ballhead for scope (1 Viewer)

who uses a ballhead for scope use ?

I often use an older, high quality ballhead (Arca Swiss B1) with my Kowa 883. For me, it's a delight. Once properly balanced, it's easy to point the scope in any direction while simultaneously focusing and zooming. For this to work the scope has to be properly balanced and the ball head tension adjustment fine tuned. Once that's done it's very similar to following the action with binoculars.

Best,
Jerry

I don't prefer ballheads for scopes, but I use them sometimes. I use a Really Right Stuff BH-25 as part of my ultra light and compact rig for my Nikon 50ED Fieldscope. When I'm traveling cross country by car with a single tripod for photography and scope, I sometimes use a Kirk BH-3 ballhead with either the Nikon 50ED or 82ED Fieldscope.

I like ballheads well enough when the scope is light weight or well balanced and the ballhead is of excellent quality (smooth and adjustable tension). For straight scopes, you may prefer to drop sideways into the notch and use the ball for vertical adjust only and the pan base of the head for horizontal adjust only. A 2/3 or full-sized quality ballhead will allow the tension on those two axes to be set separately, so the head can work very smoothly and mimic the operation of a video fluid head that way.

--AP

I have a Swarovski 30x75 draw tube telescope and I use a ballhead when I occaisionally use it on a tripod.
I use a Benbo/Kennet ball head on a Manfrotto 190 AL and a smaller Manfrotto on a MeFoto carbon fibre travel tripod. It works perfectly satisfactorily with the configuration of a draw tube scope.
Normally use a Gitzo monopod especially when carrying my scope in the field.

i would like to have the RRS BH-55 ballhead for my scope swarovski 80mm, that is the one i reckon is the best , anyone using this one ?