Review: Acratech GP ballhead

Acratech GP ballhead

I’ve written before about the importance of a good tripod and if the tripod is valuable, then it follows that the head you place on top is equally important.What use is a solid tripod if you mount a flimsy, floppy head on top of it that’s not capable of holding your kit securely and allowing you to use it efficiently?

For years I’ve used what I consider to be the best ballhead available anywhere – the Really Right Stuff BH-55. Despite 6 months with the Acratech GP, this is till true, however the RRS has two big drawbacks that mean it’s no longer the default choice of ballhead when I go out shooting.

It’s all about the weight

If you’re travelling with a tripod and head, or even if you’re going to be carrying it long distances, every extra gram really starts to mount up. With the ever tightening of airport security, saving weight in your bag is a bonus too. This is one area the Acratech outshines the RRS.

At around 800g, the RRS BH-55 is a hell of a beast to be carrying around. Even when it’s sitting on a lightweight carbon fibre tripod it conspires to make everything feel heavy. The Acratech GP though only weighs around 400g – fully half the weight of the BH-55! That’s something you can’t ignore as it really does make a difference.

You’d think the capacity of the Acratech is therefore reduced, but really, it’s not. Sure the RRS holds more, but I can’t think of a camera and lens combination that will test the Acratech…although that said, when I was shooting with an 800mm lens recently, I took a video fluid head in place of the Acratech because I find it a great way of using long lenses.

Wide, really wide

One feature the Acratech GP ballhead has that is unique among all other ballheads, is the ability to be mounted upside down. Sounds maybe a little pointless right? Well, mostly yes, but if you want to shoot panoramas it suddenly becomes a whole heap easier with this head. Simply take the ballhead off the tripod, remove the mounting plate and fix it to the bottom. Now mount the ballhead upside down on the tripod. Now you have that most useful of things for panos – a levelling head. Combine this with the panning base (that the camera is now attached to) and you have a great quick way of shooting neat panoramas while travelling. This means you don’t even have to get the tripod legs level as you can use the ballhead to do it – and then pan around a level platform. Brilliant!

For the best results you should obviously have a full nodal point rail adjustment system, but if you just have an L-bracket on the camera you’ll find most of the time it works out pretty well anyway.

Anything negative?

So the head holds more than enough weight for most uses, it’s nice and light, has a very good friction control and can be used as a panning base. Sounds perfect right? Well, not quite. I’m certain in its class there is nothing better, but I still maintain the RRS is a better ballhead. A couple of times I’ve done up the locking knob on the Acratech and then a little knock has caused it to unseat making the camera flop over. Not ideal, though in fairness this is easily solved by making proper use of the friction control knob – something I don’t do all the time. As long as you set the friction so that a little turn on the main locking knob gives you just enough slack to move the head around you won’t have this problem. My issue is that I often leave the friction control loose rather than setting it properly. All that said, I use the RRS in the same way and it’s never yet flopped over once I’ve tightened down the head.

The verdict

If you’re in the market for a ballhead, the Acratech should really be on the shortlist. If weight is not an issue and you don’t plan on shooting panoramas (or you already have a pano head) then the RRS BH-55 is still my number one choice. However, if you want to save some weight and think that you might like to try your hand at a pano or two, then I’d say the Acratech GP really does take some beating….and it’s available in the UK rather than having to import it from the US like the RRS kit….!

What head do you use on your tripod? Does it work as well as you want it to? What would your ultimate ballhead do? Fire up the comments and let us know.