GXP Ball-head

Perfectly engineered for the discerning photographer.

Great piece of equipment! Very thoughtfully designed. I have had and loved my RRS BH-55 for years, but this will now be my go-to ball head.

I’ve been having problems with my ball head for a while. It’s literally caused me to miss shots and almost let my camera fall. Ive became use to making sure the screws hadn’t backed out before every use. A real hassle. After a lot of research and YouTube videos I purchased this GPX head. Right away I could tell it was a perfect fit with the rest of my kit. After several weeks of use I’m completely happy with its ease of use and firm security. No fear of my camera toppling off. And my tripod set-up is lighter. If you use your tripod a lot you owe it to yourself to have gear that works the way you do. I

I owned a RRS BH-40 but sold it to buy this product. I already owned the Acratech leveling base and loved it. I love everything about the GXP ball head but it is not as smooth as the RRS BH-40 which is why I rated only 4 stars. However, the Acratech will, I am sure, turn out to be my last ball head!

Extremely versatile, super light, 360 degrees easy positioning, sturdy, and post-apocalyptic looking. I absolutely love it.

Well done in the design and execution. The ball head is solid and designed for use in varied conditions. The knobs are easy to grasp/use; the head positioning was easy and smooth to position where needed. The position of the level was designed so it is not obstructed by the camera body. The lever release - how could I have not got one of these sooner. Overall well done!!

I absolutely love this ball head. The ball is smoother than any ball head I've ever used or tested. The tension knob actually works fantastic. I love the weight. I normally carry my tripod over my shoulder while looking for compositions hiking through the desert or in the mountains and any extra weight is definitely noticeable. I noticed the difference immediately. My shoulder no longer feels like I've been carrying a sack of potatoes for miles. That was a MAJOR plus. There's absolutely no sagging once you tighten the ball. BIG MAJOR PLUS. But..... there is one thing that they really have to address. The panning motion / plate is sticky and not as smooth as I would have expected from a top of the line setup. The ball head is soooooo smoooooth and then you try panning and it's just not the same experience. It's not a deal breaker because I don't do much video but if I did this world definitely be an issue. Now, this could just be a defect and I was just the unlucky one to receive this particular one and I may send it in to have them look at it. I say this because I have the Panoramic Head from Acratech as well and it does not have this problem and when I do video it's from the Panoramic head anyway. Right now I can't send it in because I have too many trips coming up but I have all the confidence in the world it there's a problem they will fix it or replace it, no problem. The bottom line is this ball head far out performs all of the ball heads I've ever used and I am very happy and impressed with it. I would have given it 5 stars had it not been for the panning plate issue, but like I said it's not really an issue for photography. I'll update this review after I send it in and get it back.

Scott made some great improvements to an already great product. The larger knob is much appreciated. The best thing one can say about this Head is that it just works with no fuse or issue. I was shooting at the beach and dropped the folded tripod head first in to wet, sticky sand. With any other head this is a big issue. With the Acratech, just brushed it off with my hand and gave it a quick blow with my breath. All was just fine and shoot continued without issue. The head is stiff and smooth and light. It will handle all but the heaviest of setups. Even my 400mm 2.8 works on this head. Just get it and forget it. I have many tripod heads, but always comeback to these for the reliability, weight and simplicity of use.

I posted the following opinion in a photography forum that I frequent, and am reposting it here as a review. I recently picked up the Acratech GXP ballhead, and have been putting it through its paces in the rough and tough across a couple of states and biomes. This includes freezing rain in the Laguna mountains, the hot and dusty in the Anzo-Borrego deserts, as well as cool and wettish in the Arizona palo verde deserts. It has held up not just very well, but honestly superlatively, and compares very favorably with my Markins Q-20i which I've been using for the last decade plus. It is superbly crafted and engineered --- like a custom machined part from an F-35 --- and very well built. Sturdy and robust. Smooth motion under tension, and locks up solid like concrete block. It's a size class smaller than the ballheads I've been using or tried out extensively in comparison (FLM 48/58, RRS BH-55, etc.). And in every respect it has held up in the best way possible: it Just Worked. No muss. No fuss. Just solid support with precise positioning. It did it's job so well while staying out the way and not causing problems, that most of the time I forgot that I was using and trying out a new ballhead. Using a Sony A7RIII body, while the biggest lens I used on it was the 100-400GM (anything larger and it's gimbal time), it was a solid platform in some very challenging settings (e.g. shooting at 100-400mm on a wet mountain ridge at 40F pre-windchill with 30-35 MPH winds).