Manfrotto 322RC2 Horizontal Grip Action Ball Head with RC2 Rapid Connect Plate (3157N)

I bought this head with a multi-purpose in mind. i shoot wildlife, still life and landscapes. It is by far the handiest head I've owned. forget leveling the tripod with the pan/tilt heads. A simple squeeze of the lever and level the camera. I was apprehensive when ordering as I shoot wildlife with the Sigma 50-500 (4 pounds alone) mounted on a Canon 40D with grip....pretty hefty. The head is solid and doesn't move when the lever is released. the friction adjustment works great!

I find it a slight inconvienence to take photos while panning as both the head lever and shutter button on the camera are on the same side of my body, casing me to have both my hands very near each other to pan and shoot....but its a minor thing to deal with.

This is a great tripod head. It has a quality build and is very versatile. It came shipped in the right-hand operation configuration (as shown), but I easily converted it to be controlled with my left hand. I found this to be a much more natural position allowing my right hand to hold the camera grip, manipulate the camera position, and fire the shutter of my DSLR.

While the concept of a ball head adjustable with a hand-held grip is nice, in practice I have found this head to be too heavy and obtrusive when traveling. The hand-grip also requires more-than-expected force, and one's hand can quickly grow sore. I have returned this item in exchange for a much lighter and less obtrusive Gitzo ball head.

This is a fun ball head to work with, very stable and has a bubble level if you need it. I'm not sure the level will do much for you if you move the mounting plate. The plate can be moved from the location on the handle shown in the picture to the base of the handle. The only reason I can imagine anyone doing that would be to get a few extra inches of height, or if you like vertically positioning your camera more than the normal horizontal so that the level worked for vertical instead of horizontal.

I've been using this product for a couple of months now. The grip release is more useful than I anticiated. It works well with all my lenses including the 100-400mm IS on my Canon40D. Only down side is using for panoramic photos.. no way to keep the horizontal plane, but I mostly use for lowlight situations when using very slow shutters.. setup is easy and positioning the camera is a snap.