Hello, Ron. I got the Velbon PHD 31Q. There was a delay because ffordes first sent me the wrong head, then told me it wasn't in stock but would be by the end of the week—and then it wasn't. So I had to start again but got quick service from fotoSENSE.Hi Michael. Which head did you go for in the end and are you happy with your choice?
Again, I'm still getting to know it, but it seems to do the job pretty well. My only reservation so far is that when I have the handle unscrewed enough to allow both tilt and swivel smoothly, the handle is quite loose and turns rather easily. I don't know if this this is a property of the design or of this model or of my particular sample. I do tend to like very little resistance on tilt and swivel.
Otherwise, the lightness and simplicity is good. I had it out at Musselburgh yesterday (3 lifers!) and it did its job without me thinking much about it. One thing I noticed was that, when centring on a bird and then locking the head before zooming, the single handle design is better. With my old head, by the time I'd locked the tilt and then the swivel, the bird was usually down in the left-hand corner. With this head, one tweak of the handle does the job.
Michael