Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Your a cube victim. I think they are great just won't work as well for me.
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There are no free movement controls - you need to adjust the different axis (i.e. two) but it's very very easy and quick to do. The gearing is smooth with no play so it's easy to adjust correctly the first time. Sure you need to do some spatial calculations in your head as you adjust the controls but you get the hang of it very quickly. If you want precise control of the camera and leveling then the Cube works wonders. I've never found the need to use the sliding base adjustment, primarily because I use an L bracket anyway. The only locks necessary are on the base & rotating clamp.I may be thick but I'm still wrestling with this. With a B!, I plonk it down loosen the ball and compose by moving the ball around. If I can't level it that way, I can use my levelling base to fix it. Getting very fine adjustments with a B1 can be tricky. If I want to do the same with a Cube, can I loosen it move it around and then lock it as easily, or am I using multiple locks to achieve it. I hated teh Manfrotto thing that I had because I had to make adjustments one at a time.
I will certainly report on the P1. It looks very interesting for sure. Love the idea of no matter where the tripod head is i can lock down. I always had to spin the knob to my left side for that hand, here it won't matter with this head. Like that idea. It comes tomorrowThere are no free movement controls - you need to adjust the different axis (i.e. two) but it's very very easy and quick to do. The gearing is smooth with no play so it's easy to adjust correctly the first time. Sure you need to do some spatial calculations in your head as you adjust the controls but you get the hang of it very quickly. If you want precise control of the camera and leveling then the Cube works wonders. I've never found the need to use the sliding base adjustment, primarily because I use an L bracket anyway. The only locks necessary are on the base & rotating clamp.
For nature I use the B1 & B1G heads because they are much simpler and faster to adjust. However, they are very crude by comparison to using the Cube if I want to precisely adjust the rotation or pitch of the camera - even with the B1s it's a loosen & slide & counter slide etc until you get it right.
I ditched my BH-55 long ago because it was so rough compared to the Arca heads and never achieved anything like the smoothness that the B1's have.
Guy: I'd VERY interested to hear how the new design Arca P heads perform. They look like they may be even easier and smoother to control given the flipped design.
I've written about it several times - a google will turn up a couple for sure. The main points are 1) you can level your camera instantly and EXACTLY and 2) you can tweak side-side (roll) and fore-aft (pitch) independently while the other remains perfectly fixed. When you try adjusting say roll with a regular ballhead, invariably pitch will change a bit at the same time, requiring multiple iterations of taps and nudges to get both axis to the "perfect" set at the same time. (FWIW, the newest Gitzos have solved this by making the pitch axis on thier ball looser than all the others, so when you set roll, it stays pretty much set as you tweak pitch.) The next benefit is the Cube pans normally at the base to set yaw just as in conventional ballhead, but also pans independently at the clamp so you can also do a dead level yaw adjustment -- which is what we want to do when making cylindrical pano captures.Under what circumstances are people finding the Cube so useful (other than just gawking at it!
Hi Victor:Jack
Thank you for a real answer. Sounds like you get a lot of use.
One of the reasons I have considered the Cube is that I have some pretty heavy lenses for wildlife and birds.
Great description in a nutshell--- for me, I realized the true value of the Cube in sub-freezing weather in Death Valley last year (so cold my knees started locking up), shivering and trying to level my tripod quickly with an attached ballhead as jack describes above. The cold made this an extremely difficult exercise for me..... The main points are 1) you can level your camera instantly and EXACTLY and 2) you can tweak side-side (roll) and fore-aft (pitch) independently while the other remains perfectly fixed. When you try adjusting say roll with a regular ballhead, invariably pitch will change a bit at the same time, requiring multiple iterations of taps and nudges to get both axis to the "perfect" set at the same time. ....
You can if you have a sliding back adapter. Cambo doesn't, as far as I know, but Silvestri does, and so does Linhof for some model (if I am not wrong).... With a tech camera, you have no ability to compose accurately anyway, unless you remove your digital back each time you frame a shot
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