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Filed under: Hardware •

Really Right Stuff BH-40 ballhead review

A solid ballhead is something that every good photographer should have in their kit.  Just like buying a tripod, if you buy the right one it will last a lifetime because unlike today’s cameras and lenses, technology of modern ballheads is relatively simple and changes very little.  Instead it all comes down to manufacturing quality and machining accuracy to produce a perfect, solid platform for your camera. 

Really Right Stuff is an American company based out of San Luis Obispo in California and they are in the support business.  Tripods, ballheads, L-brackets and lens plates; if it holds your camera then they make it.  Every piece of CNC machined aluminium they produce is a work of art and all of their products are made 100% in the USA.  Best known for their range of ballheads this is where I will begin, though in the future I hope to bring you guys some information on some of their other products because I recently had the pleasure of visiting the offices and seeing some of the new gear and it is fantastic!

On to the BH-40 though.  This is their mid-sized ballhead, sitting beneath the venerable BH-55 and above the BH-30 on their sizing scale.  It weights in at 16.9 ounces and has a load capacity of 8KG.  Enough to hold all but the absolute biggest lens/camera combinations, though they do not recommend using it for more than occasional use with something like a 300mm f2.8 or bigger.  The head has three separate controls, one for adjusting the panning base, one to adjust the drag on the main ball and then a larger knob for releasing the ball.  All the controls function extremely smoothly, even in the harsh winter conditions that I put my gear through.  Unlike all the ballheads that came before it in my camera bag, this one locks rock solid no matter how hot or cold, wet or dry it gets.  It just works, and that is what you need from a ballhead, total trust that it will hold your $12000 investment. 

The head is available with a selection of different quick release clamps that are all designed to work with RRS camera and lens plates.  RRS makes specific plates for almost all professional and semi-professional level cameras, as well as lens plates to fit those that have a lens collar.  When I first purchased my BH-40 a couple of years ago I chose to have a screw-knob clamp, the B2 Pro II, because I preferred to have the responsibility of tightening the clamp on my gear myself.  When I first got my hands on a quick release lever-clamp I quickly changed my mind though and switched to the small B2-40 clamp pictured to the right.  With the camera specific plates, lever-release clamps work extremely effectively and are much quicker to work with.  The screw-knob clamp was also a little more awkward to pack in my bag, whereas the smallest lever-release clamp, the B2-40, is much smaller.

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