it will mount upside down, just not the hole is 1/4 which is too small. But they sell a small, steel adapter that will be perfect for $8

Now if you have a camera ball head, reverse it an try it, bet you drop .2 in wobble

 

[LuvDog]

Am I understanding you correctly and you’re saying just mounting the ball head upside down makes it more stable?

 

[LawnMM]

I think what he's getting at is the larger heads have more surface area and thus better feedback and modulation (area between locked and wide open) to play with than the anvil 30.

Plus being a full size ball there's probably more than 30 degrees of movement too. It's an Anvil 30 with a full size 50 or 60 size ball and controls.

 

[carbonbased]

This pic is the older version of this head: https://www.acratech.net/gxp-ball-head/

USA made. See how they switched a couple letters in the word “Arca” for their name?

The linked head is slightly different and the page doesn’t have a pic of it upside down, so I used the old pic.

Arca Swiss itself makes a bunch of upside down heads too. I’m too lazy to link and paste in ALL of the different models in. Gotta go to bed.

Here’s one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/658802-REG/Arca_Swiss_801211_Monoball_P0_with_Panning.html

I use an older B1 Arca ballhead because I have one from my photog days. Arca has a patent on aspherical balls in their heads. This is awesome as the further over the load, the higher the ball’s resistance. It really comes into play with heavier loads, like rifles with all that leverage (or large format camera, etc). Harder to flop your big load lol.

 

[carbonbased]

Because people will ask about the confusing Arca lineup, here’s a cheat-sheet.

They’ve developed some new attachment methods…monoball fix, etc; ignore them. You want the no-clamp or the classic screw mount (has a similar idea to RRS two stage clamp, only instead of Picatinny/Arca it’s Monoballfix/Arca or something).

Maybe the model you like comes with no clamp. Yea! Otherwise you’ll prob just change out the clamp. Beware, Arca has now really glued them together, so it’s best to send it into Precision Camera (Arca repair guys) for removal/install. Otherwise you’ll eff the tension mech by torquing it off. Either heat doesn’t work on the glue or heat ruins the head or something…I’ve been told that one should just send it in.

For the upside-down models: some are like the Anvil and can’t flop 90° because there’s no notch. Some have no ability to adjust minimum tension…again, like the Anvil (yeah, I know if you disassemble the Anvil you can adjust tension, but that is pretty inconvenient). Of course, some do have min tension controls, top-mounted panning bases, plus a bunch of other stuff.

Reviews are pretty good on BH, but a couple people complain about cold-weather lockup. Hard to ascertain what the truth is.

About copying…I believe Acratech was either first or very early to the upside-down idea. Like twenty years ago? Or ten? And Arca, I think, came up with their version quite some time ago as well…they’re on the 2nd or 3rd gen of their upside-down versions. Don’t know where RRS comes in with their Anvil.

The important thing is they all are doing their own thing, vs outfits like effing Leofoto.

Arca has some very innovative ideas…look at the website. The Cube is crazy. They used to sell a B2 and then Z2 ballhead that combined a pan/tilt head into a ballhead form-factor.

Arca has always has world-class suckage for marketing. I think their website is under five years old. Some descriptions are still in German! They must want to conserve energy because some products barely have one (digital) photo.

Anyway, one of my favorite companies.

 

[carbonbased]

We did a short video I just need to edit talking tripods and how we choose. I had several versions we see and the camera ball head is the weakest link.

Dpreview did an excellent test on top-end ballheads a few years ago and the strongest lockup was a 58mm ball from ze German firm FLM. It also had an option to mostly-lock off the tilt, a bit like the Arca B2/Z2 that I referenced above.

FLM also uses that tilt-tech in some of their smaller ballheads.

It’s a traditional ballhead arrangement, however. And even the Dpreview guys didn’t know how to adjust it correctly…they complain about how slow it is to lock up. Some Canadian FLM distributor did a YT vid on how to properly set it up.

BUT GODDAMNIT I NEED SOME SLEEP lol goodnight.

 

[Lowlight]

What I am getting at is, Many people have camera ball heads already, let’s say the Leophoto stuff, could be the Vortex version - you know the BH 55 knock off stuff. If you invert it, it will be more stable for shooting.

I get we can buy shit, I’m not talking about buying stuff. I’m talking about modifying it to be more stable when shooting.

Not buy, modify, now say goodbye to the wobble guy, don’t drift high right, pull that in tight. Goodnight

 

[LuvDog]

Interesting. I have plenty of stuff from my photog camera days that I've re-purposed for this. I never thought to invert them for more stability.

 

[LawnMM]

What I am getting at is, Many people have camera ball heads already, let’s say the Leophoto stuff, could be the Vortex version - you know the BH 55 knock off stuff. If you invert it, it will be more stable for shooting.

I get we can buy shit, I’m not talking about buying stuff. I’m talking about modifying it to be more stable when shooting.

Not buy, modify, now say goodbye to the wobble guy, don’t drift high right, pull that in tight. Goodnight

You're like a precision poet

 

[carbonbased]

What I am getting at is, Many people have camera ball heads already, let’s say the Leophoto stuff, could be the Vortex version - you know the BH 55 knock off stuff. If you invert it, it will be more stable for shooting.

I get we can buy shit, I’m not talking about buying stuff. I’m talking about modifying it to be more stable when shooting.

