payasam said:
I should imagine, Poptart, that a ball head would be a bit tricky when you want your film plane to be parallel to a flat object being photographed: unless there is a stop built in for just this situation. The thin and light sort of tripod I suggested can easily be used as a monopod: I have done that (thirty years, same tripod, steel) by extending just one leg. I dream of using it, one day, as a bipod.
Something a great deal more effective would be a spirit level (maybe two) on the camera or tripod head to give you an idea of how level the thing is. Of course, that sort of accuracy is hilariously excessive if portable is even your wish.
I have used the ballhead on my tripod for all kinds of work, and it is no more accurate in instances where "parallelism" is important than my high-end Manfrotto with its angle measures and fluid movements. Unless you are shooting on perfectly flat ground that is perfectly perpendicular to the subject, achieving any accurate parallel between the film plane and the subject is effectively impossible, if portability is your aim. My Manfrotto is an awesome tripod because of its stability - it becomes an extension of the ground. But even with its special head, I would never be able to determine whether my film plane was parallel to a wall, for instance. No more easily than with my ballhead on the little SLIK. Not even using the measures on the head . . . unless I know the angle between the subject and ground is 90 degrees. . . but that is not always the case, if ever.
Real 'parallelism' is best measured through the viewfinder anyway - because the camera is taking the picture - not the tripod.
But whatever, using spirit levels is the best of all worlds because it is accurate AND weighs little. Believe me, if small and light is important, if back pack-ability is important, you will be hard pressed to find anything BUT a ballhead tripod that will offer reasonable height and stiffness. And the ballheads are very fast to use.
After all, how often are you going to be shooting under circumstances where the ground and the subject and your film plane need to be at rectangular relationships?
I have used many different tripods, and spent a LONG time choosing the right little mate to my big Manfrotto. The SLIK that i mentioned and photographed below is the best I could find - but sure can't replace my Manfrotto for heavy jobs. Of course, now that I don't shoot with view cameras anymore, I may be selling off my Manfrotto if anyone is interested.
It's great. But the SLIK is very sturdy, weighs nearly a quarter as much, is much smaller, and is just as tall - and I like the ball head because it is FAST - and the little SLIK fits in my backpack, which is very nice because I don't have to have it dangling off my pack while hiking or in crowds.
