OK, I've been going through heads lately. Last winter I got into acra style plates and love them. I started with a RRS BH-40 but I didn't love it because of the friction knob and how it was different for every lens combo I had. Also the enclosed ball was a bitch to clean and got sand/salt in it was too easy.

I sold that this spring and picked up an acratech ultimate because it was "cheap" and very light. Bear in mind cheap for these types of heads is still close to $300... Well it was a good head for the money, but 2 things annoyed me. Depending on how you had it setup, panning up/down could be an issue where you're bump into the 45º bar... I do a lot of slight adjustments up or down, and I ended up having this issue quite often. The other issue is the clamp, I don't like screw clamps, I like lever clamps.

So I started looking at other heads. The acratech V2 caught my eye as it's still very light, very strong and fixed the panning issue. Before I could buy it, they released the GV2 which is a gimbal design... It's the same head, it just goes to perfectly 90º instead of a little past when it's "flopped". Well Tuesday someone bought my ultimate for my asking price, and I ordered my parts. To fix the clamp issue I went with a clampless acratech GV2 and then ordered a really right stuff clamp to get the lever. It all arrived today, and I just put them together... I'll post pics later, but it looks to be a great solution to what I want. Here's the images of the parts:




I'll have to test the gimbal function tonight with the 70-200mm.

har. it's too obvious so i won't say it.

i can't wait until i get so serious and picky about tripods i obsess about heads like you. seriously.

:dance:

I have the same setup... sort of. For some stupid reason Acratech uses permanent loctite on their plates (WTF?!), so it's damn near impossible to remove the plates from the head (so much so, in fact, that when I talked to them they told me that it's not unusual for them to destroy the ball when they're trying to separate the plate from it). I still have to send them the V2 so that they can dismantle it; I haven't been able to, breaking a couple of wrenches in the process.

yeah, I had this same version of clamp that I had customized for my bogen 3421 laying around when I had the ultimate. I was going to swap the clamp until I tried to get the old one off...

When you buy the clamp separate they want you to use locktite (and have instructions as to what color does what) but I'm going to go w/o for a while and see if I have any issues. I'm certainly not going to use the "permanent" version though....

What clamp are you using?

Same RRS clamp. or at least the standard one that comes with a BH-55

with a v2 or gv2?

and BTW the gimbal function is awesome. Been playing with it and the 70-200mm w/2.0TC and it's sweet.

My clamps a bit tight though?
I'm betting it will loosen up over time though.

I have the V2. I tried it as a gimbal well before they came out with the new version, and it worked just fine. I don't intend to use it that way anyways because it's so lopsided - I have the 3421 for the 200 and 400, if handholding or a monopod prove to be inadequate.

Yeah, the clamp action will loosen up with use.

I'm glad that you saw the light with the V2. RRS makes good stuff, no doubt, but even the BH-55 isn't perfect. The V2/LR combo is the best of both worlds. A few months ago when I called Acratech about taking the knob clamp off, and why they didn't offer their own LR clamp, they said something like "it's not secure enough and there's no demand"... umm... ok...

<< needs to send in his V2 for unclamping and sell his clampless BH-55 so it quits collecting dust

Yeah, we're on almost the same path... I had a 3421 when I had a long lens (no need with a 70-200). I had a RRS BH-40 that I sold for the original acratech because I wanted the lightest possible setup. Then I realized that their design for that head, while being awesome for some stuff, sucked for me. But their V2/GV2 is perfect, except for the clamp.... So I sold the ultimate, and ordered the parts.

I also have their leveler, but I sold that today and will be ordering my bogen leveler tomorrow. The acratech leveler's ball is too small making is very hard to get perfectly level. The bogen is done with screws so it's very precise. It's a bit bigger and heavier, but it works so I'll deal.