Not buy, modify, now say goodbye to the wobble guy, don’t drift high right, pull that in tight. Goodnight

I’m (now) seeing what you’re laying down.

 

[Lowlight]

So I worked on a different ball head a bigger $100 one that is a BH55 style knock off

They also notch the stem but to test I came up with a fix until I grind the nubs off.

But the feeling is night and day.

Shorter stem is key

 

[FisherT&C]

It definitely changes the center of gravity. I need to do this, it's too simple not to try.

 

[newguy2k3v2]

By mounting it up that way are you getting the rifle closer to the ball(pivot point?

 

[Lowlight]

Okay pretty much last piece of the puzzle arrived,

The thread is off, I can probably cross it well enough, but I need to make it course,

But this is the fix for the stem, it's a 1/4 male to 3/8 female for the stem and you just repurposed your old shitty ball head to one that will work better with a rifle

Here is what it looks like

to make it perfect, you just have to grind down the nubs

 

[Lowlight]

Fixed the threads, like this is perfect

Big improvement over using it the standard way

 

[pineoak]

Fascinating. Thank you Frank for sharing.

Can someone smarter than I(not difficult) please explain why it would be more stable that way?

The inverted design is what the Anvil-30 is using so it clearly works to a large degree.

Why?

 

[ToddM]

Agreed, I'd like to understand the "why" on this, though I guess at the end of the day if it works better it doesn't really matter. The only thing I can think of us the loading/tension acts differently when inverted, and by inverting the rifle onto the "base" of the ball head, you are moving the load closer to the friction point, reducing the leverage it has as opposed to putting it on the "normal" end of the ball head where the stem acts as a lever for the rifle weight. If that theory is correct the length of the "stem" shouldn't matter because the rifle is mounted to the base and the distance from the base to the friction/ball is fixed.

The best way I could explain that is if you take a bowling ball and try to roll it in sand it's very hard, but you put a 2' "stem" in one of the finger holes and it's going to be super easy to move. I'm guessing by putting the rifle on the bottom of the ball head it has less leverage on the friction system and as a result increases the stability/holding power.

What "bugs" my physics brain is that the stem adaptors and connections appear to have so little surface area, and in some examples more interfaces have been added, that my brain feels like there has to be instability there, so it's interesting to me that this works so much better, and I wonder if anything more is to be gained by a larger/stiffer interface with the stem/plate etc.

 

[carbonbased]

Semi-unrelated side-note: Talking with RRS about the Anvil, I found out why one difference makes an improvement (although this isn’t going to apply to a traditional ballhead that is flipped).

On a traditional ballhead, when you lock it down the ball rises slightly, messing your aim. It has to do with how the locking mechanism works. RRS said it happens with their regular ballheads, and it happens with my Arca Swiss B1 head.

On an Anvil, I guess it locks differently so the aiming point does not move when locking.

 

[newguy2k3v2]

Semi-unrelated side-note: Talking with RRS about the Anvil, I found out why one difference makes an improvement (although this isn’t going to apply to a traditional ballhead that is flipped).

On a traditional ballhead, when you lock it down the ball rises slightly, messing your aim. It has to do with how the locking mechanism works. RRS said it happens with their regular ballheads, and it happens with my Arca Swiss B1 head.

On an Anvil, I guess it locks differently so the aiming point does not move when locking.

That makes sense. The mechanism on a regular ball head pushes the ball and stem upward to lock in. The anvil is already resting on the ball and the clamp pulls down on it.

 

[pineoak]

Semi-unrelated side-note: Talking with RRS about the Anvil, I found out why one difference makes an improvement (although this isn’t going to apply to a traditional ballhead that is flipped).

On a traditional ballhead, when you lock it down the ball rises slightly, messing your aim. It has to do with how the locking mechanism works. RRS said it happens with their regular ballheads, and it happens with my Arca Swiss B1 head.

On an Anvil, I guess it locks differently so the aiming point does not move when locking.

<All the little Snipershiders run to their older non-Anvil setups and mount their rigs to see if it happens for them and try to figure out why they never noticed it before...>

 

[UpSideDown]

Is this working purely because you now have a longer lever applied to the holding element, so there is more force applied to the rotating element whereas before there would be more of that force just inducing flex in the gun? This is a cool, cheap, quick fix.

Now the tradeoff is that you no longer have the panning feature work in the same way. Now it pans at the gun, where before it panned at the tripod. You may or may not want that? Ideally I would think you would want the center of rotation to be inside or above the center of the barrel, just like a bipod, but that would be the opposite of the leverage advantage that you're working with by flipping the head upside down.

 

[ToddM]

Toying with tripod head stability got me thinking on Tripod design itself, similar to bipods where the legs are spread out wide so the convergence of the legs would be above the barrel even though the bipod sits below the gun I wonder if you had a larger tripod "table" that spread the leg connections out so the convergence would ride over the gun if it would make a noticeable difference in stability. It wouldn't be very compact, but neither is all the other crap people carry with them now to the line. Especially since so many guys are running "tables" on their tripods already.

The downside I could see is that the size of the table might limit gun range of motion, since you'd want the tripod head still mounted as low as possible. We used to use some extremely heavy duty (several hundred pound capacity) tripods for motorized gear head items that were designed like this.

Something like this minus the pulley of course. The tripod head would still go on top of the "table" but it would put the gun under the tip of the triangle instead of well above it like the typical shooting tripod setup.